CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/11/2025

Psychobabble, Research, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sexual Abuse, Human Trafficking

AVOS: When Knowing the Language Isn't Doing the Work: The Weaponization of Psychobabble

"Let's just say it: you can know all the language—talk about your nervous system, trauma responses, "boundaries," "attachment styles," "somatic regulation," and still be a hot mess in relationships and in your roles in the larger collective. And worse? You can use that language to deflect, defend, or manipulate instead of doing the real, gritty, uncomfortable, embodied work of healing."

" ... You know the one. He's the guy who talks about polyvagal theory over coffee, name-drops Gabor Maté in casual conversation, meditates daily—but hasn't apologized to anyone in five years. Instead of taking accountability, he claims someone's pain is "their trauma projection." It's the person who says, "I'm setting a boundary," when what they really mean is, "I don't want to look at how my behavior harmed you" or "I am going to avoid vulnerability at all costs, try to control you, and use my therapist's language to make you feel small and stupid."

Weaponizing boundaries is one of the most common ways I see this playing out. Boundaries are sacred. They're essential. But they are not a free pass to avoid intimacy, vulnerability, or reckoning with your own shadow. Boundaries without compassion and introspection become walls. Barbed wire fences, even."

Humanists: Groundbreaking study exposes hidden struggles of ex-Jehovah's Witnesses in the UK

A groundbreaking study published in The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion has shed light on the profound and long-lasting challenges faced by people leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses and ways in which targeted support can assist their recovery.

Conducted by a national group of academic researchers in collaboration with Faith to Faithless, the Humanists UK programme supporting people who leave high-control religions, the research involved in-depth interviews with 20 ex-Jehovah's Witnesses in the UK. Participants described significant emotional, social, and practical struggles after leaving – often compounded by shunning, loss of identity, and a lack of understanding from professionals.

The study found:

• Many experience acute mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD, linked both to life inside the religion and to the process of leaving.

• Social isolation is common, with loss of family and friends leaving some feeling like 'a little baby' navigating the outside world for the first time.

• Professional help is often ineffective due to a lack of awareness about religious trauma.

• Recovery is possible – but requires specialist understanding, safe environments, and supportive relationships.

The authors emphasise that leaving a high-control religion is not a single event but 'a complex, ongoing process of rebuilding identity and worldview.' With the right support from trained mental health professionals, informed social services, and community networks, former members can 'piece everything together again' and go on to live fulfilling lives.

South Carolina Attorney General's Office: Polaris CEO Megan Lundstrom joined over 300 leaders, advocates, and survivors as a speaker at the inaugural Human Trafficking in the Carolinas Conference in Columbia, SC.

"South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson opened the inaugural Human Trafficking in the Carolinas Conference this morning in Columbia. The South Carolina Human Trafficking Task Force, in collaboration with the North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission, is hosting the conference on July 30th and 31st in Columbia. The conference brings together more than 300 professionals, survivor leaders, and advocates from across the region, united in the fight to end human trafficking.

"This conference represents a bold step forward in our fight to end human trafficking," said Attorney General Wilson, Chair of the SC Human Trafficking Task Force. "Human trafficking is a crime that demands coordination, and this event gives us the opportunity to build a more unified response to protect victims and hold traffickers accountable."

Stakeholders from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and beyond convene to explore emerging trends, share multidisciplinary strategies, and strengthen collaborative efforts in combating trafficking and supporting survivors. The two-day forum offers tracks for law enforcement, prosecutors, healthcare providers, service organizations, and community advocates. The conference presents international, national, and local speakers; survivor-led sessions; panel discussions; workshops; and networking opportunities.

Featured speakers include Dr. Robert Macy, President of the International Trauma Center; State Representative Brandon Guffey from District 48; and Megan Lundstrom, CEO of Polaris/National Human Trafficking Hotline. Attendees will also hear from international and national subject-matter experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, A21, and the Human Trafficking Institute.

"We are honored to welcome so many dedicated professionals, leaders, and survivors to this conference," said Monique Garvin, Acting Director of the SC Human Trafficking Task Force. "This convening not only signals our commitment to addressing human trafficking on a deeper level, but it also creates a space for enhanced collaboration in our region and beyond that promotes awareness and action. Together, we are building a network equipped to prevent exploitation, support survivors, and combat this crime."

The event also coincides with World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (July 30), a global opportunity to raise awareness and mobilize efforts to end human trafficking.  

