Cheryl Schatz

For 16 years I led a support group for former Jehovah’s Witnesses who were coming out of the mind control of the Watchtower and needed to learn how to think for themselves. I also taught them to test everything including me. I remember one young lady in particular who came to the group but had come out of another cult group experience where she had been raised in the cult and after coming out she struggled to know who she was outside the group. Her personality had been so shaped by the cult personality that she admitted that she had fear in trusting people – even me. I told her that this was a good thing. The group taught her to trust the group leaders and this kept her in error not trusting herself to question the leadership. One of the most important things that a former cultist can do is to learn how to distrust leaders. Everyone without exception must be able to be tested by the only straight edge ruler that we have – God’s word. A person who has an air of respect and who appears educated and has lots of authority can be one of the most dangerous persons if you check your brain at the door, accept everything they say without question and fail to test them against God’s word. Truth should welcome the test. Only those who have something to hide will run from the test or become angry that they are not trusted without being tested.