Meet Bo Juel
Bo Juel’s story begins long before he was even born; he is the result of his mother’s affair with a married man, one of many family secrets kept from him as a child. Growing up in the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bo was molested for years by an elder in his congregation, and suffered other unimaginable abuses at the hands of his stepfather.
Married at 18 and a father at 19, Bo decided to leave the cult at the age of 23 after hearing that his molester was being welcomed back into the church, even after having been caught abusing many other children. To this day, Bo is still shunned by his entire family for this decision, including his oldest daughter, whom he hasn’t seen since she was 9 years old. He has also never seen her two sons, his grandchildren.
Even outside the cult, Bo struggled for years with the religion’s influence over him, and in 2012, his ongoing fight culminated in a plan for suicide. Fortunately, a last-minute intervention saved his life, but it would still take many months before he could finally break free from the cult’s stranglehold around him.
Soon after, Bo began dedicating himself to anti-cult activism, so that other people could be warned of the dangers of abusive, high-control cults and religions. He has made numerous media appearances to discuss his experiences and insights into the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, including a live interview with NRK, the most trusted news outlet in Scandinavia, in December of 2012.
Bo is also the founder of the Watchtower Victims Memorial Day, and has contributed guest columns to the site JWvictims.org. In 2015, Bo proudly released the story of his life inside and outside the Watchtower cult, a memoir titled, “The Least of God’s Priorities.” In this book, he candidly and bravely discusses the horrific abuses that he suffered as a child, and the loss of his oldest child to the organization, as well as his struggles to finally triumph over his past.
“The Least of God’s Priorities”
“Bo, you should know that if we lived in the old Israel two thousand years ago, you should have been stoned to death and I would have been the one who threw the first stone.”
Those words ended the first phone call Bo Juel shared with his beloved grandfather in over fifteen years, and they were the last words he would ever hear from the man. Bo’s crime? Leaving the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses after suffering the worst cruelties any child could ever live through.
The Least of God’s Priorities tells of one man’s brutal but true journey through unimaginable abuses, including years of sexual molestation at the hands of a congregation elder, physical violence, betrayal, lies, family secrets, and the most horrific loss a young father can face.
With a foreword written by leading cult expert Steven Hassan, M.Ed., LMHC, NCC , author of Combating Cult Mind Control, The #1 Best-Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery From Destructive Cults.
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As of this writing, it’s been several years since Bo and I first began talking about putting his life story down on paper, and as I look back on that time, I cannot help but to think of all the tears, disagreements, sleepless nights, anger, and pain that went into getting this project completed. And that was just choosing the title!
In all seriousness, this book is an amazing story of how one person can suffer the worst abuses any child can face, and how the stranglehold of a cult can affect that person for decades after they leave. The story includes many details that have been left out of Bo’s journey to this point, including some dark secrets that have never been revealed before.
This book is what we need for activism; it really tells how bad things can get in households of Jehovah’s Witnesses when it comes to pedophilia and child molestation, physical abuse, and shunning.
Remember, Jehovah’s Witnesses are the ones knocking on people’s doors and handing out their literature on street corners, telling people that they love their families and build strong families based on love and blah blah blah… all while allowing pedophiles virtually unfettered access to children in the Kingdom Halls and while beating their children nearly to death behind closed doors, and then shunning those victims if they should dare leave the religion as an adult.
Even if you’re not interested in activism or life within the framework of a cult, this story will appeal to you. It’s about a child who suffered the worse cruelties you can picture and who was then punished for those abuses as an adult, and someone who struggled to find his footing after his life fell apart around him. While those abuses may have happened because of the religion in which he was raised, Bo’s story will resonate with anyone and everyone.
The book is now on sale at amazon for both paperback and kindle versions. It’s a must-read for anyone, cult victim or not, so be sure to check out this brutal but true story today.
~ Alexandra James
Editor, “The Least of God’s Priorities”
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