Giving up on eternal life made me realise I had one chance to achieve something meaningful. For me, that was a submission of a different kind
Source: Theguardian.com,
USA – Are you the people who don’t have blood transfusions?” was the first thing most people asked if any of us mentioned our religion. We weren’t supposed to say “yes”, because we weren’t meant to allow our faith to be defined by what we didn’t do. We were supposed to emphasise the positives, such as the promise of eternal life on Earth.
But the inconvenient fact was that we weren’t allowed blood transfusions. Furthermore, we were known for not celebrating Christmas, Easter or birthdays, for not being allowed into school assemblies, and for knocking on people’s doors to evangelise to them at weekends.
These characteristics were easily spotted by outside observers. From inside, we knew that was only the beginning of the rules. Dressing modestly was important. I learned that masturbation was wrong many years before I found out what it actually was. Men were the heads of our households, and women weren’t allowed to pray out loud, address the congregation, or even handle the microphones we used at our meetings.
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