Pillar of Salt
I was born and raised into "The Truth," where kids are baptized around the age of 12, which is considered adult baptism. This act is of dedicating ones life to Jehovah... and at the age of 12, or for anyone getting baptized, are they aware of the fine print in this underaged, lifelong contract? Do they get to change their minds with dignity and respect? Do they keep their family? Or are they considered lost to Satan's old world, like garbage that Jehovah will clean from the earth via mass genocide while his "only true" people cheer their way to paradise, jaded to the slaughter... without their families, friends, or honour. I wanted to feel like someone approved of me, like I was a good person, and there was only one way to be that; get baptized. All the years I wanted out after fully waking up, I knew full well the price of walking away. My Mother. My Sister. My Brother. Loved ones that I felt were family. A love so strong it hurt... despite how the love returned was conditional. JW's do not like knocking on doors. They have to in order to be approved by the organization, be in good standing in the congregation, and to not be bloodguilty of the lives they are required to save, along with their own. Emotional terrorism and blackmail. Victims knocking on doors, because they must recruit. CSA crime cover-ups in my own family... to protect an image of Jehovah's People. The same person who told me to keep talking to my father shunned his own son for no longer believing. The agonizing emotional pain of this outcasting ultimately led to that kid's death. I will never return to those Watchtower ruins, for if I do, then just as Lot's wife, I would turn into a pillar of salt.