The Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's Witnesses - Hardcover

Castro, Joy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559707879 ISBN 13: 9781559707879

Publisher: Arcade Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

-You must always, always tell the truth, no matter the consequences, for you must model yourself on Jehovah, and Jehovah does not lie. This is the most crucial rule of all,+ Joy Castro is told as a young girl in a Jehovah+s Witness family. Joy is 12 years old when her divorced mother marries a brother in the church. He is highly respected in the community, having displayed the ultimate sign of spiritual devotion: he served at Bethel, the Watchtower headquarters in Brooklyn. At home, however, he is a despicable brute. For the two years her mother is married to him, Joy does not grow at all; in fact, she loses 16 pounds, an eloquent testimony to the physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse she suffers at his hands. Her battered mother does nothing to protect her, nor does her church. She is sustained by a consuming fascination for horses and books and her protective love for her younger brother. Their daring escape from this unspeakable cruelty, to discover a nurturing home with their father, is the key to their survival and salvation.

About this title

About the Author

Joy Castro is a professor of English at Wabash College.

Reviews

Jehovah's Witnesses have something they call "the truth book," Castro says, which lays the groundwork proving theirs is the one, true religion. As a precocious preteen, and though wholly indoctrinated by her fundamentalist family, Castro began asking simple questions regarding the book's claims. Her mother's response, her father's ambivalence, the unapproachable church elders, and ultimately her stepfather's vicious enforcement of the book's truth constitute the framework for her startling memoir of not just an abhorrently dysfunctional family but also a misfiring religious organization. Castro portrays Jehovah's Witnesses as a religion that recognizes all people as equals yet disenfranchises a member for smoking, and as a passionately proselytizing organization that can turn a blind eye to grossly abusive parenting. Her story is, more than merely engaging, downright embracing. The unfolding fates of Castro and her brother as they endure abuse at the hands of those entrusted with their care, even though we know they emerged whole and sane, prove utterly gripping. Donna Chavez
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Edition details

• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1559707879
• ISBN 13: 9781559707879
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240