For more information, visit the South Carolina Human Trafficking Task Force website at www.scag.gov/human-trafficking."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

Groundbreaking study exposes hidden struggles of ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK

Humanists: Groundbreaking study exposes hidden struggles of ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK

A groundbreaking study published in The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion has shed light on the profound and long-lasting challenges faced by people leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses and ways in which targeted support can assist their recovery.

Conducted by a national group of academic researchers in collaboration with Faith to Faithless, the Humanists UK programme supporting people who leave high-control religions, the research involved in-depth interviews with 20 ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK. Participants described significant emotional, social, and practical struggles after leaving – often compounded by shunning, loss of identity, and a lack of understanding from professionals.

The study found:

• Many experience acute mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD, linked both to life inside the religion and to the process of leaving.

• Social isolation is common, with loss of family and friends leaving some feeling like ‘a little baby’ navigating the outside world for the first time.

• Professional help is often ineffective due to a lack of awareness about religious trauma.

• Recovery is possible – but requires specialist understanding, safe environments, and supportive relationships.

The authors emphasise that leaving a high-control religion is not a single event but ‘a complex, ongoing process of rebuilding identity and worldview.’ With the right support from trained mental health professionals, informed social services, and community networks, former members can ‘piece everything together again’ and go on to live fulfilling lives.

https://humanists.uk/2025/08/05/groundbreaking-study-exposes-hidden-struggles-of-ex-jehovahs-witnesses-in-the-uk/

CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/5/2025 (Jehovah's Witnesses, Book, LGBT, Geelong Revival Centre, Australia, Gloriavale, Child Abuse, New Zealand, Legal)

Jehovah's Witnesses, Book,  LGBT, Geelong Revival Centre, Australia,  Gloriavale, Child Abuse, New Zealand, Legal

Eric Schaeffer: A Lie Told Often Enough Becomes the Truth, Exposing How the Watchtower Deceives Jehovah's Witnesses

"In the late 1800s, a religious organization known as the Watchtower was born. This group places much emphasis on Christ's return and Armageddon, aggressively seeking to spread their doctrine to all who will listen. These efforts were successful, for their influence can be seen in countries and languages throughout the world. Many of the Watchtower's deceptions were easy to spot in the early days, but with almost 150 years of practice, they have found ways to fine-tune their inconsistencies. Millions have been misled by the Watchtower and have become personal carriers of their fraudulent message. These carriers are known as the Jehovah's Witnesses. After having hundreds of conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses, I began to understand that most are sincere people who generally want to please God, but fail to recognize that they have been duped by doctrinal deception. This book examines the variety of ways these deceptions take place by comparing the Bible, the original languages, church history, and the Watchtower's own material. After exploring this information, the reader will be able to see how the Watchtower has been deceiving Jehovah's Witnesses with false prophecies, misquoted scholars, historical untruths, and even purposeful changes to the Bible. This writing is respectful but does not pull any punches. It is straightforward truth that exposes the Watchtower's manipulation of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

AvoidJW: Jehovah's Witnesses Create Three New Businesses in Ireland to handle financial assets

Independent: The Jehovah's Witnesses who left the faith and never looked back: 'I was 37 and had only ever held a boy's hand

" ... McAllen, 39, who lives in Greenwich, south-east London, is today active in support groups that help people who leave high-control religious groups. She has also created a safe space online through her TikTok channel, Apostate Barbie, where she educates others about the realities of life as a Witness. A series of videos on "Random Things You Can't Do as a Jehovah's Witness" has amassed hundreds of thousands of views. "I try to keep things very factual and light," she says of her content. "I don't want it to be heavy or [involve] calling people names. I try to show that there is life after religion. That it's not all doom and gloom, that we're all happy and fine, and in fact life is better."

Like a lot of ex-Witnesses, McAllen describes leaving the religion as "waking up". She had devoted her entire life to the faith, attending regular meetings at kingdom hall and spending dozens of hours a week knocking on doors and handing out pamphlets.

Jehovah's Witnesses are prohibited from socialising with nonbelievers, higher education is often discouraged to prioritise witnessing, and dating is strictly reserved for those seeking marriage. Former members say they were warned that questioning or leaving the faith could lead to "removal from the congregation", a formal practice of excommunication that was, until recently, known as disfellowship.

A person who is disfellowshipped stands to lose everything. They are effectively shunned by the community and end up "grieving the living" after losing contact with family and friends. Nicolas Spooner, a counsellor who specialises in working with Jehovah's Witnesses who leave the organisation, says exclusion from the faith can have a lasting negative impact on mental health, career prospects and quality of life, but it can also present an opportunity for self-discovery and new experiences that would change their lives completely.

