Religion in my experience divides families and communities. I was raised a Jehovah witness till about the age thirteen. I was given the choice thanks my mom letting us make that choice. When I was in the third grade my family moved to a small town called Boonville, Ca and yes that is a real place. Boonville is a small town located about 100 miles north of San Francisco it is very beautiful there, it’s in a valley called Anderson Valley. The valley has beautiful rolling hills spotted with oat trees and a redwood forest on the other side with a river carving its way through the middle.
We moved to Boonville to get on our feet from my mothers family. All most all of my mother’s family are Jehovah Witnesses. I had a lot of cousins that I made friends with and in order to remain friends with them I had to be one of them hints a Jehovah. It was hard growing up watching everyone around you celebrate the birthdays and Christmas. I remember in school when there was a Christmas party or Halloween Party we would always have to go to the cafeteria to watch the same old movie over end over again Cinderella. That got very old quick! We were not aloud to play sports or hang out with outsiders. DIVIDED!
I had become very close with a cousin of mine; she was about 2 years older then me. We would always dance to old 50 music with a old tape recorder. When I decided that I now longer wanted to participate in going to the kingdom hall anymore my aunt told us we couldn’t hang out anymore. Then about 3 months later she started hanging out with druggies and randomly sleeping with boys. My aunt then tried to get us to hang out again, so we did and she had changed so much I could even relate to her anymore. It took many years for her to get on the straight and arrow but from what I have heard she never really got there fully.
Many years later I would meet other Young adults that were ether kicked out of they’re families or shunned at a very young age. Here is one of those people. I met Steffen when I was about 22 years old, his family were all Jehovah witnesses. Steffen was only 16 and I met him at a restaurant we worked at together. He always felt comfortable talking to me because I could kind of relate to what he was going through. He was always talking about killing himself because he couldn’t make his family happy. One day he had tried to kill him self by taking a bunch of pills and he almost died. When he came back to work two weeks later, I sat with him and had a talk about how he only had 2 more years till he was 18 and he could get away from his family and sometimes friends make better family. By the end of the talk seamed upbeat and ready to take on life. Now believe his family was very hard on him and made him fill very little, witch is the worst thing you could do for a 16 year old. Two weeks after having the talk with him a few friends wanted to go to a place called pirates cove In Avila beach Ca. Because I was the only one over the age of 21 of course a few people tried to get me to buy them alcohol I refused. As a joke I did buy one guy age 19 a Oodles, witch is a none Alcoholic beverage for those of you who do not know. Anyway later on there night at the party Steffen had should up and he was acting very out of character. I asked him if he was ok and he looked at me and laughed. Then ran off and a few minutes later he ran up to me and grabbed my boob in front of his girlfriend who was also a very good friend of mine. I was so confessed, people at the party were saying they think someone gave him drugs. Steffen then almost jumped off a cliff that was a 50 foot drop at least, but someone grabbed him before going over. We were trying to get him to go home or take him somewhere safe bout he wouldn’t listen to us. Then he started clinbing up a very steep cliff. I his best friend Criss went to try to get him down they got a hold of him but it was dark. I was holding his girlfriend at the iterance of a cave, she was upset by the way he was acting. Next thing I heard a big bang and could see something fall in front of me, it was dark so I couldn’t see that well. Next thing I hear is a friend screaming Steffen’s name. To this day nobody knows if he jump or slipped. I ran over to Steffen and could see that his eyes were fully dilated and knew that wasn’t a good sign. We called 911 and did cpr on him till the ambulance got there. Steffen ended up dying at the age of 16. Later his family put a fake ad in the paper for his death and everything they said about him was not true, they ether lied or didn’t even know there own son.
I met a young man by the name of John one day at a bar. He was a very good looking man and boy could he sing country. One day I asked him where he was from and what his story was, he started talking about how he moved here after his family disowned him 2 months before that and he lost everything. He was a Jehovah witness and raised one. He had been dating his girlfriend since he was 14 and they decided to have make love for the first time. They were both 19 years old. John was baptized but she was not. They’re family found out and he was disfellowshipped and she was not, him whole family disowned him for that. I felt so bad for him, I don’t understand how family could just do that, I have 3 kids and I couldn’t imagine ever disowning my kids. About two years later I ran into him and he looked so back, he had gotten into drugs and didn’t even look the same.
One day I went to a BBQ with a friend and I met the oddest couple there, they’re name were mike and Mandy. Mike was a very short Hispanic man and Mandy was a very tall and big woman with a very big heart. They were so happy together. I started talking to her about her family and she told me that everyone had disowned her except her father. Come to find out she was also raised a Jehovah witness, big surprise. She had been married to a man that would beat her and her kids, he at one point had even almost killed her by running her over with his car. She got the strength to divorce him and everyone in the kingdom hall disfellowshipped her including her mom and brothers and sisters. The only one who refused to disown her was her father and unfortunately he died about 2 years after. She was very happy with Mike.
I just don’t understand how family could disown you over a religion, if there is a GOD then would he really be ok with this and what kind of god would do this?
I know even more thing that has happened to people from just that one religion but I’m sure you get my point.
I have always wondered why there were books taken out of the bible. I had asked a pastor once and he said they were not very useful, hmmm not very useful. It never made since to me. One of the books taken out of the bible was, The Writing of the holy Apostle Thomas concerning the conversation of the Lord in his childhood. The book talk about Jesus in it but they say it was faked.
Anyone how thinks Jesus is real should watch this.
Why there were so many others just like him, is history reputing itself or is it all about power? Religion=power=money. When preachers own jets from money they got from the church and giant mansions what is that oh power, money.
So when that collection plate comes by run!
Rich preachers if you don’t give you’re going to hell! Wow really! I don’t know shouldn’t the money to the poor? What do you think?
WAKE UP PEOPLE THIS IS TO WRONG!!!!