The JVM is actually what is keeping me from Clojure. A crazy reason, for sure, but Java has pretty much burnt all my fingers.
Languages like JRuby and Clojure, which are fantastic languages, have near zero to do with Java. In fact, you can do most everything you want to do and NEVER touch java code. You can, however, access the Java libraries if you so choose (hence the power of working within the JVM).
Not liking Java should never be thought of as not liking the JVM.
The next thing I moved to Python, there I found the library and the language fun to use.
Now I am starting to look back at JVM because of Scala and Clojure.