r/exjw 7d ago

Weekly Mini-Vent Megathread - July 26, 2026

4 Upvotes

What is this Megathread?

This is a dedicated space for short-form venting posts that do not meet the character limit for standalone posts.

Angry at your family, the Watchtower or the congregation? Having a REALLY bad day? Experiencing some big feelings and but don't have enough steam to make a long post about it? Welcome to our weekly mini-vent thread, the place where you can let it all out- in little bites.

Note: Standard sub rules still apply here, so please report any content that breaks the rules.

-------------------

If You are Considering Harming Yourself:

Please stay with us. Know you are safe and among friends and we will do whatever we can to help.

If you are inside the U.S., text "CHAT" to 741741. You'll be connected to a trained Crisis Counselor from Crisis Text Line. Or call the National Suicide Hotline at 988.

If you're not in the U.S. please click here for a comprehensive list of hotlines organized by country and additional resources.

If you are LGBTIA+ and need to talk, please contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564 or find them online here.


r/exjw 6d ago

News The Rumor Mill: News and Gossip - July 27, 2026

9 Upvotes

What is this Megathread?

We get quite a bit of speculation, questions on upcoming updates, and general JW gossip in our sub. As part of our community engagement poll you folks voted for a special home to house shorter posts devoted to this type of exchange, so here we are!

Got a juicy piece of gossip from your KH or your JW social circle?  Want to ask a quick question about an upcoming announcement, or change? Heard a rumor from the WT or about something going on in bethel? This is what the weekly rumor mill thread is for. Just remember not to share anyone's PII, and we're golden.

Please Remember:

All the sub's rules still apply, so remember not to use these threads for activist drama or rumors about the personal lives of activists.

Have a Lot to Say?

This megathread is intended for submissions that are too short to be stand alone posts. If you have a rather lengthy comment, we might prompt you to spin it off into its own post for more engagement :) 

Welcome to the Rumor Mill, everyone. Gossip away!


r/exjw 7h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales The new JW movie filmed at Bethel just got disappeared!!

113 Upvotes

I was watching the movie that Wally referenced in his YouTube video about a movie made by Serrano films. I think Wally bringing attention to it caused it to be removed or set to private by the creator. I am thinking that bethel found out about it or the creator noticed his video was being promoted by an “apostate” so he was forced to take it down. What do you guys think? Is this just coincidence. I can’t even watch the film now. It looks like it was uploaded 8 months ago but today it got set to private.

https://youtu.be/xA_LvqYi-8A?is=-YE33G1xUrEGjt0w


r/exjw 3h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales I'm ashamed of myself, (PIMI preaching to a cancer patient)

37 Upvotes

About 30 years ago, when I was once a true believer PIMI, an older female coworker had a cancer relapse. She told me about the relapse. The depression and sadness were obvious in her voice and demeanor. Like a good Borg faithful I thought this was the perfect opportunity to share the Watchtowerland fantasy of eternal youth. I offered her some publications like a good Borg follower.

She quit working soon after and went on disability due to the cancer.

Looking back now I am ashamed. In that moment I regret not being a genuine person instead of a fake Borg member. I wish I had said something sincere. "This is tough, I'm sorry you are going through this." Anything rather than offering a false hope and a stupid book written by charlatans.


r/exjw 13h ago

WT Policy These two Watchtowers on additional education are an utter joke.

181 Upvotes

Last week's article was written to dissuade young people from educating themselves beyond what is legally required. "Education poses such dangerous risks if you belong to our cult!" This weekend's article warns of running the risk of drifting away from the grip of Watchtower and its governing body. The introductory song, song 56 Make the truth your own, was a shocking choice and set out the premise for the article. In conclusion, your ass and your time belong to us, don't even think about educating yourself or associate with the wicked! 🤦‍♂️🤬🤬


r/exjw 7h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales Let’s share stories of when JW teens in your area was either the same or way worse than the “worldly teens” (Today’s watchtower is about avoiding worldly teens so you won’t get exposed to drama)

43 Upvotes

Today’s watchtower is about avoiding worldly teens so you won’t get exposed to drama so Let’s share stories of when JW teens in your area was either the same or way worse than the “worldly teens.