"Looking at the sorts of things they're finding out about themselves, I think mostly they're starting to realise how many life skills they lack," Spooner says. "This is what I hear more than anything else. It's quite common for [former members] to find that they shy away from social situations, because they lack certain life skills that everybody else takes for granted – like how to make friends, how to treat friends, how to be a friend. These are things that we learn as we're growing up. If you're growing up as a Witness, it's not the same."

But it's never too late to learn, he adds, as he points to his wife, Heather, who left the Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of 48. Since then, she has completed a PhD in psychology researching the effects of religious ostracism, authored a number of academic articles on the subject and is a lecturer in psychology at Manchester University."

Canberra Times: 'You could hit kids': ex-members in 'cult' abuse claims

"Former members of a fundamentalist church have lifted the lid on abuse of kids and slammed working with children checks as a sham.

Ryan Carey was born into the Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal doomsday church run by pastor Noel Hollins for more than six decades until his death in April 2024.

Mr Carey, whose father was second-in-command to Hollins, said the damage from his and others' time in the church lingers.

"I might have lived in the state of Victoria but I answered to the cult and the cult leader," he told a state parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday.

The inquiry into recruitment and retention methods of cults and organised fringe groups was green lit in April following claims of coercive practices within the church.

Mr Carey and his wife Catherine, who joined the church at age 19, were the first witnesses to give evidence at the public hearing."

AP: Leader of secretive New Zealand commune admits abusing young female church members

"The leader of an isolated and conservative Christian commune in New Zealand pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a dozen indecency and assault charges against women and girls who were members of the religious group.

The admission of guilt from Howard Temple came three days into a trial at which he was accused of abusing members of the Gloriavale commune, aged between 9 and 20 over a period of two decades.

Complainants who appeared in the opening days of Temple's trial at the Greymouth District Court said he had touched or groped them while they were performing domestic duties, including in front of other Gloriavale members during mealtimes, Radio New Zealand reported.

They told the court they were too scared to challenge the leader and feared being told the abuse was their fault.

Temple, who is 85 and known as the Overseeing Shepherd of Gloriavale, earlier denied the two dozen charges, and was scheduled to face a three-week trial. But on [July 30th], his lawyer said the leader would admit to an amended list of 12 crimes."

RNS: Gloriavale leader assault trial enters third day

"Three former Gloriavale members have told a court they were touched, grabbed and groped by the Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple, on the second day of his trial in Greymouth. Mr Temple has pleaded not guilty to 24 charges of sexual assault and doing an indecent act."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

The Jehovah’s Witnesses who left the faith and never looked back: ‘I was 37 and had only ever held a boy’s hand’

There can be severe social consequences to leaving your religion behind, but many continue to do it, spurred on by a desire to live and learn independently. Taz Ali meets the people who’ve used their freedom from faith to discover themselves for the very first time – and often far later in life than the rest of us

Independent 

July 31, 2025

Micki McAllen speaks matter-of-factly about all the times she was told the world was about to end. The September 11 attacks. Donald Trump’s election. Covid. Each time, she and her family – strict Jehovah’s Witnesses – would wait with a mix of dread and anticipation for the salvation to come. Of course, Armageddon didn’t arrive on any of those occasions. But McAllen was told to always be prepared – it was right around the corner, after all. It was only when she was 35, and first began questioning her faith, that she asked herself a simple question: why prepare to die when I could choose to live?

The pandemic was the final nail in the coffin for McAllen. Confined to her home during lockdown in Auckland, New Zealand, she found herself searching for answers online. Gradually, the doubt set in. “I started reading people’s experiences, especially going through Covid,” she says. “A lot of people were affected by not having to go to kingdom hall [a place of worship for Witnesses] or any meeting or field service. We all had time to slow down and to think.”

Witnesses who have left the organisation told me that abandoning or even questioning the faith has severe social consequences, particularly shunning. Driven by this fear, McAllen kept all “worldly” people – a term used by Witnesses to describe anyone outside of the religion – at arm’s length. But it did nothing to quell her desire to learn and think independently. “I want to be my authentic self, and have an authentic life,” she recalls saying to herself. “I don’t know who I am, but I want to begin and I want to figure this out.”

After just a weekend of poring over online forums and speaking to former Witnesses, McAllen decided to leave. Within a week, she had dyed her hair bright pink and began her dream career in dog grooming, something she says she would never have been able to do as a Witness, when she spent all of her free time preaching. The rest of her thirties were spent catching up on the firsts she'd missed in her teens and twenties, from late-night parties to first loves and even losing her virginity.

