It is a candid look at the price of intellectual freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Losing my religion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Petr Oprsal knows one or two things about the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses\u2019 shunning practices. Born in Communist Czechoslovakia, Oprsal \u2013 whose mother was, and still is, a devout member \u2013 was raised and brought up among Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor as long as I can remember, I have the memory of these secret gatherings in peoples\u2019 flats. I never really liked all those congregations and activities, this fake, artificial singing, but always thought there wasn\u2019t anything else,\u201d he tells BIRN over the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oprsal, now in his 50s and working in Luxembourg for the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), started having doubts early on, he says, sceptically listening to their apocalyptic prophecies and proclamations about the impending end of the world. He also devoured history books, theology theses and went back to the original holy texts to make out right from wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few years after the Velvet Revolution, once the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses had moved from the shadows of illegality to a fully recognised church in the new Czech Republic, Oprsal confronted the group\u2019s elders with his doubts and findings, but did not feel heard. \u201cThey were completely blind,\u201d he says. \u201cI went through several committees, they tried to \u2018bring me back to reason\u2019, but I quickly understood that there was no way I could stay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Oprsal, who went on to study law in the eastern Czech city of Olomouc before moving to Luxembourg in the early 2000s, the departure from the Jehovah\u2019s Witness life was not as painful as it might have been for others. \u201cOf course I was a bit sad of being shunned by people, of some members later not even greeting me in the streets, but I already had friends outside of the community, which isn\u2019t the case for many Witnesses,\u201d he tells BIRN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is still in contact with his mother, but relations have evidently been strained by their diverging social and theological paths. \u201cI feel a bit sorry for her, as she also has to live with the stigma of me leaving the community,\u201d he confides. \u201cI would love to shake her up, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s really an option at her age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also told him she would never read the book Cestou Z Veze<\/a><\/em> (\u201cFlight from the Tower\u201d) that he wrote about his experience with the sect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/balkaninsight.com\/2025\/04\/07\/czech-state-comes-knocking-on-door-of-jehovahs-witnesses-with-deregistration-threat<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this archival feature, we turn to a personal and revealing interview with Petr Oprsal. While much of this blog focuses on his fiction and translations, Petr\u2019s life story – specifically his upbringing as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness in Communist Czechoslovakia and his subsequent departure from the faith – is central to understanding his worldview. The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[26,29,28,20,46],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holystichonza","category-interviews","tag-cestou-z-veze","tag-czechoslovakia","tag-jehovahs-witnesses","tag-petr-oprsal","tag-petrtheauthor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.petroprsal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Posted by Petr Oprsal<\/em><\/summary>
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