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Summary: This Wonderful Book Set Me Free!!!
Review: Thank you for your engaging book! It has touched my heart and has forever changed my life for the better. I had been living in constant fear for many years, because as a child raised as a Jehovah's Witness, I was taught that Jehovah would not protect me at Armageddon if I didn't live my life in complete obedience to the Watchtower Society. As I grew older, I had doubts that the Watchtower Society was God's Organization, and I drifted away from it. However, every time I experienced the violent winds of a tornadeo or saw its menacing funnel forming in the sky, I thought it was Jehovah coming to kill me. I lived in constant fear. Once I started reading your book, I couldn't stop. With every page, I felt a little more free from the cruel grasp of the Watchtower. I had not been aware of the many false prophecies the Watchtower had made, nor of their absurb quack medical cures, until I read the research section of your book. I now realize Jehovah God would never have channeled such nonsense as "Truth". Thank you for setting me free.
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Summary: Truth is Stranger than Fiction
Review: The ways of the Watchtower are indeed stranger than fiction; the author does an excellent job in bringing these to light. Some of the Watchtower's doctrines and rules that the Jehovah's Witnesses must follow are so strange, that a person might wonder how they could possibly be true. But they ARE true. I know because I have experienced them myself. Although the Watchtower boasts that all JWs believe exactly the same things, I knew some elders in some congregations who were quite lax when it came to applying the stringent Watchtower rules. In reference to these, elders of my congregation would say, "We all know which congregations are not going to survive Armageddon." I knew a JW woman who was thrown out of the Jehovah's Witnesses because she ignored the elders' request that she stop wearing pantsuits to the JW meetings. I knew a young JW man who was exemplary, but was socially avoided by other JWs because his hair was touching the top of his ears, instead of being shaved around the ear. I knew a woman who was ousted from the Watchtower organization because she was too frightened to scream while she was being raped. I have known of elders kidnapping sick JW babies from hospitals, to avoid a court order to have the baby receive a necessary blood transfusion. They hid the baby, only for the baby to die. I believe every word the author says in this revealing book, because I have experienced so much of it myself. I laud her for exposing the dark side of the Watchtower that is stranger than fiction. This book could well save many lives, by warning people of the hidden negative aspects of the Watchtower beliefs before they succumb to the very persuasive tactics of the JWs. This book will keep you spellbound.
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Summary: A must for anyone involved with Jehovah's Witnesses
Review: This book clearly explains the inside workings of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Much of this will suprise a person who has not been involved with their religion (cult). Easy to understand, and might help someone who has a loved one in the religion, or maybe someone who has had challenges leaving.
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Summary: Read it first, then judge
Review: This book is one persons story, not an objective but a subjective account about life in the Jehovah's Witnesses. Books such as M. James Penton's excellent and highly recommended work Apocalypse Delayed are a scholar's account of the Watchtower based on library research. To fully understand a movement (any movement), reading individual life stories such as Diane Wilson's are critical. Having read many accounts such as Ms. Wilson's, it is obvious to me that her story (and those of many others) should be taken very seriously. Only one who has lived as part of the Watchtower Society as a baptized member can fully understand what is it like to be a committed member (or trapped because a spouse is a member, and one knows that all too often leaving means loss of family as happened to Diane). Ms. Wilson's account will give the reader a feel for what it is like to be a Witness (and Witnesses will find themselves saying over and over "that is just how I felt!" or "that is what happened to me!"). A trend exists in academia that concludes one should not say unkind things about other religions. This rule may be fine in mixed company, but it will not really help us to understand this or any other movement. Also, few people wish to apply this rule to some groups such as the Taliban now, although certainly scholarly studies and individual life storied are both necessary to understand both the Taliban and the Watchtower (both have more in common than it first appears). To be a Witness, one usually must be either in or out, or, as they say, in the truth or of the world (Satan's world, that is). Outsiders seem to have a hard time accepting the reality of what it is like being in the Watchtower Society. Read this book (the whole book, and also check the many references) and find out why. Even a veteran Watchtower watcher can learn much from this well documented story.
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Summary: Refreshing!
Review: This book is refreshingly different than other books I have read about Jehovah's Witnesses, because it goes a step beyond them all by demonstrating exactly how Watchtower doctrines effect the lives of its followers. The author's writing style drew me into her life, allowing me to experience her pain, her intense struggle, but also her eventual triumphant escape from this group that uses unethically manipulative techniques to both entice new members and hold onto them. Although the subject matter of this book is serious, the intensity of her story is pleasantly offset by her refreshing sense of humor.
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Summary: Ex-Witness tells us about an inhumane "religion".
