Kingdom Hall

and You.

Most of us encounter Jehovah's Witnesses either by driving by a kingdom hall.

I drive by one every single day on my way to and from work.

And if I go a few miles south of my house, there's another one there.

Talk a little bit about what it was like

to be raised a Jehovah's Witness.

yeah as they often say opinions may vary or your mileage may vary i had a very loving congregation some people had less than that but we would go to meetings three times a week not just on sunday two hour two hours on sunday two hours on tuesday and usually an hour on a thursday and then saturday morning out knocking on doors that is a lot of commitment and learned my bible stories i and i still know all my bible stories because what i learned right you grew up and all of your friends all of your social network they're all there in the kingdom hall with you're not allowed to have close friends outside of it so this is your support system this is your network And everybody that I knew in my congregation were loving and kind people.

And I had friends growing up, and we would spend time together.

It names 23 victims.

There are her parents, three families from the Kingdom Hall, the neighbors on her street, Tanya's two brothers and their wives, and Tanya's own parents.

Rick's cousin, a case worker who came to the house, a family friend all the way across the country in Florida, and a couple whose story you already know, Dr.

Grace Gressman and her husband, John.

Thank God it's over.

The neighbors can relax.

The church, their kingdom halls can relax.

Their friends, their family, everybody who's been affected by this, the local businesses, businesses in other states, everybody can finally relax.

They truly believe all Jehovah's Witnesses are stupid.

Imagine for a moment being a Jehovah's Witness sitting in a kingdom hall when these guys roll out a new teaching or explain a prophecy.

How's your confidence level, people? Do you want to talk to the people from 1984 who said the generations would never pass away before they were petting their pet orangutans? How confident are they to learn that generations can then overlap? The way they insult people to their faces is just incredible.

But let's find out... how we are supposed to feel, and what we are supposed to believe, because they're here to tell us.

Worse than a worldly person or unbeliever.

Well, sorry, let me correct that.

Until recently, when Jehovah suddenly decided we could now at least say hi to them or even invite them to the kingdom hall.

And why wasn't God confident in us to do any of that before? We didn't know how to say hi? Why can we suddenly invite them to the Kingdom Hall? Because you're confident in me? This isn't coming together.

by my mom.

We'd go to the Kingdom Hall on Sundays, on Thursdays, on Tuesdays they had what you call book study, but when I would walk, we would walk from my house to the Kingdom Hall And on the way back, so we have a briefcase, picture this in a suit, I'm a 13-year-old kid.

I'm walking back with the watchtower, which is the religious material that we would have.

Everybody in the world had a Jehovah's Witness come to their door before, so this is not new.

So he would give me the whole bomb and then I would give them half and distribute it to them.

Or they would get 60-40, with them getting 40, I would get 50-50 because I was the one that was able to distribute it to the other cats my age.

And I had the cover of being able to get this package and walk home with them in my briefcase because then I didn't fit the profile or the description because I would have everything in that briefcase and I'd be able to make it to the house safely so the DTs, detectives, in the neighborhood wouldn't jump out on me and it was like a safe passage from the Kingdom Hall to going home.

And if they stopped you, you'd say, you know what, if you have a few minutes, officer, can we discuss the, I'd like to talk to you about some of these,

And then and then it's like it's sort of the organization is functioning that way.

And then within on a micro level, each family is like showing up to the Kingdom Hall pretending to be something they very much aren't to protect their image within the organization.

Yeah, all the other families showing up, it's the local elders as well supporting, carrying out what they're told to do.

Yeah.

And just, you know, start just doing a little street stuff, stuff like that, selling drugs, all type of thing.

You see what I'm saying? The greatest story that I had, when we was going to the Kingdom Hall, two actually, we was going to the Kingdom Hall, and my mom, when she saved my money, she always counted.

She always counted money before she put it up.

And one morning, I just went in there, searching through other things.

He is a Jehovah's Witness, and I was raised in this but was never baptized, thankfully.

When I ended up pregnant, I was told that I had to marry him if I wanted to be in good standing at the Kingdom Hall church.

I agreed and decided not to listen to my parents when they begged me to take my time and make that decision later.

Of course, this meant staying and living with my parents and as a brainwashed 18-year-old, I thought he was the best thing that's ever happened to me, and he couldn't do me wrong because he was a Jehovah's Witness, and they can't do no wrong.

My brother was in the other room, so I felt a little more at ease to speak with them.

As soon as they started taking the Bible out, I tell them I do not feel comfortable with that, and if they have anything to say, it'll be through a conversation and not through the Bible.

They agreed and started explaining to me the consequences my ex is facing in the Kingdom Hall for what he has done.

They also told me that my ex was taken down to the station Sunday morning, but that he confessed to them everything on Saturday.