I knew I wasn’t a good Witness. So from a child I was like, ‘whenever Armageddon hits, I am done’. Also, I hated all the Witness boys, I hated this patriarchal idea of what they stood for. Hating men was a part of me - Sian Harper

“Being able to do that took some time,” she says. “It wasn’t until two years after I left [the religion] that I had sex for the first time. I was 37.” Up until that point, McAllen adds, she had only ever held a boy’s hand. “I was so nervous. My friends were like, ‘make sure he uses a condom, and that you pee after sex’ – bits of information that I had missed out on that most people know by now.”

McAllen, 39, who lives in Greenwich, south-east London, is today active in support groups that help people who leave high-control religious groups. She has also created a safe space online through her TikTok channel, Apostate Barbie, where she educates others about the realities of life as a Witness. A series of videos on “Random Things You Can’t Do as a Jehovah’s Witness” has amassed hundreds of thousands of views. “I try to keep things very factual and light,” she says of her content. “I don’t want it to be heavy or [involve] calling people names. I try to show that there is life after religion. That it’s not all doom and gloom, that we’re all happy and fine, and in fact life is better.”

Like a lot of ex-Witnesses, McAllen describes leaving the religion as “waking up”. She had devoted her entire life to the faith, attending regular meetings at kingdom hall and spending dozens of hours a week knocking on doors and handing out pamphlets.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are prohibited from socialising with nonbelievers, higher education is often discouraged to prioritise witnessing, and dating is strictly reserved for those seeking marriage. Former members say they were warned that questioning or leaving the faith could lead to “removal from the congregation”, a formal practice of excommunication that was, until recently, known as disfellowship.

A person who is disfellowshipped stands to lose everything. They are effectively shunned by the community and end up “grieving the living” after losing contact with family and friends. Nicolas Spooner, a counsellor who specialises in working with Jehovah’s Witnesses who leave the organisation, says exclusion from the faith can have a lasting negative impact on mental health, career prospects and quality of life, but it can also present an opportunity for self-discovery and new experiences that would change their lives completely.

“Looking at the sorts of things they’re finding out about themselves, I think mostly they’re starting to realise how many life skills they lack,” Spooner says. “This is what I hear more than anything else. It’s quite common for [former members] to find that they shy away from social situations, because they lack certain life skills that everybody else takes for granted – like how to make friends, how to treat friends, how to be a friend. These are things that we learn as we’re growing up. If you’re growing up as a Witness, it’s not the same.”

But it’s never too late to learn, he adds, as he points to his wife, Heather, who left the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the age of 48. Since then, she has completed a PhD in psychology researching the effects of religious ostracism, authored a number of academic articles on the subject and is a lecturer in psychology at Manchester University.

“She got her life back,” says Spooner, who met Heather a year after she left the Witnesses. “She reached the point where she had to say to herself, ‘they’ve had 48 years of my life, they’re not having any more’. The people that recover the best do inevitably have to get to that point… realising, ‘I left so that I could get my life back’.”

McAllen and other former Witnesses I’ve spoken to – all of whom have since come out as bisexual or gay – said the organisation initially gave them a sense of belonging, but proselytising left them with a feeling of vague disquiet. They would preach that God condemns homosexual acts, feelings and thoughts, a message that clashed with their own internal struggles about their sexuality.

“Leaving the religion and having time to figure out who I am and think about things I’ve never thought about, I realised I was bi,” says McAllen. “I got to talk to other people from the queer community and it was such a really nice, fun and creative environment.”

For some Witnesses, coming out can be a painful and terrifying ordeal. Ben Gibbons, 37, had been outed by another member of the organisation when he was in his early twenties. He was forced to attend Bible studies with an elder in the congregation for days on end and wasn’t allowed to leave his house without another member of the group present. Some of the practices he was subjected to were so extreme that he describes them as a form of gay conversion therapy. While the religion does not officially endorse the practice, its teachings can put strong pressure on LGBT+ members to suppress or reject same-sex attraction.

Gibbons says he was made to drink a bitter liquid to make himself sick every time he had an “impure” thought. “I was told how wrong it was, told to hide it, constantly read from the Bible,” he adds. “I used to bleach my hair and wore bright colourful clothes. By the end of it I had a shaved head, everything was monochrome, nothing too tight, all to make me look ‘straight’.”

It took years of therapy for Gibbons to be able to recover from the trauma, but he says he is now in a much happier place. He left the religion, married his partner, Lee, in 2022, and they live in the Norfolk town of Dereham, where Gibbons works as a wedding videographer.

