My name is Alice Shiflett and I live in West Virginia. I would like to tell you something of my life so please bear with me. I have severe arthritis throughout my body so it is difficult to type at times. So if I make mistakes please understand.

I was born December 6 1944. One of 24 children. My parents both drank and all of us was abused in one way or the other. I first remember being sexually abused at an early age . Must have been around 4. The physical abuse was bad, too. I remember one time when my father got drunk and got mean as he usually did but this time things went from bad to worse and he got a gun. I grabbed my baby sister and hid in a bedroom. The door was locked but dad used the gun to break it in and when he put the gun to my head and said he was going to blow my d-- brains out. I really thought I was going to die. We never  knew what to expect from one day to the next.

The sexual abuse stopped when I was about 12 but the physical abuse continued till I left home. I graduated from high school when I was 18. That was on a Friday and I lived 24 miles from town but Monday morning before anyone got up I threw  some things in a bag and left. I had  a sister in town and she said I could stay with her. I already had a job waiting for me at a drug store in town. At this time I met a man 15 years older then I was and fell in love and we got married a year later. One year later we moved to a small town where my husband worked for the railroad that is where I first met JWs. We started  to study with them and was baptized a year later. By 1968 I had 2 children and was doing my best to be a good witness. I vacationed pioneered with my 2 children during the summer and we attended all the meetings.

In 1969 is when we started having doubts. One of my husband's coworkers house burned down and one of the kids got badly injured. We took the family in and of course we missed one of their meetings that night and the next morning we got a phone call wanting to know why we wasn't at the meeting. We told them and their answer was that our first obligation is to Jehovah and his  people. We told them that God said to love thy neighbor but that wasn't what they wanted to hear. We continued to go but with less zeal. We moved in 1970. The congregation was bigger and we felt lost and I had to work nights to help supplement the family income. I was told that I didn't put enough faith in Jehovah. He would give us what we needed. We continued struggling for the next 10 years trying to do what was expected of us.

When our son was 16 he started driving and we let him have more freedom. Although he spent most  of his time with other children of  JWs he was always asking why they did some of the things they did when we didn't allow them  to do it. I got a phone call one evening from my sister saying my son was with her and he had tried to kill himself by running the car into a bank at high speed. He went to stay with my husband's sister because he refused to come home. I went to the elders with the problem. I had already talked to a doctor and he said not to push him that he would probably  try to do it again. I told this to one of the elders and asked them to be  more gentle and they said it won't make any difference he is lost anyway. I told him to do what he had to do and I would do the same. I went home and cleaned house. I threw out any and everything that had any connection to JWs. I then called my son and told him to come home. I promised him I would handle the situation. We quit going and after about 4 weeks we got a call from 2 elders. The minute my son saw them at the door he was going to leave and I told him no, this was his home, and I would handle it. I was already doing research on JWs and the WTS. I spent hours  with my nose in books learning. I even carried  them to work with me at night. So by the time they came I was ready for them.

My husband wasn't home at the time. They came to accuse me of having an affair with one of the doctors where I worked. I asked to speak to my accusers and they said no. I told them it wasn't true and they should know me better then that. When my husband came  home I told him and he called one of the elders and told him that the doctor was a friend of ours. That didn't go over well at all.  I got another visit a couple of weeks later to say if I didn't meet with the elders I would be disfellowshipped. I told them fine  I had already made up my mind not to go again anyway. I told them they preach that you can tell the true congregation by the love that was among them. I said I sure didn't see it and if they could prove to me that is was there to let me know and I would change. I told them to leave and to please leave my family alone.

Two weeks later my husband got a registered letter asking him to come before the elders. They needed to talk to him about getting his wife under control. This was the last  straw. We all finally understood what we had gotten  ourselves into. By then I had information about the New World Translation of the bible and who helped write it. It seemed like my eyes were finally opened and I began to see for the first time in years. Our family started getting things together. I went into foster care in 1985 and by that time I already had  3 children. The son I was talking about earlier was to start college in 1986. With being a JW and their views on higher education we didn't have any money set aside for college. I worked at night in the nursing department at the hospital and cleaned houses during the day, My son graduated from high school on the national honor roll with a 4.0 average. He is now a psychiatrist and is married and has children. 

I almost lost my family because of the JWs but in the end God gave me the strength to stand up to them. That was in 1980 and since then we have adopted 2 more children. One young man has severe disabilities but we know God sent him to us. We adopted him in 1998. He was in his early 20s and it was the first adoption of this kind in the state. We adopted another child last year in July. So God does reward us if we only put our faith in him.  I have been seeing news coverage of the sexual abuse in the WTS and how they have been keeping it a secret for years and not doing anything to help the victims. I've done a lot of research  and WTS' policy needs to be changed.   I've spent the last 18 years of my life taking care of abused and neglected children in my home. My husband never knew who would be there when he got home in the evening. I tried to bring this to light here in our community and now I am being threatened with a civil suit for libel.  My family has grown in number and love for each other. By the way my husband and I will celebrate our 40th  wedding anniversary next year. We now have 5 children and 5 grandchildren. God has really blessed us and we thank him everyday that he opened our eyes so we could see.

Thanks for listening.

 

Alice Shiflett