My Life As A Jehovah S Witness Used Abused And Forgotten

I invite you to come with me on a journey-a journey through life. In your passage through life, you want to be fully in charge of the route, the events, and the destination. As we travel, you need a clear view of where you have come from, where we are today and where you will be going. I believe I have a sincere story to present to you, my life as a Jehovah’s Witness: “Used Abused and Forgotten.” In my story there are many events that have adversely affected me as I grew up. I speak of the wrongs I have suffered, and of those who inflicted them; the memories of painful experiences and harmful early influences and unpleasant past events. Together we will consider the importance of what happens when one’s life is decimated by control in the name of religion.

I invite you to come with me on a journey-a journey through life. In your passage through life, you want to be fully in charge of the route, the events, and the destination. As we travel, you need a clear view of where you have come from, where we are today and where you will be going. I believe I have a sincere story to present to you, my life as a Jehovah's Witness: "Used Abused and Forgotten." In my story there are many events that have adversely affected me as I grew up. I speak of the wrongs I have suffered, and of those who inflicted them; the memories of painful experiences and harmful early influences and unpleasant past events. Together we will consider the importance of what happens when one's life is decimated by control in the name of religion.

You must always, always tell the truth, no matter the consequences, for you must model yourself on Jehovah, and Jehovah does not lie. This is the most crucial rule of all, Joy Castro is told as a young girl in a Jehovahs Witness family. Joy is 12 years old when her divorced mother marries a brother in the church. He is highly respected in the community, having displayed the ultimate sign of spiritual devotion: he served at Bethel, the Watchtower headquarters in Brooklyn. At home, however, he is a despicable brute. For the two years her mother is married to him, Joy does not grow at all; in fact, she loses 16 pounds, an eloquent testimony to the physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse she suffers at his hands. Her battered mother does nothing to protect her, nor does her church. She is sustained by a consuming fascination for horses and books and her protective love for her younger brother. Their daring escape from this unspeakable cruelty, to discover a nurturing home with their father, is the key to their survival and salvation.

This is the first major study of the enigmatic religious society. By examining the Jehovah's Witnesses' dramatic recent expansion, Andrew Holden reveals the dependency of their quasi-totalitarian movement on the physical and cultural resources have brought about the privatization of religion, the erosion of community, and the separation of 'fact' from faith.

You must always, always tell the truth, no matter the consequences, for you must model yourself on Jehovah, and Jehovah does not lie. This is the most crucial rule of all, Joy Castro is told as a young girl in a Jehovahs Witness family. Joy is 12 years old when her divorced mother marries a brother in the church. He is highly respected in the community, having displayed the ultimate sign of spiritual devotion: he served at Bethel, the Watchtower headquarters in Brooklyn. At home, however, he is a despicable brute. For the two years her mother is married to him, Joy does not grow at all; in fact, she loses 16 pounds, an eloquent testimony to the physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse she suffers at his hands. Her battered mother does nothing to protect her, nor does her church. She is sustained by a consuming fascination for horses and books and her protective love for her younger brother. Their daring escape from this unspeakable cruelty, to discover a nurturing home with their father, is the key to their survival and salvation.

Petting Tigers is not a gritty, edgy "trauma memoir." Nor is it a shocking expose of a corrupt religious sect. It is the story of what can happen when a child's dreams are stolen, and the agonizing experience of watching as one's own light is snuffed out. It's about having one's mind washed away and replaced with hypnotic rote beliefs that are self-destructive and make no sense in the real world.Petting Tigers is a story about overcoming huge obstacles when you think you have no resources, internal or external to do so - and about reclaiming your life when everything around you tells you that it's too late. Petting Tigers is about imagining and achieving a way out and the slow, clumsy steps that inevitably follow a rebirth.