When he talks about his past as a Witness, he says it feels almost otherworldly. “It was like I was in a PC game. The crowd filler, the random humans walking around the screen – that was me, because I couldn’t live authentically there. Leaving has allowed me to live a much freer life and do things that I otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance to do. If the younger me could see me now … the idea of being married, having a roof over my head, being free and OK with everything and now speaking out, I would never have believed it. That is my goal, to be the person that I needed back then.”

The fear of isolation leads many to live double lives, like Sian Harper, 28, a building manager in Oxford, who was born and raised a Jehovah’s Witness. She had friends outside of the organisation, and did just enough not to raise suspicion at her church. She later came out as lesbian, got engaged to a woman and told her family about her sexuality and intention to leave the religion, which they didn’t take well, although they admitted they had seen it coming. “I knew I wasn’t a good Witness,” Harper says. “So from a child, I was like, ‘whenever Armageddon hits, I am done’. Also, I hated all the Witness boys. I hated this patriarchal idea of what they stood for.” She laughs. “Hating men was a part of me.”

Like McAllen and Gibbons, Harper has little to no contact with her family today. While none of them has been formally disfellowshipped, they have taken the difficult decision to let go of their old lives and everyone in them in order to build new ones.

The relationship didn’t work out for Harper, but she allowed herself to heal and grow from the heartbreak. “We grew apart, unfortunately, but that’s OK. I hope that they continue to grow and I hope I do too. I am more open to new experiences, moving different places and not being worried that this is some kind of moral failing. I’m going to die either way – I might as well just have fun, go out and snog some girls.”

https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/jehovahs-witnesses-leaving-apostasy-b2798731.html

A Lie Told Often Enough Becomes the Truth, Exposing How the Watchtower Deceives Jehovah’s Witnesses

Book overview

In the late 1800s, a religious organization known as the Watchtower was birthed. This group places much emphasis on Christ’s return and Armageddon, aggressively seeking to spread their doctrine to all who will listen. These efforts were successful, for their influence can be seen in countries and languages throughout the world. Many of the Watchtower's deceptions were easy to spot in the early days, but with almost 150 years of practice, they have found ways to fine-tune their inconsistencies. Millions have been misled by the Watchtower and have become personal carriers of their fraudulent message. These carriers are known as the Jehovah's Witnesses. After having hundreds of conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses, I began to understand that most are sincere people who generally want to please God, but fail to recognize that they have been duped by doctrinal deception. This book examines the variety of ways these deceptions take place by comparing the Bible, the original languages, church history, and the Watchtower's own material. After exploring this information, the reader will be able to see how the Watchtower has been deceiving Jehovah's Witnesses with false prophecies, misquoted scholars, historical untruths, and even purposeful changes to the Bible. This writing is respectful but does not pull any punches. It is straightforward truth that exposes the Watchtower’s manipulation of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Q7KFT4K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_PW9R

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/23/2025 (Jehovah's Witnesses, Shunning, Video, Opus Dei, Podcast, Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, LDS)

Jehovah's Witnesses, Shunning, Video, Opus Dei, Podcast, Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, LDS

Stop The Shunning: I REFUSED to Raise My Kids as Jehovah's Witnesses ft. Alissa Watson

"Alissa Watson was one of Jehovah's Witnesses for 35 years. But, once she became a mother, her mounting doubts over her religious upbringing eventually motivated her to break the cycle and protect her children."

The Deep Dive Project: EXPOSING Opus Dei's fascist plan for theocratic domination

The Guru: They Infiltrated Cults; Now they Run One

"Who are the two men behind the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light? Their past reveals an explosive secret to their cult-building success. It began in the late 1990s in Mooresville, Indiana, a small town suburb of Indianapolis. Hashem and McGowen attended the local high school and bonded over filmmaking, comedy, and esoteric ideas. They soon became best friends. Hashem then went to Indiana University for comparative religions, and McGowen attended nearby Ivy Tech, studying sociology. The young men would share a strange destiny.

In 2003 Hashem wrote and directed a 50-minute comedy movie called "Apache Tears," and it played at the local Regal Cinemas. One of the stars was a 22 year-old Abbi Crutchfield, who would go on to be a well-known comedian and TV personality, appearing on Hulu and NBC, among others. She told a local reporter the film 'has a lot of twists and turns...and deals with dark matters in a light way.'"

What percentage of Mormon converts leave the faith

Research indicates that **about 50% or more of Mormon converts leave the faith within a year of their baptism**[7][8]. This high rate of attrition is acknowledged by both church leaders and independent studies, with the sharpest dropout occurring in the first months after conversion[3][8].