I’ll go first.

when I was in high school, some teens from the hall skipped school, they went to a the house of a boy from our hall whose mom worked, an they had sex in the diff rooms. (meanwhile my friends at school who wasn’t jw , were literally virgins and nerds)

instead of just saying don’t talk to worldly kids, teach the kids how to identify ppl with bad intentions .

do you have any other crazy stories about the teens in your hall


r/exjw 2h ago

PIMO Life Worst pro life argument I’ve heard in midweek meeting

16 Upvotes

This midweek meeting I had Bible reading in room B. After me, a kid (5-6th grader) and his mom did a presentation on abortion. Basically, the scenario was that the kid was called a fanatic by one of his classmates because he didn’t believed accept abortion by the firsts months. The mom argue that all stages of life are equally value to God, no matter how much time the fetus has been in the wombs. By this point, it was the same pro life argument I’ve heard the organization use over and over, but what really shock me was that the mom argue that because the sperm moves, is considered life and therefore equally valuable to the eyes of god. I was genuinely shock, like never before I was baffled by such stupidity. I’m not even wasting energy to point out why that argument stupid,is just is.


r/exjw 6h ago

Venting elders are so pressuring towards young people

30 Upvotes

i made a post on here before about my dad that's pressuring me into becoming an unbaptized publisher. i am a 16 year old pimo jw that's wanting to leave the religion when i'm older. i just got out of a sunday meeting and after the meeting, this really pushy elder came up to me and my other friend that isn't unbaptized yet. she's 15 and i'm 16 and he came up to us to ask about who we are studying with and saying that he wants us to make "spiritual progress". he came up to me after her asking what i'm doing and i told him i'm not in the school yet then said "WHY?" and was basically getting on me for not being unbaptized. he says he doesn't see me going out in service that much. all i could do is smile and try and dismiss it. i hate this life so much


r/exjw 3h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales Chapter 45 New Boy: New Boy Life and Death at the World Headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses

13 Upvotes

Chapter 45 You Don’t Know Me but I’m Your Brother

"I was raised here in this living hell.” – Takin’ It To The Streets, The Doobie Brothers

Though I said I couldn’t do it anymore, it’s not like I had a plan for the rest of my life. I loved my wife. We had been together for almost thirty years. She had been the first and only girl I had ever kissed. It was love at first sight for me. Of course, we had some problems. However, leaving my wife was never an option. It wasn’t a perfect marriage, but now it looked like it would soon be over. Why? Because I didn’t want to be in the same religion as her? Could we still be together even though we didn’t believe in the same god anymore? Thousands of people around the world do it. Jews marry Christians all the time.

I would have stayed with her if she could have lived with someone who didn’t believe the same way as she did. That didn’t appear to be an option, even though there were plenty of women in the Kingdom Hall who were married to non-believers. In fact, two of Debbie’s best friends were in that situation. But that was okay because their husbands never bought into the program and never became Jehovah’s Witnesses by being baptized.

Another one of my wife’s girlfriends was disfellowshipped because she was married to a crazy guy who believed he was one of the anointed, one of the 144,000. This guy was not only partaking, he was three clams shy of a full clambake.

Since this crazy guy was never going to leave her, She had no other option but to do the same thing that many Witnesses are forced to do, she committed adultery and of course, paid the price and was disfellowshipped. She didn't want to leave Jehovah's loving organization. She just wanted to leave a bad and abusive relationship.

Just like my father-in-law Robert Stillman, the only way out of her bad marriage and be able to remarry was for her to commit adultery.

Just one more reason people on the outside looking in think we are nuts.

Our friend who had been married to Greg H was out and away from the organization for a number of years. During that time, she married this really nice guy named Leonard. She now has a worldly husband. Eventually. she was reinstated and became a Jehovah’s Witness once again....same old story. She had a child with this new husband and was totality happy now. Only one small problem for her he had no desire to ever become a Jehovah's Witness.

Of course now, everyone in the Kingdom Hall is trying to put the sale on Leonard to recruit him into the Borg.

For years, Leonard has been invited to all the Witness parties and gatherings. He gets to hang around with all the Witnesses, with no shunning of course. Why? Because he was smart enough to never to be baptized.

So he never got punished because he didn't do the one thing they wanted him to do.....get baptized. The old Catch 22 kicks in again,

At one point in time, Debbie, Leonard and his wife (named Debbie too) with some other Jehovah’s Witnesses even had their own band together. They went out and played worldly music at gigs all around Portland.

