Tina,
Good thoughts indeed! I have often wondered about the loyalty to whom issue. I believe in the Bible. I believe in God and Jesus. Consequently, I feel as the Christians we call ourselves, we should be loyal to our creator. But people in the JWs seem to forget that God is also the creator of the family arrangement. He created marriage. He also set forth very specific laws regarding these issues. So, my question being, where do JWs get off with the "limited or no association" with inactive or non believing family members? Where in the bible does it say to shun family members who do not belong to you're organization? How on earth could this be a "good witness" to non believers??
You know, the sad thing is, with my "worldly family", they think all this "aloofness" by the JW family members is really offensive, and quite frankly, they are not open to JW beliefs mainly for this reason! They feel the Witnesses are mysterious and snooty. Although, the non JW family is kind to Witnesses, they probably would NEVER consider joining because of the way the JW family has behaved.
So, where should our loyalty lie? Well, I say with God first of all. In all reality, God set a few rules for us humans to follow, such as laws on adultery, fornication, drunkeness,etc. But, as a society, we can't even do that much! People have no morals today, nor do they seem to care. It seems there is nothing sacred anymore. Not much left to the imagination. Therefore, I believe the breaking of these few laws that God set forth angers him very much. Just like the account of Adam and Eve, all God asked of them was not to eat the fruit! Do you think they could do that? NO! They had paradise, everything in the world before them and they ruined it not only for themselves but for the rest of us. My point being that I belive that God wants us to follow His laws and principles in order to have his blessing. He did not ask anything else of Adam and Eve. He loves mankind enough to provide us with this world and all the beauty in it. He did not ask for much in return. I feel that a paradise on earth will be our reward for faithfullness to God and His laws. Not obeying a man made organization.
I think in the end , we are all going to be judged individually based upon our faith and our heart condition. Not judged according to which religious organization we belonged to. Thinking that God is that shallow is an insult to Him. Sorry for this post being so long, I got carried away! Looking forward to you're thoughts.
Thanks.