Growing Up As A Jehovah’s Witness

When you’re a kid, there’s nothing better than waking up early on Saturday and watching your favorite cartoons (Mine were Pokémon & Yu-Gi-Oh!). Instead of doing that, though, I would wake up at 5:30 AM, put on a suit, and get ready to spend the day knocking on doors. It’s safe to say my childhood was different than most, and today, I’m going to share my experience growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness.

Throughout my youth, my parents took me to a place called the Kingdom Hall. The Kingdom Hall is Jehovah’s Witnesses term for church, and it was where we gathered for worship. We usually went there up to three times a week, depending on our availability. Weekly studies were also held at congregation member’s houses.

Religious Schedule

On Tuesday – One hour meeting at night                              

On Thursday – Two hour meeting at night

On  Saturday – Street work and Door to Door in the morning 

On Sunday – Two hour meeting in the morning

We attended the Kingdom Hall twice a week for our meetings, which consisted of Bible readings and sermons. My enjoyment of these meetings always depended on the quality of the speakers. If they were charismatic, I had no problem listening to them, but sitting through their talks could be torture if they were boring. To overcome that issue, I occasionally brought my CD player and secretly listened to music to help pass the time.

I began giving my own talks at the Kingdom Hall when I got older. I usually read a passage from the Bible or gave a short presentation on religious material. I was initially scared to speak publicly, but I overcame my fears after doing it a few times. After I finished my talk, the congregation always gave me a round of applause, which felt great and helped boost my confidence.

We also met once a week at a congregation member’s house to study a Jehovah’s Witness publication. Everyone took turns reading the material, and we discussed the questions listed at the end of each chapter. I enjoyed these smaller meetings and found the books we studied to be informative and well-written.

The day I dreaded most, though, was Saturday because that was when we did “Street Work” and “Door to Door.” I’ll give you a breakdown of both.

Street Work

On Saturday morning, we started with street work and woke up early to traverse the streets and pass out pamphlets. We visited bus stops and laundromats and spoke with people about their religious beliefs while they were waiting. If our conversation went well, we invited them to our kingdom hall to learn more.

Door to Door

After street work, we usually stopped to get donuts and went to someone’s house for a brief study. Then we drove to a nearby neighborhood and started walking up and down the street, knocking on doors. If someone opened their door and was willing to speak to us, we pulled out our magazines and gave a brief presentation. If they were interested and wanted to learn more, we scheduled a follow-up visit or invited them to the Kingdom Hall to experience a meeting firsthand.

Most of the time, though, people acted like they weren’t home or angrily slammed the door in our faces. It wasn’t a fun way to spend the day, and I was always afraid I’d knock on the door of someone I knew at school. I don’t think I ever did, but I was constantly paranoid that I’d go to a house and one of my classmates would open the door and see me in a suit holding a magazine.

The most challenging part of growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness was living under the various restrictions of the religion.

One of the first things I remember not being able to do was salute the flag at school. While everyone stood up and saluted the flag in class, my family instructed me to stay seated. When kids would ask why I didn’t salute the flag, I’d respond, “I’m a Jehovah’s Witness,” and shrug my shoulders. I felt super awkward and out of place.

Jehovah’s Witnesses also don’t celebrate any holidays, so I never got to experience Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even birthdays. That means I didn’t celebrate them at home or participate in any holiday activities at school.

The one holiday I wished I could celebrate growing up was Halloween.
In elementary school, my friends would come to school wearing the spookiest costumes they could find. When everyone came to school on Halloween dressed up, I was one of the few kids wearing regular clothes. When everyone went trick-or-treating at night, my family would be at home with the lights turned off, pretending we weren’t there. If people still knocked on our door, we ignored them until they got the hint and walked away.

My family never celebrated Thanksgiving, but we did have the famous Thanksgiving Dinner a couple of weeks before or after the holiday date. So, while I never got to officially celebrate the holiday, I at least got to experience the turkey meal.

When it came to birthdays, I never got to celebrate mine or my friends. I always saw other people get their own cakes, parties, and gifts, but I never experienced it myself. When I became an adult, my family members who weren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses started to buy me gifts on my Birthday & Christmas, but it wasn’t the same experience.

Other restrictions on my lifestyle included being unable to celebrate holidays. For example, I wasn’t allowed to hang out with people outside the Jehovah’s Witness religion, which meant I couldn’t hang out with any of my friends outside of school. My Mom preferred that I make friends with other kids who attended my local Kingdom Hall. I didn’t have anything against those people, but like any normal kid, I wanted to hang out with my friends from school.

When it came to enforcing the rules, my Dad was way more lenient than my Mom. My Dad would let me play mature-rated Video Games, while My Mom would only allow E-rated games in the house. With my Mom, everything had to be PG or Family-Friendly. She took everything taught at the Kingdom Hall very seriously and was what I would call an “extremist.”

One of the things I frequently fought with my Mom over was music. Anything that didn’t sound like a church choir was banned from my house. I always had to hide my music, and if it was discovered, it would be promptly thrown away. When my Dad took me to the bookstore, where they also sold music, I’d sneak off and rebuy my CDs. When I look back, I can understand why my parents wouldn’t want me listening to explicit music, but at the time, it was a huge inconvenience.

As I got older, my Dad stopped attending meetings, and he and my Mom got divorced. When I became a teenager, I moved in with my Dad and started living a freer lifestyle. Once I got to high school, I began to rebel, go to parties, use drugs and drink, and basically do whatever I wanted. I also stopped going to religious meetings. Over the years, I ended up getting into a lot of trouble, but I was tired of living an overly suppressed lifestyle and just wanted to fit in with my peers.

After I inevitably wrecked my life, I changed my ways, but I never returned to religion. My childhood experience left me so bitter that I have no desire to return. Over time, though, I’ve become grateful for some of the lessons and skills I picked up at the Kingdom Hall. It wasn’t all bad, and I met a lot of great people who genuinely cared about me.

To this day, my Mom still tries to convert me to a Jehovah’s Witness. She frequently invites me to meetings and sends congregation members to my house to speak to me. I’m always nice to the people, but politely decline their invitations to the Kingdom Hall. After everything I’ve witnessed, I just want to focus on my own relationship with God and cut out the middleman.