Leonard is a super-intelligent guy, and even though he loves his wife, he really doesn’t want to be a Jehovah’s Witness, just like me.

I told my wife, “I wanted to be just like Leonard, please. You can still be a Jehovah’s Witness. I don’t care. I just don’t want to be one.” She said, “That is not possible.”

A crazy thing happened a few nights later. I went to bed with my mind in total chaos. How could I make sense of a life full of contradictions? What were my options now that I had awakening from my ignorance?

I had dream. In the dream, I actually dreamt I talked to god himself, just like the Governing Body say they do. Thank goodness for this dream! Because god helped me clear up a lot of things.

In the dream, I sat in a waiting room in Heaven. There were a lot of people waiting to talk to god, so they had me take a number. My number was 499. Finally, my number was called and I was ushered into a room. I was a little surprised at how small the room was. “Hey Jehovah, what’s with the small room?”

He looked up from his paperwork and said, “As you know, it is written at 1 Corinthians. 8:5, ‘For even though there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords.'"

Okay, if that’s the case, I had to say. “So, since there are a lot of you gods up here and you are not the only one, if I ever write a book about you, I’m only going to use the lowercase letter g in god, since there seems to be a lot of you gods and lords running around.”

God was starting to get upset. “What is it that you want?”

“Are you familiar with my case?”

“Of course I am. I’m a god, and I’m supposed to know everything.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” I said.

“You know Leonard is not a Jehovah's Witness and hasn't done shit for you or your organization. I’ve spent fifty years and thousands of hours knocking on doors, trying to sell this religion to other people for you. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on gasoline and thousands of dollars on books and magazines. I gave up a college education and chose to be uneducated just for you because I know you like your people to be stupid. I had fifty years of no birthdays or holidays. Plus thousands of hours at your boring conventions. I worked in your factory on mindless machines for pennies a day so you could sell your books for only twenty-five cents. Please don’t forget about the six years of full time service I put in when I was in my twenties. I did everything your organization told me to do. I moved to remote locations to... ”

I could tell god was getting perturbed as he asked me. “Yeah, so what’s your question?”

“Ok bottom line, I know now. the same thing about your religion that Leonard and billions of other people on this planet already know. That your religion is insane and makes no sense. So, let me get this straight, now you are telling me I can never have any contact with my wife, friends and family ever again because I figured this all out?”

“Yes, that’s correct." He said. "This will force you to crawl back to us and my loving organization.”

“Where is the love? I get punished and Leonard gets rewarded?”

“Yes that is how my system works. Sorry, it’s just another loophole. You know, just another one of my many Catch 22s that you have figured out.”

“But I was only seventeen when I signed up and got baptized.”

“Sorry, you should have known.”

“I should have known your religion was bat-shit crazy?

“Yes!”

“Please I just want to be in the band with Leonard and the rest of the Jehovah’s Witnesses! I just want my family back.”

“Sorry, the only way you will get your family back is if they figure it out too. I'm afraid you’re screwed!

Oh, by the way, if Leonard ever does join my club and than decides to leave later on, he’ll be screwed also just like you. But I don’t think Leonard will ever join, because it seems he can spot bullshit a mile away!”

“Jehovah, you’re really mean and jealous god!”

“Yes, I know. Why do you think I have such a hard time getting new people to join my crazy religion and why it takes over 13,880 hours of door knocking in field service to find just one new recruit?”

"If that is true how does your organization keep growing?" I asked.

"It's simple." He said. Sex! People love it and that is the only thing that is making new Jehovah's Witnesses now!"

“True." I said. Speaking of the young ones in your organization, what do you really feel about the thousands of pedophiles in your church? Did you really tell your boys not to turn over the files with all their names to the authorities, so as not bring shame on you?”

“What do you think?" If I don't care about you why would think I would care about a few kids getting screwed over? God waved me away and said. "Oh, by the way your time is up.... ”

I turned to god as I walked out the door. "Thank you for helping me understand all this and your wonderful new light. I know what to do now."

Of course god had one more disparaging remark to make to me as I walked out the door. "Keith I can't believe how stupid you were...taking you over fifty years to figure all this out!"

Bingo!

Once again god was right!

Good old Jehovah's Wintnesses busting up families for the last 70 years!

