Had a question as a never-was JW.

by Bgurltryal 11 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  CPiolo

  Bgurl:

  As a non-JW married to a JW, your question intrigues me. I too often wonder how my wife views me, her and my entire family (apart from her inactive JW mother), and all the friends and acquaintances we have in common. She doesn't limit friendships to JWs only (in fact, I would say her closest and best friends are not JWs), but she is of the opinion that JWs are superior to others for nothing more than their religious association.

  We have also agreed not to indoctrinate our son into any belief system and to allow him to make his own choices in this regard. But, she does try to get me to go to meetings with her now and then, and she has begun to want to pray at mealtime. She already told me that JWs don't pray with those not of their faith, so how she plans on doing this I'm not sure. I have been told JWs can lead prayers for non-believers, but I would expect equal time and I don't know how she would reconcile that.

  My wife has also expressed the hope of meeting dead relatives in Paradise. Again, I find it difficult to reconcile with the JW belief that only they merit an opportunity for resurrection. Of course, she could be like many from whatever religion and pick and choose those things she wishes to believe and those she wishes to discard --a cafeteria Christian-- not believing or ignoring the difficult or unpleasant, and choosing the easy and pretty parts.

  CPiolo

  The worst vice of the fanatic is his sincerity. -- Oscar Wilde
• 

  Richie

  About the question of how JW's view people in the world....Let me see.., I will try to answer that from a viewpoint of having been a witness for 24 years and being an elder at that.
  Well, JW's love their fellow brothers and sisters to the point where they would die for such ones. Now, let me be straight by saying that this kind of love may be sincere or may not be sincere. Let me put it in another way; when you have been taught to love your neighbor (meaning your brothers) unconditionally for many years, you don't know how not to love them, whereas any outsiders (people of the "world") are just tolerated in the sense that they are human beings created by God and perhaps by any possibility a future brother.
  For that eventuality the brothers are conditioned to love outsiders, albeit in a limited sense.
  Whenever an unbeliever has died where the spouse was a believer, the witnesses will console and comfort the surviving (believing) spouse but at the same time not have any fellow feeling for the departed one. It's strange in a way..., I myself (when I was a witness) never felt any closeness or affinity to worldly people because I have been conditioned to feel that way; only to faithful witnesses (and I stress the word "faithful") are we allowed to show this agape and filia love.
  Now that I departed from this make believe world of "brotherly love", I possess a better capacity to genuinely love other people in general rather than categorize them on the basis of a religious affiliation.
  Incidentally, when my first wife died of cancer, there were many witnesses who felt sorry for me and my surviving children, but this sadness on their part was always forcefully accompanied by the assurance that "she will be resurrected again" so what's the point of mourning too long. By extension, the longer you mourned the weaker you were in the faith...yes that's how they subconsciously analyzed situations like that. The most memorable and heartfelt condolences I received were from my "worldy" friends outside the congregation; those who were associated with me through my employ and my literal neighbors from my neighborhood as well as the ones who were related to my wife but were not Witnesses. Those who were not in the truth were in that way closer to me in their sincerity and I felt a reciprocal attachment to them which I never felt with the witnesses.., no not then and not now or ever!

  :*) Richie

  You are the music as long as the music last...............