"Finding the Real Jesus"
Without going into a lot of detail, I was raised as a Roman Catholic and searched some of the other mainstream Christian beliefs when I was in my early teens. Not satisfied with rituals and unexplained mysteries or "rules" that seemed to make no sense, I had stopped attending before I got married (just days before my 19th birthday).
So, when the Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door, only months after I was married and living in a new town, I was a prime target for their coy devises. I loved the answers they had for everything; no more "mysteries". I bought it all...hook, line, and sinker! (As did my husband, a short time later). For 12 years we followed those beliefs; abandoning things that were once important and accepting all of the restrictions and guilt that the Watchtower Society and its individual members could dish out!
I never believed that anyone could possibly be brainwashed while still living in everyday society, and would not come to that realization until after I was free from the clutches that held us in such a bondage.
Leaving would have tremendous consequences..and not the alienation and destruction from God that the Watchtower Society
had preached as eminent. The only alienation was to be from the people we had called brothers, sisters, and friends for those many years; and with the restrictions we had to abide by as to "worldly" association, we had few others in our lives by then. Leaving would mean that even a casual "hello" would be forbidden from them; so, even after my initial doubts, I continued to defend the very beliefs which I was coming to question.
Ironically, it would be members of my own Jehovah's Witness congregation who would encourage me into a situation that God was about to use to rescue me!
In 1986, at the age of 30, I began having grand-mal seizures; and controlling them was not easy in coming. So, it was several of my close JW (Jehovah's Witness) friends who began urging me to see a chiropractor; all of them recommending one particular doctor. After several months of prompting, I decided to give this chiropractor a try; but I was skeptical about the whole idea.
This chiropractor was a young lady, fairly new in practice, but so gentle and compassionate. In those first few months, I saw her quite frequently and began to feel very comfortable with her. She would engage me in conversation about how the seizures were impacting my life and also about my spiritual beliefs. Never condemning or critical, but more curious as to why I believed as I did; which made it easy for me to listen as she shared what and why she believed.
As she became more involved in my physical health, we developed a friendship. She involved her family in my care needs as well. There were times we spent hours talking at my home....about each other's lives; and as hectic as her life was, she was so happy and content.
I finally asked her one day if she thought I was a Christian. I don't remember now what her response was, but she must have been awfully tactful to have not put me on the defensive. It was weeks later, while visiting at my home, that she asked me if I thought she was a Christian.
"Well", I said, "according to Witness beliefs, absolutely not! But from what I learned from and seen in you and your family, yes...I think you are."
Right then I knew that I could no longer be a Jehovah's Witness because they believe that only those who follow their rigid belief system are truely Christian. So, I wrote a letter to the JW congregation; stating that I no longer could agree with all that was required of a baptized Jehovah's Witness and was choosing to disassociate myself from that organization.
Within that same week, I accepted Christ as my Savior (though I was still extremely confused) and I accompanied my friend to her church on the following Sunday. That was in October of 1987.
My husband was not thrilled with my decision. Though he no longer attended meeting at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, it was to be a very long time before he officially disassociated from that organization. Fortunately, it took only a handful of weeks before he agreed to allow me to take our son to church and Sunday school. By then he was just a couple of years shy of his 7th birthday and had never known anything but JW beliefs. To begin attending a church and be immediately assigned a part in the Christmas program was a delight , while also being a source of some anxiety. You see, he was raised to believe that all churches would soon be destroyed in the "battle of Armegeddon". He too had much to overcome.
Needless to say, we have all had to grow a great deal in our new understanding; and our son has aspirations of becoming a youth minister.
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