Sherrie and Naomi were raised in devout Jehovah's Witness families and lived most of their lives under strict religious conditions — then they 'woke up'.
Naomi Mourra was 22 when she was first allowed to celebrate her own birthday.The Sydney women spent decades of their life living in a bubble where they were told what to think, say and do and the consequences for disobedience were life altering.According to the church, there are currently more than 70,000 Witnesses in Australia.
To get there, preaching must be life's focus and anything that is a distraction from that is condemned. This includes everything from higher education to playing a musical instrument. She read the final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse and realised her religion couldn't be true.
"Courts have upheld the right to religious freedom in this area [including] the European Court of Human Rights...," he said. Naomi, 43, had to extricate herself from the religion after realising that living in the closet as a gay woman forever would destroy her. But she had a new "go for it" attitude as she no longer believed she'd live forever so she took a leap and set up a women-only stand-up comedy night in Sydney.Naomi says her comedy isn't about laughing at religious people.
"The psychological damage does not go away overnight. The fear of hell can last a lifetime, despite rational analysis," Dr Winnell said.But because RTS is only just starting to be recognised, both Sherrie and Naomi struggled for a long time to find the right help.But eventually they both found a not-for-profit group called Recovering from Religion which helps those struggling with doubt or non-belief.
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