The reason behind this essay has been to study if previous research is relevant for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sweden and see if secularization has affected the organization or not. The empirical material is made from two qualitative group- interviews and open observations during two meetings in the Kingdom Hall. These studies were performed in Oskarshamn and Mönsterås during the month of February. The reason that these studies have been limited to Oskarshamn and Mönsterås is mainly because they were the only ones willing to do an interview.  According to previous research by James A. Beckfors and Andrew Holden, it has been shown that the Jehovah’s Witnesses hasn’t been affected by secularization, neither by new interpretations nor from the decrease of predicators. In my study, the interviewees have experienced secularization over the last 10-15 years while they are out preaching the religion. The organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sweden has been setting up rules for the members to follow, such as not live together before marriage or not get tattoos. This is rules set up to keep a distance between the members and the society and therefore the organization avoid the secularization.

This essay aims to identify and illustrate, in relation to Stig Hjarvards (2013) theory of mediatization, the factors for defection that Swedish news media portray as decisive for women leaving Jehovah´s witnesses. The material consist of six news articles collected from four different news media who all published stories about women which defected from Jehovah´s witnesses. The method of the essay is a transversal text analysis and the program Open Code 4.03 has been used to assess the results. The process of coding was abductive which means, inthis essay, that the categories used in Open Code was mainly created based on the presented previous research on religious defection but also by a thoroughly reading of the articles. This genereted in five overall themes: family, external factors, organizational, world view and mental health. The factors for defection that is brought up by the articles is categorized in these themes. The result was then analyzed based on Hjarvards (2013) theory of mediatization and his explanations to it by these three metaphors of media; media as conduits, media as languages and journalism on media. The analyzed results indicated, among other things, factors for defection regarding deprivation of freedom, prohibition within the movement and unequal conditions for men and women. The results also showed medias aim to enforce factors connected to love and sex to create entertainment value. According to my interpretation of Hjarvards (2013) theory the results shows news medias desire to be an institution that criticalexamines religious organizations that do not fit in with secular norms of Swedish society.

The purpose of this study was to explore how interpersonal relationship can be affected by groing up in a New Religoius Movement such as Jehovah’s Withnesses and how it has affected them both in their youth and today. The aim was also to explore if there were people in the respondents' environment that was significant to them during their childhood and which support our respondents have received if they were in need of it.We have not found any previous research on children's social relationships within the Jehovah's Witnesses. We therefore believe that this study is of high relevance to both society and also for all the professionals who come into contact with these children. To discover a child in need, knowledge about how their social environment looks like is crucial. We chose to conduct qualitative interviews with six former Jehovah's Witnesses. The main theories we have assumed is the theory of social interactionism and cognitive dissonance. The vast majority of our respondents have grown up in a strong relationship with their faithful family and assembly. They believe that they have had a large social network but still felt alone in their concerns and thoughts. Several of the interviewees have experienced dissonance when their beliefs collided with societal values and norms. Some of our interviewees have only had contact with other witnesses (aside from the inevitable contact through school) because they have been taught that "worldly people", or non-Witnesses, are evil and their enemies. Others have had several relationships with people outside the organization and have never experienced this as wrong or strange. The genuine cohesion they experienced during childhood has had a sharp end in connection with the respondents' exclusions, when virtually all the faithful witnesses chosen to turn their back on them. Following the exclusion, several interviewees sought professional help in the form of therapy and they all allege that their upbringing has had negative consequences for them in adulthood.