1086: Lloyd Evans - How I Became an Ex-Jehovah's Witness Activist Pt. 1
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2019
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Concluding our interview with Lloyd Evans, we focus on his journey from devout Witness youth to outspoken ex-Witness activist and atheist. Lloyd shares the circumstances leading to his "awakening" with startling honesty and reveals how the heartbreaking loss of his mother played a profound role in keeping long-held doubts suppressed.
Lloyd is the founder and senior editor of JWsurvey.org—a website that promotes freeness of thought among Jehovah’s Witnesses. He is also author of “The Reluctant Apostate,” a book that chronicles his experiences growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness and his journey to freedom from Watchtower indoctrination. His wildly popular Youtube channel “John Cedars” hosts a range of videos aimed at dissecting the various teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as new developments in the religion.
Transcript
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| 0:48.8 | Hello and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host John DeLin. It is |
| 0:53.6 | March 14, 2019 and we are back interviewing Lloyd Evans, the reluctant apostate. Lloyd is an ex-Jahobas |
| 1:03.9 | witness author, activist and filmmaker. We spent several hours with Lloyd last week. He gave us the |
| 1:11.2 | history of the Jehovah's Witness movement and then we spent a significant amount of time talking |
| 1:16.9 | about what it's like to be a Jehovah's Witness. They're doctrine, they're theology, they're practices, |
| 1:22.2 | their beliefs, etc. To conclude my series with Lloyd, I wanted to spend some time just hearing |
| 1:30.0 | his story. Lloyd has published a book. I think two books may be. One's called The Reluctant |
| 1:34.9 | Apostate. He followed up with a book called How to Escape from Jehovah's Witnesses. Lloyd has a |
| 1:42.4 | YouTube channel. He is a popular blogger and he's just a smart guy and I have to credit my friend |
| 1:51.2 | Jason Moore from Houston, my twin from a different mother who father and mother who turned me |
| 1:59.6 | onto Lloyd. So without any further ado, Lloyd, welcome back to Mormon Stories podcast. |
| 2:06.0 | So pleasure to be back. Thank you. Obviously I didn't make too much of an edition of myself the |
| 2:11.1 | first time so let's be grateful for that. No, it was fascinating and brilliant so not at all. |
| 2:19.5 | All right, so let's just jump in. Tell us your story where your parents born into Jehovah's Witness, |
| 2:27.8 | where they convert. Let's start there. Neither were born in. Although, certainly on my dad's side, |
| 2:38.2 | his mother embraced the religion when he was very young. In fact, it was on my dad's side that |
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