Memoirs of a Jehovah's Witness Life by Tylin
Joel
Being cast out from an organization that you
have only known since birth is catastrophic.
Being faced with shunning by long time friends and family members is
devastating. Discovering that all you were
ever allowed to know as “truth” is indeed a grand lie can be bewildering,
frustrating and life changing. Keeping a
level head during this transition is not easy.
I have made many mistakes in my 44 years but I try to learn from
them. Discovering that there are
hundreds of thousands who share this same pain through experiences is cathartic
in many ways. Nothing has illustrated
this or accomplished this fact more than social media and networking on the
Internet. While it is very true that
everyone has an opinion or pathway of their own along their recovery journey,
the joint camaraderie is still present and some of the people I have met online
and through social media have saved my life.
You have saved my daughter’s life.
I thank you for that.
I was born in 1970. My mother and father brought me into the
world in Santa Barbara County and attended the Quarantina Congregation of
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Santa Barbara, California. They moved 15 miles south to the City of
Carpinteria and that is the congregation in which I was raised. When I was thirteen years old, I dedicated my
life to serving Jehovah God and I symbolized that dedication by water baptism
in a pool outside the Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Woodland Hills,
California.
My mother was very proficient in training me
as the perfect little Jehovah's Witness boy.
I was constantly rescuing my Jehovah’s Witness playmates from various
holiday celebrations and political ceremonies at school. I never had a problem explaining why being a
Jehovah's Witness excluded me from a plethora of activities, even taking to
task school administration all alone as to why I would not solute the flag or
stand for the playing of the National Anthem.