Longer-term retention rates remain low, with multiple sources confirming that only about **25–30% of converts remain active in the church over time**[3]. This means that **70–75% of converts eventually become inactive or leave**.

These figures reflect a significant challenge for the LDS Church in retaining new members, despite ongoing efforts to improve integration and support for converts[3][8].

Citations:

[1] Ex-Mormon - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex-Mormon

[2] Percent of Mormons who leave the LDS Church later? - Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/11ncq31/percent_of_mormons_who_leave_the_lds_church_later/

[3] Why Some Dropped Out | Religious Studies Center https://rsc.byu.edu/mormons-piazza/why-some-dropped-out

[4] A Portrait of Mormons in the U.S. - Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2009/07/24/a-portrait-of-mormons-in-the-us/

[5] Are More People Leaving the LDS Church? - Leading Saints https://leadingsaints.org/are-more-people-leaving-the-church/

[6] Who Is Leaving the Church? - BYU Studies https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/who-is-leaving-the-church-demographic-predictors-of-exlatter-day-saint-status-in-the-pew-religious-landscape-survey/

[7] Number of LDS converts, missionaries increasing; conversion rate ... https://www.deseret.com/2015/4/19/20562924/number-of-lds-converts-missionaries-increasing-conversion-rate-declines/

[8] Trends in LDS Member Activity and Convert Retention - Cumorah.com https://www.cumorah.com/articles/lawOfTheHarvest/7

[9] converts leaving the church - Third Hour https://thirdhour.org/forums/topic/31170-converts-leaving-the-church/

News, Education, Intervention, Recover

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I REFUSED to Raise My Kids as Jehovah's Witnesses ft. Alissa Watson

Stoptheshunning
July 16, 2025

Alissa Watson was one of Jehovah's Witnesses for 35 years. But, once she became a mother, her mounting doubts over her religious upbringing eventually motivated her to break the cycle and protect her children.

https://youtu.be/ZJjz9I9UYck?si=eiqq4aDkFraqzoYm

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/18/2025

Jimmy Swaggart, Obituary, Jonestown, Jehovah's Witnesses, Video, LGB, Grace Community Church, Public Shaming

The Conversation: Jimmy Swaggart's rise and fall shaped the landscape of American televangelism

"Jimmy Swaggart, one of the most popular and enduring of the 1980s televangelists, died on July 1, 2025, but his legacy lives.

Along with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he drew an audience in the millions, amassed a personal fortune and introduced a new generation of Americans to a potent mix of religion and politics.

Swaggart was an old-time evangelist whose focus was "saving souls." But he also preached on conservative social issues, warning followers about the evils of abortion, homosexuality and godless communism.

Swaggart also denounced what he called "false cults," including Catholicism, Judaism and Mormonism. In fact, his denunciations of other religions, as well as his attacks on rival preachers, made him a more polarizing figure than his politicized brethren."

NY Post: Jonestown mass death survivors who didn't 'drink the Kool-Aid' weigh in on the site becoming a tourist attraction

"Jonestown is seared into the American psyche as one the darkest tragedies of the modern era, where 918 people "drank the Kool Aid" and ended their lives under the command of cult leader Jim Jones.

Located in the remote Guyanese jungle, the site where the army first discovered the mass of dead bodies of People's Temple members in 1978 is now opening as a somewhat morbid tourist attraction. It is designed to pay somber tribute in the manner of Auschwitz and the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

The curious can pay $750 to visit the clearing where Jones' religious cult, mostly US citizens who had traveled with him to Guyana, unraveled in the most gruesome way imaginable."

ICSA International Conference 2024, Barcelona, Spain: Waking Up: What the Narratives of Former Jehovah's Witnesses Bethelites Reveal About Their Experience of Realizing They Were in a Cult - Andre Jackson

RNS: Former member sues John MacArthur's megachurch for public shaming

"A former member has sued Grace Community Church, led by prominent evangelical pastor John MacArthur, saying church leaders disclosed confidential information about her during a church service.

In a complaint filed Thursday (July 3) in Los Angeles County Superior Court, lawyers for Lorraine Zielinski said she went to leaders at the megachurch in LA's Sun Valley neighborhood, where MacArthur is the longtime pastor, seeking counseling for her troubled marriage and was told her conversations would be kept confidential.

According to the complaint, she told counselors she was afraid for her safety and the safety of her daughter, alleging that her then-husband was physically abusive. Her lawyers said church leaders pressured Zielinski to drop her request for a legal separation.

