Temporary Residents in this World | Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses are often disregarded as a doomsday cult on the extreme fringe, but their beliefs are actually more mainstream than we'd like to think.

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-Books-

Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's Witnesses, Third Edition (2015) by M. James Penton

'Knock Knock' Who's There?: 'The Truth' About Jehovah's Witnesses (2016) by Anthony James

Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life (2019) by Amber Scorah

How to Escape from Jehovah's Witnesses (2018) by Lloyd Evans

-Podcasts-

Awake! and Unafraid: Support for JW's and ex JW's, and Aid Moving Forward (2020)

-Documentaries-

-Youtube Channels and Videos-

-Movies-

-Websites-

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Photo and Video Credits

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Produced with the Assistance of Rozarah

Researched with the assistance of JessPSettle

Intro/Outro and Background Music by Michael Cotten/Nomad

Intro Art and Channel Avatar by PoetheWonderCat

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Hashtags: #religion #history #jehovahswitnesses #jehovahswitness #exjw #exjehovahswitness #exjws #exjehovahswitnesses #christianity #endtimes #endoftheworld #eschatology

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This video was sponsored by One Day University.

[KnowingBetter]

The Nebula version of this video contains two minutes of additional content.

[AlternateHistoryHub]

"Adam failed to read the Apple's Terms and Conditions"

Blessed

[thejesuschrist]

wow, just when you thought you knew all the weird things about one of your favorite fan-fiction clubs. thanks for this fascinating and informative video, as always.

[itmetetri]

This is fanstastic. I was born in to the JW "religion" and leaving left me without family, friends or a career path. 5 years later, I couldn't be happier.

[thinknblue]

As a witness that’s currently PIMO (physically in mentally out)…holy shit. I can’t describe how kind blowing this is. I’m currently 23 and was raised a witness my whole life. None of what this guy said about their beliefs is a lie and hearing more about how insane Russel and Rutherford were is wild. We literally praised those 2 guys for how strong in the faith they were and revolutionary. I’ve been going through a rabbit hole of the dirty sides of the religion the last few weeks. The religion doesn’t allow us to actually look at outside info. I’ve never head about the child abuse scandals. I’ve never heard about the letter to hitler or any of it. They’ve always told me it’s the one religion you can’t find dirt on which they can keep saying because like I said we aren’t allowed to look anywhere. I can’t tell anyone about this without being labeled an apostate and kicked out. You might say well it’s easy to find the info but when you’re raised in it for so long the second you hear about outside sources and info your gates come down and you instantly stop listening. I was like this for years and just started to actually listen. The mental damage the religion has done to me and others is indescribable. If anyone has questions I’d be glad to answer. For anyone reading this that’s PIMO like myself…I wish the best for you. I understand the weight on your shoulders juggling freedom and happiness with not being able to ever see your family and the friends you were raised with ever again

[charmyzard]

The Bible: No man can predict the end times.
Absolutely everyone: *Observe.*

[DeadBaron]

Oh boy. I was raised a JW. This will be hard for me to watch, when I turned 18 I got away as far as I could. My mother is still in and she doesn't listen. It's scary seeing not only the indoctrination, and how they bleed money from members and straight into leadership's pockets, but how much they twist the Word to guilt people into those donations. Then there's the disfellowships. My sister married someone from outside the congregation, so now our own mother feels like talking to her is a sin. It's insane.

[sophiabartolomeo]

the early Jehovah's witness being an MLM is incredibly accurate and as a bonus is also hilarious

[snowleopardlady]

I recently was disfellowshiped a few weeks ago. This is after being a born-in witness stuck as a silent non-believer for almost 10 years (gaining internet access almost certainly gave me my crisis of conscious). I'm still hurting over not being able to be around my family, at least in the familial aspect, but I'm learning how to have a family that chooses me for who I am instead of my religion

Edit: holy shit! Didn't expect this amount of recognition. Things are significantly better since I wrote this (my housing/job situation was precarious since leaving). But I have a happy life with my SO, our 2 cats, starting therapy, and I'm looking forward to starting college within the next couple of years!

