A former Jehovah’s Witness has lifted the lid on the brutal isolation he faced as a child after being cut off from the world.
Owen Morgan, originally from Connecticut, aappeared on a recent episode of Cults To Consciousness podcast.
He described his experience as “oppressive” and “destructive” as part of a religion that was “destroying people’s lives.”
Owen went even further in his explanation, claiming that children within the religion were regularly shunned by their own families and thrown out of their homes if they ‘no longer believed’.
Owen Morgan, originally from Connecticut, appeared on a recent episode of the Cults To Consciousness podcast
Owen, who was born into the religion, told host Shelise Ann Sola: ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses make many attempts to separate their members from everyone else because of one Bible verse that says you should live in the world but not be part of it.
“So of course they take that opportunity to interpret that in the most extreme way imaginable and try to separate their members in any way they can.”
He described his experience as ‘oppressive’ and ‘destructive’
He continued: “When you’re little you don’t fully realize how negatively this affects you.
‘You don’t really realize it until you get out and you see the world as it is, you see what other people are doing and you realize you’re missing out on a lot – not just missing out on the fun, but missing out on some part of the culture that you live in .’
Owen revealed that he wasn’t allowed to celebrate holidays in the same way as everyone else, adding: ‘I wasn’t allowed to celebrate my first Christmas until I was 18 years old, when I eventually left the religion.
‘I’m no longer a member. I have no love for religion. I find it absolutely terrible in every way. It has caused irreparable damage to countless people, including myself.”
The content creator, who now has more than 386,000 subscribers to his own YouTube channel, explained how he moved from Connecticut to West Virginia at the age of eight.
He said that’s where he started homeschooling: ‘I was completely socially isolated at that time.
Owen, who was born into the religion, told host Shelise Ann Sola: “Jehovah’s Witnesses try very hard to separate their members from everyone else because of a Bible verse that says you should live in the world but not be part of it.”
‘I was completely divorced I was cut off from the rest of society for four years and was not allowed to interact with other people because of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
‘I cycled to the neighbour’s house for a while and hung out with them, until my parents discovered I was doing that and then took my bike away. I wasn’t allowed to do that.
“I was only allowed to hang out with Jehovah’s Witnesses and there were none my age or who wanted to hang out.”
Owen elaborated on his upbringing, saying, “YouUnfortunately for children, that is the case basically specific guidelines for Jehovah’s Witnesses on how to treat children when they leave the religion.”
He said the methods were applied to children as young as eight years old, who were the first members commonly baptized into the religion, until they were eighteen.
“The counseling is absolutely psychotic, not surprisingly…,” he said.
‘Most children of Jehovah’s Witnesses are probably baptized between the ages of ten and fourteen. actually a contract that you sign with it organization – a serious lifelong contract and the penalties for breaking it are terrible.’
Owen adds that if a baptized child decides “it’s not true, it’s nonsense, he doesn’t want anything to do with it, or if he wants to have birthday parties at school and refuses not to” – there are a number of different everyday are things that let him be excluded – his parents are expected not to eat with him first.’
“There’s a list of things you shouldn’t do. You are not supposed to sit at the kitchen table with the child, he should eat the food in his room,” he said.
‘They’re not allowed to talk with them on all “spiritual matters,” meaning that anything related to Jehovah’s Witnesses is absolutely off limits, except for the father.
“The father, as a spiritual head, can try to keep shoving this stuff down the child’s throat.”
He said that if a teenage child began to question the teachings, the parents’expected to do everything they can culturally – not officially – but cultural to get the child out of the house.
“If there’s a family member, they can go to someone who’s not a Jehovah’s Witness or whatever, they can get them out of the house at any cost….”
‘TThis is also the case with children of Jehovah’s Witnesses when they stop to believe. It’s over, it’s absolutely ugly and disgusting, it’s bad practice.”
Owen said he did not leave the religion of his own free will, but was instead kicked out.
“I was doing things you shouldn’t do: going to other people’s houses who were worldly, and I was just drinking and experimenting with things.
“I was smoking a cigarette because I was just learning how this stuff works, and they called me before a judicial committee because one of the other people in the congregation knew what I was up to.”
He said he ‘admitted everything’, but ‘They said, “Okay, that’s it, you’re out’ and they kicked me out even though I was remorseful.”
Owen was also subsequently evicted from his family home and ended up staying with a friend while working a part-time job at Burger King.
He said, “I believed I was wrong. I believed my parents were right to shun me at the time.”
But he eventually found his feet and moved to New York with a child of his own, adding that he “finally realized how nonsensical this stuff was.”
Owen concluded: ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses have taught me all my life me how wrong every other religion was and when I realized how wrong that was religion was that it was but a small step to renounce it.”