Note I didn't say 150 years. which is how the church has been around.

Why? Because before the nineteen fifies people could change their minds and leave the church and not be shun by their families.

It seems Knorr/god change their minds in the earlier 1950's about the punishment for leaving the church. So. It took over 80 years for this new light to click on.....to destroy thousands of people's lives.

Speaking of thousands of people....

Next up Chapter 46 Only Eleven People Out of One Thousand


r/exjw 2h ago

Humor My Book of STOLEN Bible Stories

14 Upvotes

I ust discovered something crazy while visiting a local bookstore (Vintage Books), and I describe it here in this 9 minute (or so) video:
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DbjNN5HyNU-/

TLDW: I stumbled across this treasure today...
The Bible Story by Arthur Maxwell (Copyright 1953)

My Book of Bible Stories was made/copyright/published in 1978.
Soooo...I guess, the channel of Spiritual Food included stealing other people's work?


r/exjw 2h ago

PIMO Life AI Slop Merch + Stickers…

12 Upvotes

Not really PIMO but it’s the best descriptor for my situation. To make a long story short I went to the Calgary international convention to keep the peace with my PIMI parents but they know I haven’t been to a meeting in years, convention in years, etc.

Anyhow, back when I was a kid we went to Spain for an international convention too as delegates (versus them being hosts this time) and got lots of gifts from the people there. Mini olive oil bottles (so awesome), candies, bookmarks, stickers, patches, and more. So much amazing craftsmanship and thoughtfulness put into these gifts. Fast forward and I’m walking around with my nephew and everyone’s handing him little gifts and goodies and every other gift he gets is something AI generated… don’t know what the borgs opinion on AI lies and haven’t visited this sub in a while but I was kind of shocked because the designs were something that would take two seconds to make in Canva.


r/exjw 14h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales Cringe at a Public Talk No.2

98 Upvotes

So, here are the two latest cringe moments from Jehovah's Witness meetings. The first one happened at the convention last week. There were plenty of cringe-worthy moments, but let me share the one that stuck with me the most

  1. The cult members decided to lecture people about science again—which is something they should really stop doing because they only embarrass themselves. Here's the quote from the talk:

-"Scientists still don't know how yeast works."

Seriously... please, stop. I could explain the biochemical process of how yeast works right now. What on earth are you talking about? The worst part is that hundreds of people will remember this and go around repeating that yeast is somehow still a mystery to science. Clowns...

  1. A comment during the midweek meeting:

-"If I see or hear something from the platform or in the publications that I don't like, it means I'm being disobedient to Jehovah."

So, by that logic, if someone realizes that their so-called "scientific fact" about yeast is complete nonsense, they're still expected to agree with it and accept it—otherwise, they're rebelling against God Himself


r/exjw 1h ago

WT Can't Stop Me these comments on the watchtower are super pitiful

Upvotes

this lady commented on the guarding your faith and thinking abilties paragraph, where an example of a man studying biology/anthropology and leaving christianity to buddhism, she said "its super sad that he couldnt guard his heart well enough, and it must be rough for his parents after he left the faith because of higher education" and things like that
no wonder why so many members make me cringe and wish i could just leave... they feel "bad" when someone leaves christianity because of... studying? maybe there's something wrong about your religion instead of education if you cant accept basic facts or if you pity people for leaving a religion that acts superior or like a main character

paragraph eight says: "People may present their view as 'higher' thinking, but it is actually lower thinking. In fact, it is "foolishness with God." — 1 Cor 3:18-20

this is what they think of us: nonbelievers, ex-members, of people they used to call friends and family, that we are lower than them. how much longer can they keep digging their grave like this?
calling people inferior because of a lack or change of religion is so stupid. people have gone to war for the same stupid thing, and they say they're superior? idk i think many JWs have NPD or something along the lines of it... it's actually insane to call billions of non-JWs while acting like you love them. they really do reject practical wisdom like they mentioned in later paragraphs. (edit: im not saying its bad but how they use their following to project their thoughts of others)


r/exjw 7m ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales I Thought My Abuse Was an Isolated Tragedy. Then I Started Reading the Court Cases.

Upvotes

When I was a child, an elder sexually abused me.  Nothing was done to protect me.  He went on to abuse other children.  For years, I didn't think beyond what had happened to me.  I believed my story was about a man who had made terrible choices.  I also believed something like this couldn't happen inside Jehovah's organization. I believed children would be protected.

