How do you keep things private from judgey family/friends?

How are you out?

Oops, sorry. Yes out of the cult.

After a while, I decided to unfriend the majority of PRs from my FB friend list. It had been years since I saw any of them or had been in contact with them. I don’t really share much of anything worth judging on social media, but I nevertheless feel better not having them amongst my FB friend list and seeing my stuff. There really wasn’t any point in being connected on social media anymore. Our lives have taken completely different paths and aren’t likely to intersect again. The world is much bigger than the PR bubble.

Of course, my family still is part of my social media connections. Perhaps they might judge the occasional thing, but I figure they can just deal with it.

We had stopped attending but had not officially asked for our papers yet. I had decided I had enough of the “Nosy Nelly’s” so I unfriended most PR members from my social media. I knew they would unfriend me after I left, so I beat them to it. Oh boy! They did NOT like that!! I got a great laugh because of it.
I married into the PR cult, so these people were simply acquaintances anyway. Not my friends.
I did have one person DM me, ask why I defriended her. I responded and explained that it was nothing personal against her, and to thank her so much for reaching out. I thought, wow!, maybe someone did care ….
Well sure enough two weeks later, my husband gets a call from an elder. He told my husband to tell me to stop writing letters to the congregation. Completely NOT what happened. I had never written a letter to anyone , let alone the congregation! I had simply responded nicely to a private direct message (which no one else could see).
That person had completely lied to the elder. It was so frustrating. But it just proved the point that we needed to leave this cult. They lie, coverup, and make up rumors to anyone who stands up to them.

And…there it is again. “Protecting the sheep” = control and manipulation. Don’t let the outside world get to us, they might “steal” our sheep. They feel all interaction is to be monitored and/or approved by them?!?!! Predators. Power hungry control artists.

Yes, it only took a couple days for word to get around that they had all been unfriended. I think that’s what made me chuckle- in a way they were shunned and boy did it make them mad!

My husband did have friends and family that completely cut him off. It was heart wrenching. But I think it was part of what made him see that he had made the right decision. If that makes sense. These people were his whole life for so long. He gave his whole life to the church and blindly gave his allegiance to these people. He never expected them to turn their back on him. PRs don’t believe that they shun, that’s just disgruntled sinful reprobate people talking. But once he left, he was shunned. It opened his eyes that shunning is real. That they are manipulative people who only are your friends IF you are a member of the PR church.
Two years later my husband is the happiest he has ever been. He has new friends that are genuine, Christian men. I am so incredibly happy that God placed these men in his life. It was something I didn’t even think to pray for. But God knew. So any advice I could give is: pray for new relationships, don’t be afraid to do something that you never thought you would do, put yourself out there, and when things are beyond your PR comfort zone -that’s ok! It means you are growing!