How can you possibly express such a position? Have you actually read “Growing Up in Mama’s Club”? Have you read “Rolling Down Black Stockings?” Have you not seen the damage done to the children of the polygamous LDS groups in Arizona and Texas? What about the children of the Branch Davidians, Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple, and other similar cults? How can you say that you don’t care? How can you judge the facts and simply deny that his negative experiences had anything to do with his parents’ religion?

Few of those children will ever experience a normal American childhood. Dick Kelly certainly did not, and he explains why in his book by describing his family’s lifestyle and using his personal experience as an example.

I beg to differ with you: It has everything to do with the teachings of the Watchtower and the way Jehovah’s Witness parents use those teachings to bring up their children. In America, each generation has always worked toward making life easier and more fulfilling for the next generation. But not the JWs – they bring their kids up to be slavish followers of a publishing company in Brooklyn.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, on the other hand, do not encourage involvement in school activities, participation in sports, or preparing for and enrolling in advanced education. Their children often grow up to be adults unable to earn a decent living, to participate in advanced technologies or professions. The only things they learned early in life were distorted and filtered by the inane and unsophisticated dogma as presented by the Watchtower Society.

It’s true that not all JW kids have unhappy experiences growing up. Kids are all different and have different tolerances for what they have to endure from their parents and their lifestyle. On the other hand, I think that two important trends within the Jehovah’s Witnesses current growth patterns must be noted: Almost all of the current growth within the JW population in North America and Europe is due to children of Witnesses, not from conversions. On the other hand, the total growth of the Witnesses worldwide, on an annualized basis, is well below the average birthrate for those countries. That means only one thing: A high percentage of JW children are leaving the religion as soon as they can.

There are good reasons for JW children not to want to stay in the religion. Far more would certainly leave except for the JW policy of “shunning.” Dick Kelly’s book certainly examines some of those reasons as they applied to his early life. Read his book and others like it – and then offer your opinion.

“forced to adhere to strict religious ideology”.

” the rare insights of a boy and his day-to-day life experiences”

If they are rare insights of a boy, why do we care? That is his life, his parents and their choices, not the religion.

This has nothing to do with the Watchtower or JWs.