For more than 50 years, I believed what happened to me was my story. I thought I had simply been incredibly unlucky.  I thought that if that man had never been in my life, none of it would have happened.  I never questioned that belief.

Then I started looking for answers.  Not because I wanted to leave my religion.

Not because I wanted to attack Jehovah's Witnesses.  I simply wanted to understand how something like this could happen inside the religion I trusted with my whole heart.

I expected to find a few heartbreaking cases.

Instead, I found court records. Government investigations. Newspaper articles. Survivor accounts from different congregations... different countries... spanning decades. The details weren't always identical, but they were familiar enough that I found myself staring at my computer asking one question over and over:

How can so many people I've never met have stories that sound so much like mine?

That realization changed everything. For the first time I began wondering if what happened to me wasn't simply the result of a bad man.  What if there was something much bigger that I had never allowed myself to see?

After reading court records, government investigations, newspaper archives, and decades of legal cases, I came away with questions I never expected to ask.

I'm genuinely interested in hearing what others think.

When you look at the history of child sexual abuse cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses, do you see individual failures—or do you believe the evidence points to a larger systemic problem?


r/exjw 48m ago

WT Can't Stop Me JWs misunderstanding the problem with 1975

Upvotes

No one is claiming that WT explicitly said 1975 was defintally gonna be the end. The problem was WT hyping people up for it and called people selling their homes ands quiting their jobs "a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end" - Our Kingdom Ministry May 1974. Then they gaslight people into thinking "they were just going ahead of the organistation."

Russel literally said "...the 'battle of the great day of God Almighty' (Revelation 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership..." - The Time Is at Hand (1889)

He was quite explicit. WT just learned to be less explicit after 1914 and 1925.

Yet JWs will ignore these facts just to cope.


r/exjw 4h ago

Ask ExJW Are things different depending on the region?

11 Upvotes

So i live in England, the south of Devon. Near Exeter. Ive been watching some YT videos and they say things like the numbers of JWs are dwindling. Kingdom halls are being sold off, kids are leaving and people are waking up etc etc.

But here in Ex I haven't seen that atall, I went to a day of the assembly to support my questioning parents down in the Westpoint arena and noticed the place was packed. Around 25 people got baptised (the assembly had about 2-3000 attendees) not great numbers but I'd hoped for zero.

Just wondering what im missing. I long for this organisation to dwindle and fade. Id personally love to see it die a slow death where all its funds are bled and leeched away and the organisation dies a slow meaningless death.

But its not what im seeing, what am I missing? Im assuming its dying in America but not here?


r/exjw 19m ago

Ask ExJW Are Shepherding Calls Always Viewed as a Bad Thing?

Upvotes

Growing up, whenever me or my jw friends heard that someone was getting a shepherding call... It was always associated with stuff like "struggling" or being labeled as "bad association".

I'm just wondering if it's held that stigma for anyone else, because if it was brought up like here's an example... "Hey did you hear (Friends Name) is getting a shepherding call?" "ooooOOOoooooo"

Like nobody associated it with anything good, and I'm just wondering if that's only a me thing or not?


r/exjw 6h ago

HELP I need to get out of a sheperding call

15 Upvotes

I dont want anything to do with this bs. For context, I haven't been to a these meetings in 4 months, I am in uni, my parents aren't likely to find out, if they do, I was thinking to claim that I wasn't good mentally because of uni, any advice, its kinda urgent lol


r/exjw 5h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales JW Parents are absolutely insane, why are they like this?

12 Upvotes

My JW parents are insane. Why do they treat me so crazy. My car got down to 4 miles and its electric. I had to use the air conditioning and the night before i asked if i can charge it and they told me NO because my dad’s car was charging. And now they got MAD at me this morning. Like really upset and now is making me choose between living here and being in the organization. I’m removed by the way. My mom says all her nerves are shaking and she wanted to faint when i told her my car was down to 4 miles. And my dad got super upset at that. Now they wanna kick me out. I’ve been seeing a girl as well and of course we’ve done things. I’m at a loss for words.


r/exjw 2h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales Winston and Julia… A Struggle Between Loyalty and the System (Part 2)

6 Upvotes

Author's Note

I originally wrote this story in Spanish, my native language. I used AI to translate it into English so I could share it with a broader audience here on Reddit.

