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As I walked into the youth room, I felt my stomach churn and my mouth go dry. I knew I shouldn't be in this church. … or any church. But I had to be there, even if it meant doing something my own religion (not to mention my mom) said was wrong.

I needed to point these misguided Christians to the real truth.

When my friend Brad and I entered the room, I saw about 30 kids. A couple of them were playing Ping-Pong, others were parked in front of a video game, but most were just talking and joking around. Brad pointed toward Bob, the youth pastor. I swallowed hard and headed straight for him. As I looked into his eyes, I blurted out, "How can you believe in the Trinity? Nowhere in the Bible does it say Jesus is God!"

I didn't mean to sound rude. I just felt that he should know how wrong he was.

As the goofy grin on his face softened into a caring smile, he asked, "Are you a Jehovah's Witness?"

I stammered, "H-h-ow did you know?"

"Well, you know, Jehovah's Witnesses have a problem with the Trinity . …"

I had more than a problem with the Trinity. As a committed Jehovah's Witness (JW), my mother had taught me that the Trinity was a big lie. When I was around 8 years old, I remember hearing her call the Trinity a "three-headed-monster god." It was quite a frightening image to a kid!

I was also scared when Mom read me a book about Armageddon—the great, final disaster that would destroy all evil and bring "Paradise" on Earth. I was spellbound by the book's pictures of terrified people being swallowed by earthquakes and swept away by floods. If I wasn't a good JW, that's what would happen to me.

The book was published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which develops doctrines and rules for the JW religion. The Watchtower also published the New World Translation of the Bible—the only translation JWs are allowed to read.

The Watchtower had many strict rules. And if we didn't follow them, we wouldn't have a chance at getting into Paradise. As far as religious writings went, we could only read Watchtower publications. We were supposed to regularly attend meetings at a Kingdom Hall (which is sort of like going to church, but it's not a church). And we were supposed to go door to door, telling others what we believed was the truth about Jehovah, the word all JWs use for God.

When I became a teenager, I was trying hard to be a good JW. After all, my good works would determine whether or not I would make it into Paradise.

I read the whole New World Translation (NWT). I went to almost every meeting at the Kingdom Hall. But I was too shy for the door-to-door stuff. Unfortunately, I knew I was a long way from Paradise.

I also began having doubts. What made my religion true? What about other religions, like Buddhism and Islam? I asked a lot of questions of an older JW, and she answered them all. But I still had so many questions.

I wondered about the Bible, too. Why should I believe it? What made it true? When my sophomore English teacher assigned a term paper on the topic of my choice, I immediately knew I wanted to research something that would answer these questions. Before the assignment was made, I'd heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls—ancient manuscripts that were supposed to help prove the Bible was a reliable historical document. I decided to do my paper on these ancient writings.

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