When Zielinski tried to resign as a church member, pastors put her under church discipline for failing to follow their counsel, according to the complaint. They also allegedly told her to either come to a meeting with church pastors or details of her counseling would be made public to the congregation.

'When Plaintiff did not attend the meeting, GCC made good on its threat and shared information gained through confidential communications relating to her marriage with GCC membership,' according to the complaint."

Waking Up: What the Narratives of Former Jehovah's Witnesses Bethelites Reveal About Their Experience of Realizing They Were in a Cult

Andre Jackson

ICSA International Conference 2024

Barcelona, Spain

https://youtu.be/bGmzO-wcQRc?si=-FtiQZy2owWtZ2WJ 

CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/27/2025 (Shunning, Jehovah's Witnesses, Norway, Book, MISA, 2x2)

Shunning, Jehovah's Witnesses, Norway, Book, MISA, 2X2

Stop Mandated Shunning: What next in Norway? An interview with Jan Frode Nilsen

" ... Jan Frode Nilsen [offers] an insightful update on the evolving situation in Norway. Jan shares why he remains optimistic that mandated shunning by Jehovah's Witnesses will eventually be consigned to history. He also offers thoughtful guidance on the journey from victim to survival—and ultimately, to thriving after leaving Jehovah's Witnesses."

Freedoms Embrace

"This is a true account about a couple who met and fell in love while being members of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. Jehovah's Witnesses. Both born into the religion in separate geographical areas. As children they grew up within this secretive and highly controlled environment. From babies they were repetitively taught that they, "were no part of the world". The world outside of their true religion was evil and controlled by Satan himself and it was imperative to remain vigilant from Satan and his demons as he looks to entice you from the Organisation and into his world that leads to total destruction.

Marc and Cora were both divorced. Marc had left the religion at 15 and joined the forces. Partly to escape his abusive alcoholic Jehovah's Witness father. Cora remained inside the religion and was eventually married at 20 to a man whose father was a Presiding Overseer within their congregation. A powerful senior position locally and closely connected to the policing and rigid controls at the behest of the hierarchy in London and the USA HeadQuarters.

Cora's divorce did not meet the religions scriptural requirements, this led the hierarchy to decree that she was no longer free to marry anyone else. To go against this decree and marry again would lead to a world of patriarchal judgments, punishment and eventual shunning from all she knew and loved. The risks were very high when she met Marc who moved into the congregation and was trying to repent and be accepted back within the fold. The very close observations placed on Marc because of his past were very real, surrounded in suspicion and mistrust of him. Cora too was under strict control and scrutiny by the elders of her congregation. Marc had a long way to go before being accepted back as a fully fledged Jehovah's Witness. The story goes on to tell how they eventually take risks to court each other, fall in love, then marry against the will of the whole community and the pain they experienced for three years as a result.

This is a story about Love, fear, control, punishment, endurance and learning to rely on each other. The story covers other characters whose names have all been changed, who tried their very best to cause as much harm as possible to Marc and Cora. They are both eventually disfellowshipped (banished) from the religion. No one is allowed to talk to them again, they are dead in the eyes of all Jehovah's Witnesses. From this point onwards they are determined to prove Cora was free to marry all along and so they go to every meeting at the Kingdom Hall with their two youngest children for three years while being shunned slandered and hated and without a single word being said to them in the Kingdom Hall (church). The story eventually vindicates their marital position, where more lies are exposed about how the elders held back vital information from the couple. After three long enduring years they are reinstated and everyone loves them again. But for Marc and Cora they are totally burnt with the experience and plan their resignation from the religion for good. Leaving behind family and their childhood indoctrination. After much intensive research of the religion that had controlled their lives for so long they decided to become activists and are known worldwide for their work in supporting other JWs who are in trouble with the organisation. The work has led to many true friends being made around the world and in some cases led to suicide prevention."

ExMISA: Bivolaru is hidden behind the panties of "sacred eroticism"

LAURA MCCONNELL: Doesn't she know the baby is teething?

" ... I've written and spoken on violence within Truth 2x2 and fundamentalist (mainly rural) communities for a while now, predominantly in women's magazines. Every time I've published a piece; I've carefully crafted around disclosing too much of my own story. Underpinning my writing on violence in these communities is a very real, lived experience.

If you've been around here awhile, you'll know I was trying to protect my own family. I know the experiences the women in my family survived. I have a deep respect and understanding that their lives were difficult. I have never wanted to cause more harm or distress by naming what they've done to contribute to violence.