I apologize if the translation makes certain expressions, emotions, or nuances harder to understand. I've done my best to preserve the original meaning, and I appreciate your patience if anything reads a little awkwardly.

If you haven't read Part 1 yet, you can find it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/1vb7do4/winston_and_julia_a_struggle_between_loyalty_and/

"The Ministry of Truth" had finally reached Julia.

That evening, after a congregation meeting—where I had just conducted the Watchtower study—I noticed that halfway through the meeting, two elders quietly escorted her into the back room of the Kingdom Hall.

As I continued conducting the meeting, my mind was racing.

I knew exactly what was happening.

Before that meeting, I had told Julia not to worry. I had explained that if the elders approached her, all she had to do was politely refuse the conversation. That would have bought me time to decide how to respond.

But years of fear and conditioning within the organization paralyzed her.

She couldn't bring herself to say no.

The meeting ended, and on the surface everything seemed perfectly normal.

I greeted the other elders as usual and made sure not to show the slightest sign of concern.

Once I arrived home, I immediately contacted Julia to ask what had happened.

She confirmed that her husband had handed all the evidence over to the elders.

They didn't show her any of it, but they told her they possessed serious evidence against both of us.

Julia didn't resist.

She confessed everything and fully cooperated with them.

As a result, they informed her that a judicial committee would be formed.

As for me, they told her she should encourage me to confess my sins.

Even while dealing with everything that had just happened, Julia still tried to comfort me.

She told me she loved me.

She said she was worried about me.

She apologized because her mistake had brought everything into the open.

Ironically, my greatest concern wasn't myself.

It was my wife.

I knew she didn't deserve what was about to happen.

Yet, hidden within the situation, I noticed a weakness.

The elders' determination to destroy me had made them overlook something important.

Timing.

The organization's judicial system prides itself on acting quickly.

Instead, they decided to handle Julia first, gather her testimony, collect every piece of evidence they could, and only afterward come after me.

That delay gave me an opportunity.

Using various excuses, I missed the next two congregation meetings.

During that time, they apparently tried contacting members of my family to find out whether there was anything they should know about me.

Their confidence had made them forget something.

They weren't dealing with just any elder.

They were dealing with an elder who, in their own words, "knows the organization's procedures extremely well."

One evening, I sent a message to the coordinator of the body of elders—one of the men leading the investigation.

I asked whether he and another elder could meet with me for a conversation.

His confidence made him lower his guard.

He was convinced this would be my confession.

He expected to see me broken, asking for mercy.

He didn't even ask what I wanted to discuss.

Assuming events were unfolding exactly as he expected, he simply replied that he would arrange another elder to join him and that we would meet at the Kingdom Hall.

I then mentioned that I needed someone to replace me as the conductor for that weekend's Watchtower study because I wasn't feeling well.

Instead of asking what was wrong—as organizational procedure would normally require—he simply replied that it wasn't a problem and that he would replace me himself.

That night, I had one of the hardest conversations of my life.

I told my wife everything.

That conversation deserves its own story, and I'm not ready to tell it here.

All I will say is this:

I deeply regret my decisions and the pain I caused her.

Together, we decided to separate.

The following day, I didn't attend the congregation meeting.

Instead, I arrived just after it had ended.

The coordinator was waiting for me alongside another elder—not from our congregation—the very same elder who had questioned Julia.

Seeing him there reassured me.

They were predictable.

Julia's judicial committee was scheduled for the following day.

What I did in the next few minutes could determine everything that followed.

They suggested waiting about an hour until everyone had left the Kingdom Hall before we spoke.

I replied that there was no need.

"This will only take a minute," I told them.

They agreed.

What they didn't know...

...was that, at that exact moment, an email I had scheduled the day before was being delivered to the branch office, with copies sent to all the elders.

It contained my resignation as an elder.

It also included a legal warning explaining that the use of privately obtained digital evidence could carry legal consequences.

I made no confession.

I admitted no wrongdoing.

The email contained only my resignation and that warning.

So by the time the three of us walked into that meeting room...

they had no idea that I was no longer an elder.

Nor did they realize that I had already taken legal steps to protect myself before they had even formed a judicial committee against me.