[ratthrat]

I currently have the displeasure of being in a JW family with no way out (yet).
I do not believe in the religion therefore i would really want to leave and abandon all the tasks and policies i have to do in accordance with the religion, however I am 14 therefore there is no way for me to be able to get out of the religion with out dying on the streets. I would be shunned, and ultimately have my life ruined if I left now. My life can be characterized by having to lie to my ownfamily about my faith, and having to not have myself found out as non believing. Until I'm in the position where I don't need my family to survive all I can do now is to wait it out. Thank you for listening.

[conoroneill]

General Public: "These JW's are annoying. Let's ban doorknocking."
JW: "OK, we'll just have cars with giant speakers on them to blare our message to the whole neighbourhood."
General Public: "You know, on second thought, the doorknocking wasn't so bad after all."

[andrewxjw]

I'm an ex Jehovah's Witness, which is the theme of my YouTube channel. This video was highly accurate. Most Witnesses don't know half of this information and would denounce you. Thank you for holding other religions under the same scrutiny as well. Although I've found Watchtower to be especially harmful in my life, I realize there's always a danger in placing faith above critical thinking, reason, and empathy.

[isaacweaver]

I’m an Exjw and this video was actually the very first video that helped me wake up and deconstruct JW indoctrination. It’s been several months since I left the religion and I’m grateful for videos like this

[Wish-and-Hope]

I actually let my local Jehova's Witnesses in every week for about three years and talked to them. I knew from the beginning it's a cult that I never want to get into, but I took the opportunity for what I back in the day thought as interesting conversations. (I don't regret it, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it.)

They even took me to their Kingdom Hall twice. The second time was really worth it... because the topic of the day was basically how to isolate from the world. Teachings about how not to get too close to your co-workers, how to slowly let down friendships that are outside of the congregation. It was SO surreal.

And everyone was super nice and happy all the time (on the outside). Having experienced that, I totally get why some people may be drawn to it. But I'm pretty sure exactly that kind of expectation to be nice and happy all the time, regardless of what's actually going on, is just another nail in the coffin. Heavy "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" vibes.

[gspendlove]

I had a buddy in grade school whose parents were JW. From what I can remember, they really discouraged him from having any fun. When the two of us were laughing together, they were frowning. His dad took us to see _The Private Eyes, _ a comedy with Don Knotts and Tim Conway. My friend and I laughed all the way through it (It was the perfect movie for 9- and 10-year-old boys). Afterward, the father angrily denounced the movie and attacked its premise. I thought at the time that he was just too dumb to understand it. Now I think he was upset that his kid was having a good time, so he had to yell at him to make him feel properly bad again. My friend died at 19 years old after heart surgery. Now that I know about JW medical restrictions, I have to wonder if their religion killed him.

[BrooklynBeTheBoro]

Got baptized when I was 13, and disfellowshipped when I was 21. I'm 43 right now, and I haven't seen or spoken to anyone of my blood relatives since the day before I was disfellowshipped. I was born into the organization, the youngest of 7, and the only one to get baptized as a teenager. I knew that I didn't believe in any of the stuff that I was being taught but I was terrified of admitting that to my parents. I only got baptized because I thought it would make them happy. After a year I decided that I would disassociate myself when I had enough money to move out on my own. I haven't been back since. I suffered through loneliness, and abandonment for years, even contemplating suicide on more than one occasion. But I didn't give in to despair. I decided to let my family members go. I have 27 nieces and nephews that I've never met, and my children have no idea that they have family apart from their mother's side of the family. And I'm okay with that. I promised myself that I would never expose my children to the harm I experienced within the organization, and I will stand by that decision until my last breath.

[vowgallant]

"The Watchtower Society" literally sounds like the name of an evil organization from a YA Dystopian novel.

[davidtaylor]

JW: We disagree with H!tler!

Everyone: Oh good.

JW: But only on the occult stuff.

E: Oh no

[BlackSalamander]

A guy from my hometown committed suicide because his parents forbade him from studying to become a surgeon due to Jehova's randomly flip-flopping stance on blood transfusion

[urotaion]

Ah yes, the “religion” that _definitely_ wasn’t harmful to my existence.