However, this piece is to say: I'm done. I want to talk specifics about the violence.

I grew up surrounded by violence, coercion and abuse. Some of it was perpetrated by women. That is a difficult and extremely nuanced conversation in a culture where men perpetrate the majority of violence, and where the manosphere likes to accuse women of equal levels of violence as a deflection technique. I want to be clear here – my talking about women who abuse should not be used to deflect from the very real issue of men's use of violence.

What I'm writing on here is nuanced – these women are abusing in the context of high control, high demand, cult communities. These communities allow (encourage in my opinion) women to use violence on their children.

Violence and abuse by the women in my family still flares up in my life. Often after I've had something published in mainstream media, one or more of them will reach out in email or via DM's on social media, with paragraphs of vitriolic hate mail. Right now there is content galore to flare them up – a Decult documentary released which includes me. A Victorian inquiry into cults and fringe groups, which I'm playing an active part in. They can find information about me and my work unsolicited in their social media feeds, and it's quite upsetting for them, it seems.

What they could do is be proud when this information about me crosses their paths. They could think 'How amazing is it that one of OUR OWN is breaking intergenerational cycles?'

Instead they lash out."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

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Pathways to Freedom

Robert Crompton

Pathways to Freedom offers a helping hand to former Jehovah's Witnesses who can too easily become stuck in the transit zone between the Watchtower and new life. How do you let go of the baggage that weighs you down all along the way? How do you start to make new friends when you've always had it drummed into you that you could trust nobody outside the Witnesses? How do you stop the constantly nagging doubts about whether you did the right thing to break free? Pathways to Freedom is here to help.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pathways-Freedom-Watchtower-New-Life/dp/B08VRN2YWL

Freedoms Embrace

Freedoms Embrace

Marc Latham

This is a true account about a couple who met and fell in love while being members of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Both born into the religion in separate geographical areas. As children they grew up within this secretive and highly controlled environment. From babies they were repetitively taught that they, “were no part of the world”. The world outside of their true religion was evil and controlled by Satan himself and it was imperative to remain vigilant from Satan and his demons as he looks to entice you from the Organisation and into his world that leads to total destruction.

Marc and Cora were both divorced. Marc had left the religion at 15 and joined the forces. Partly to escape his abusive alcoholic Jehovah’s Witness father. Cora remained inside the religion and was eventually married at 20 to a man who’s father was a Presiding Overseer within their congregation. A powerful senior position locally and closely connected to the policing and rigid controls at the behest of the hierarchy in London and the USA Head Quarters.

Cora’s divorce did not meet the religions scriptural requirements, this led the hierarchy to decree that she was no longer free to marry anyone else. To go against this decree and marry again would lead to a world of patriarchal judgments, punishment and eventual shunning from all she knew and loved. The risks were very high when she met Marc who moved into the congregation and was trying to repent and be accepted back within the fold. The very close observations placed on Marc because of his past were very real surrounded in suspicion and mistrust of him. Cora to was under strict control and scrutiny by the elders of her congregation. Marc had a long way to go before being accepted back as a fully fledged Jehovah’s Witness. The story goes onto tell how they eventually take risks to court each other, fall in love, then marry against the will of the whole community and the pain they experienced for three years as a result.

This is a story about Love, fear, control, punishment, endurance and learning to rely on each other. The story covers other characters whose names have all been changed, that tried their very best to cause as much harm as possible to Marc and Cora. They are both eventually disfellowshipped (banished) from the religion. No one is allowed to talk to them again, they are dead in the eyes of all Jehovah’s Witnesses. From this point onwards they are determined to prove Cora was free to marry all along and so they go to every meeting at the Kingdom Hall with their two youngest children for three years while being shunned slandered and hated and without a single word being said to them in the Kingdom Hall (church). The story eventually vindicates their marital position, where more lies are exposed about how the elders held back vital information from the couple. After three long enduring years they are reinstated and everyone loves them again. But for Marc and Cora they are totally burnt with the experience and plan their resignation from the religion for good. Leaving behind family and their childhood indoctrination. After much intensive research of the religion that had controlled their lives for so long they decided to become activists and are known world wide for their work in supporting other JWs who are in trouble with the organisation. The work has led to many true friends being made around the world and in some cases led to suicide prevention.

The couple survived deep emotional trauma by trusting in each other and learning to deal with the attrition of defamation, slander and the threat of financial ruin while also doing research and navigating their way out of the psychological control the cult had put them into from birth.

https://www.amazon.com/Embrace-Your-Freedom-Winning-Strategies/dp/B0CSBTPFWX/