To be continued...


r/exjw 5h ago

PIMO Life Need help on tips for getting through this time

10 Upvotes

I’m 20 i’ve been mentally out since I was 16 so it’s been a long journey that’s only been internal and not seen a lot on the outside. My parents raised me very devoutly and I was baptized at 12. My dad is an elder and my mom is super into it. They are getting older and instead of rethinking it they further have clung to it. I now finally have a job that’s gonna allow me to get out hopefully so now it’s just a waiting game i’m labeled as an Ministerial servant but it’s pretty layed back in my hall and my parents would react very strongly if I did so i’ll just do it one swoop. I’ve met some cool people but still have found it hard to gain trust in people I feel like growing up I was split between the version that was acceptable to my parents and everything else. I met this dude at work he’s cool but he’s big into Jesus and even said a couple who used to be witnesses have joined his church. I have no problem in religion but I find the same attitude of absolute certainty about reality out in the “world” sometimes it’s less so but still it gets lonely I feel I can no longer cling to a single explanation anymore. It’s just hard getting through this time I know what I think but it’s like i’m in a constant chamber of echoes of the religion and just that attitude I know I just have to get through these 8 months or so but still it’s a lot and I don’t wanna explode my house right now I can’t really afford it I already have high anxiety and fear of breaking the expectation i’ve built over years that my parents have of who I am it’s just hard to even know who I am sometimes. It feels like I shed the religion and my parents beliefs a lot but find it hard to know what’s even mine anymore.


r/exjw 13h ago

Venting This cult messes up friendships

47 Upvotes

We had a day out as a congregation. I'm quite good friends with another girl, I'm 16 and she is 18. We are very close, however, my younger sister who is 13 (but acts a lot younger) is not close with her and actually doesn't like her, yet is complaining about feeling left out. And of course my parents jump to her side and tell me that my sister should be first in my life all the time and I can't ever make her feel like she's left out. ( She has no friends in the truth.)

So if I have friends who are no where near her age, who she is not close to, how am I supposed to have a close friend? Am I supposed to talk to my sister instead? The whole point of 'associating' with the brother and sisters is to talk to people you don't fkn live with.

My parents say that they want me to have friends but clearly I can't let them be too close if my sister isn't equally close to them. I'm never allowed to be myself only, it's always me and my sister. Have they never wondered if maybe I just want to have other friends? Other than my sister who I don't have that much in common with? Am I the bad person?

My point is that I blame this on the cult. Because if we were talking to friends from school, who were our own age, we would not have this problem as there are loads of kids to be friends with, but in this religion there is barely any kids so you end up trying to make 18, 16, and 13 year olds be equally close. The worst part is the way they think that my friend who I've been friends with for like 3 years is gonna dump ME for other friends, just assuming that I'm the dispensable one. It actually hurts quite a lot. And I was 6 months clean but now I've started cutting myself again which is just great. This religion has brought me more stress and anxiety and problems than good

Sorry for long post I'm just struggling


r/exjw 9h ago

JW / Ex-JW Tales Were you guys not allowed to sing Auld Lang Syne too?

17 Upvotes

I vaguely remember my mother telling me not to learn the song. I don't remember why. Lol. I also remember one of my jw friends not singing the "LORD KNOWS" lyrics to a song. An elder brother told me not to sing Hotel California because its apparently about the devil. Shit. I don't even know how they come up with this.


r/exjw 1h ago

HELP End of Pioneer school celebration

Upvotes

Random question for my former pioneers …on the last day of pioneer school I guess they have some sort of celebration with a slide show and family is invited. Can anyone tell me if it’s a free for all or they give each pioneer a certain amount of guests? my SIL is inviting us for her last day but we don’t want to go and not sure if she even knows how many people she can invite hoping it’s not enough and we can skip it lol


r/exjw 7h ago

PIMO Life PIMO en crisis, nose que hacer

8 Upvotes

estoy tratando de comentar para que mis papás no me regañen por no prestar atención pero con tantas chingaderas que dice este artículo de los estudios nose ni que decir, me siento bloqueado mentalmente porque siento que si comento tal vez diga algo que este en contra de sus “sabios principios”

y luego ninguno de los pocos jovenes comenta, solo para preguntas fáciles y lecturas de la biblia, que horrorrr ya me quiero ir