Free Escaping The Smoke And Rain: Moving Through And Beyond The Jehovah's Witness Community Ebooks Online
Breaking free from the Jehovah’s Witness community would be the test that would become my testimony. There I was climbing the ice-clad rungs of a rickety old ladder, anchored in a bed of snow, hanging Christmas lights for the very first time. I was convinced no other symbol would illumine my debut as brightly or as swiftly as this. It felt exhilarating yet terrifying all at once—like standing on the edge of a precipice fearing that stepping off would either plunge me into death, or somehow, someway, teach me to fly. So begins the author’s personal journey from enslavement to freedom— one that tragically captures the loss and rediscovery of identity. Shauna May provides a revelatory look into the life of a religiously divided family—her mother a fiercely zealous Jehovah’s Witness, and her father a geophysicist and selfprofessed atheist. As the family journeys through bizarre reversals of fortune, we are taken to the rugged west coast of Ireland and back to Canada, gazing all the while into the raw existence of a childhood spiraling from riches to rags. Her father’s death propels May into a luminous quest for truth and freedom, a quest with a price attached: to break out of the Order, she must break the ties that bind. May enlightens the process of learning, unlearning, and relearning certain basic truths while engaging in the struggle involved in walking from and into life anew. Positively written, Escaping the Smoke and Rain is an unforgettable testimony of the transformative power of spirituality. A portion of proceeds from this book will be donated to Free the Children.
File Size: 1752 KB
Print Length: 175 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1486602770
Publisher: Word Alive Press (March 18, 2015)
Publication Date: March 18, 2015
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00UY0Q0UK
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #1,395,601 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #58 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Christian Books & Bibles > Christian Denominations & Sects > Jehovah's Witness #138 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Christian Denominations & Sects > Jehovah's Witness #467073 in Books > Religion & Spirituality
Shauna May has a way with words, presenting honestly her inner thoughts and ideas, describing her own life and those of her parents frankly and succinctly, taking us on a journey fraught with mental, emotional and spiritual conflict. A biography of 150 pages is a rarity. Most autobiographers are full of themselves to the extent of hundreds of pages. But in these pages May covers all we need to know without unnecessary elaboration, aimless wandering or descents into self-pity. Her introspections are grounded in rationality. Her sense of humour is palpable. Her conclusions are credible. And, thankfully, she does not get preachy. In conclusion we get the impression that seeing the rainbow provides her with enough joyful redemption without having to pursue a promissory pot of gold at its end.This book once more confirmed my suspicion that religions are human constructs. Even those who espouse a particular theology or passel of doctrines entertain individualized interpretations, many of which remain self-sequestered to avoid division in the ranks of the believers. Autocratic organizations like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Baha’i Faith, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and countless others, depend for their survival on their adherents’ obedience and subservience to its own “truth.” Shauna May has had the courage to dispel the spectres of counterfeit “truths.” She has broken free from autocratic conformity. As I see it I think she discovered that, in order to be meaningful, religious/spiritual/contemplative “truth” must be founded on altruistic love and forgiveness blessed by an unconditional gift of divine grace [or, as some would have it, humanistic good will]. A short but excellent book for spiritually receptive truth-seekers.
A very enjoyable and compelling read!,
Escaping the Smoke and Rain: Moving Through and Beyond the Jehovah's Witness Community The Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses: A quick and Easy guide to debate: How to respond to Jehovah's Witnesses 30 Years a Watchtower Slave: The Confessions of a Converted Jehovah's Witness I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing The 10 Most Important Things You Can Say to a Jehovah's Witness Watchtower Of Indoctrination: The Truth About Growing Up A Jehovah's Witness I am Jezebel: A Former Jehovah's Witness Breaks Her Silence I Was Raised a Jehovah's Witness Falling in Truth: The Education of a Jehovah's Witness The Watchtower Files: Dialogue With a Jehovah's Witness I Witness: Hard Gold: The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859: A Tale of the Old West (I Witness Novels) Weber's Smoke: A Guide to Smoke Cooking for Everyone and Any Grill Smoke & Spice, Updated and Expanded 3rd Edition: Cooking With Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue The Community Table: Recipes & Stories from the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan & Beyond Rain, Rain, Go Away If I Ran the Rain Forest: All About Tropical Rain Forests (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library) Prince: A Secret Biography - A Rare Biography Of A Musical Legend - Purple Rain Music Icon (Prince Secret Biography - Purple Rain) The Trinity vs. the Watchtower: Biblical Trinitarianism vs. the Teachings and Practice of Jehovah's Witnesses through the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church