Review: This informative book about the workings of the Watchtower Society and its abusive lording over of its followers is quite a story. Seen through the now-open eyes of Diane Wilson, who spent 25 years as a Jehovah's Witness, this book details much of the Watchtower Society's (WS) many inhumane treatments of Witnesses, with its plethora of flip-flops of ideology, especially in the medical field. Using the WS's own documents, there is damning evidence to the mistreatment of individuals all in "Jehovah's name"...meaning, actually, the all-gray-haired, all-male governing body. The subjugation of women is also addressed with focus on the WS's cruel view of rape..."The intended victim should remember that the rapist is a human. No doubt there are circumstances in his life that have precipitated his behavior.So although a woman should not cower in fear and permit a rapist to intimidate her, at the same time she should treat him understandingly as a fellow human" (WS's AWAKE! magazine 02-22-84, p. 24) The above citation and countless others, the many failed WS prophecies, and the way the WS treats its own adherents leads one to realize that the Jehovah's Witnesses are, in fact, an abusive cult. The powerful poems Diane writes at the end of her story are testaments of courage on her part and a damning summation to those who lead the Watchtower Society. Diane Wilson has done society an immense favor in exposing the Watchtower Society for being a blight to the search for reason in our world.
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Summary: A MUST READ
Review: This is a must read for anyone who has associated with Jehovah's Witnesses, whether they have friends or family involved, workmates, or have been involved themselves.
In the past I too was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. As much as I had myself convinced that this was the not "only path to salvation" it was reasurring to read that other people experienced similar situations.
The writer here details what goes on within the organization known as Jehovah's Witnesses as only one involved would know. The writer also explains in detail the reasons one would be attracted to an organization such as this, and what would keep one involved.
Anyone who has any association at all with any Witnesses will greatly appreciate this book. This book eliminates the mystery surrounding this religion.
I have read many books regarding the Witnesses, and why their teachings are not correct, which can be boring. This book however, talks about what exactly happens, and how it affects people. By the far the most interesting and easy read of any Witness book I have ever read.
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Summary: Reminded Me of Moon's Unification Church
Review: This is a very thorough, well-thought out account of one women's lengthy sojourn in the Watchtower Society as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Many of the characteristics of that group that Ms. Wilson describes were familiar to me as a former member of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church (the "Moonies"). For example, she mentions the Watchtower Society's claim to be the only true Christians; the Unification Church teaches the same. She mentions the belief that in the near future, the world will be completely transformed when believers alone will be elevated to positions of power; this is something I also encountered in the Moonies. She mentions the tendency of the Jehovah's Witnesses to act in a very friendly manner toward new recruits, but then to become disinterested once an individual is fully committed to the organization. This is something I also experienced in the Moonies. The Watchtower Society fits in every particular the model of a high-demand, psychologically abusive mind control group such as I myself had the misfortune to endure. As well, Ms. Wilson delves into doctrinal issues, demonstrating from old publications that the Watchtower Society has frequently vacillated in its teachings on key doctrines, often with terrible medical repercussions for their believers. This is a well-researched and well-argued account of an excruciating emotional ordeal.
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Summary: A Woman of Great Courage!
Review: This is an utterly fascinating book! My eyes were glued to every page. The author is a woman of great courage for having written such a revealing book, given the number of Jehovah's Witnesses who try to discredit her. Diane speaks from a place of knowledge, whereas the JWs who discredit her speak from a place of being under the strong influence and mind-control of the Watchtower organization. This book should be of great importance to the Christian community, as it is so insightful and will help them to have a more complete understanding of what this religion (although I think the word Cult more accurately describes the JW organization) is all about. It could help Christians by educating them what the Jehovah's Witnesses are about, before the Witnesses come knocking on their doors, and thus protect them from being sucked into the Watchtower at a vulnerable moment. I have tried asking a Jehovah's Witness who came to my house what his religion is all about. Well, he zipped all around in his special Watchtower Bible, taking scriptures out of context, to prove some of the WT doctrines. But he never told me anything about the history of the WT, and about their many doctrines that change about as often as the wind blows. I learned about those from this book, thanks to Diane's excellent skills as a writer and a researcher. Believe me, folks, you won't hear the truth about the JW religion from a JW. This book reveals it all in easy-to-read story format. The two chapters that contain Diane's research are presented in a very easy-to-understand manner, too. No one can argue with her research of the older Watchtower books, because every bit of it is substantiated by book titles and page numbers. Diane is 100% accurate with her quotes. I checked a couple of them in some old books the Witnesses had given to me in the past, and they are right on the mark. This book is an eye-opener, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
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Summary: Common slander/libel again Jehovah's Witnesses
Review: This is the kind of common slander/libel that is used against Jehovah Witnesses repeatedly time and again. If you want the truth about Jehovah Witnesses please go to http://www.watchtower.org and http://www.jw-media.org for their practices and beliefs.
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