Please listen to the following “Critical Thinking” program and hear Lady C interview Joy Grant – one of my closest friends. I must say I found the interview an excellent way to spend an hour.
Titled “The Struggles of Jehovah’s Witness Women,” the time spent listening to the YouTube version seemed to fly by because the interview was so engrossing.
Joy has an engaging personality that makes her extremely easy to listen to. Not only does her sincerity shine through in this interview, but she expresses herself with confidence because of her wealth of experience and knowledge. This is clear and apparent when she discusses her years of living and working at Bethel and later as a nurse-midwife having to deal with the Watchtower ban on blood for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
My thanks to Lady C and Joy for the time and effort it took to put together an especially absorbing interview. I liked the warmth and enthusiastic style Lady C exhibited as she questioned Joy. I look forward to more interviews with former JW women, like Joy, who now don’t have to hide their intelligence, creativity and excellent ability to engage in leadership roles.
Great interview, it’s only a matter of time…
Thank you needed to hear this. I am 3rd generation and became a nurse as well. Same experience family still in live in a complete state of denial and unreality. Really important to expose their dangerous blood policy and cruel shunning practices. The patriarchal misogynistic policies that stem from governing body are perfect environment for abusive treatment of women. Will take away the gift of the word ‘grace’.
I was shunned by the other young brothers and sisters who told me it was “because I was not a virgin and I was not raised in the religion.” I was told to “leave all my worldly friends and family and that Jehovah would replace them with loving people in the congregation.” That was a complete lie. The only ones that included me on very few occasions, were people involved in pyramid schemes. I would hear about gatherings after the fact. As a young worldly woman coming into the Truth, I decided to go to beauty school. Because of that, nobody talked to me and I was treated like a disfellowshipped person even though I had not even been baptized yet. I was told to “become a Pioneer and clean houses for a brother who ran a service and paid minimum wage in a very affluent area of Northern California. I walked away and found friends and a life with true Christian people that didn’t want to leave me in my hour of need or with low self esteem and dog me.
Sadly, Jehovah’s Witnesses really do not know how to be your friend. Especially when on a dime they can turn against their own husband, wife, children, mother, father, and siblings. It shows that they have not developed conflict resolution.
Loved it! It’s sad but true that after I was disfellowshipped back in 2013, I suffered a great deal of suicidal ideation. My mental illness is more than psychosis, now I’m exploring the possibility of PTSD symptoms. I take only a single psych med compared to the cocktail of meds when I was a practicing Jehovah’s Witness. Interesting how much things have changed since. All of the reading materials had given me many scary flashbacks. I couldn’t study the bible without feeling as though the weight of the world is judging me? I practiced faith with works to see God’s favor; and even that wasn’t enough. No wonder I was burnt out!