Help! Suggestions on what to say to a Niece who is Studying...

BabaYaga

Hello all...

I have been trying to prepare myself for an upcoming visit with a beloved neice who is studying. The situation is this: My beloved nephew, her husband (he is like a son to me) was baptized and "faded" many years ago. Unfortunately, he has always vassilated on the subject of whether the JW's have "the (T)ruth". I have had several conversations with him and whereas he has many, many ideas that in no way jibe with the WTBTS, he has never admitted to himself that the WTBTS is WRONG. Needless to say, he has never "Googled" looking for any dirt on them.

Well, his dear wife was raised without a religion or much guidance whatsoever, for that matter, and now that they have two gorgeous baby boys, she wants to raise them better than she was raised, and for her, part of that is studying the bible and taking them to regular meetings.

Mind you, they both my nephew and his wonderful wife know how utterly against the org I am... so they are actually sheepish to even admit to me that they are going to meetings. They don't want to even bring it up around me.

For quite some time it has been driving me slightly crazy on my back burner that I might possibly lose one of my precious great-nephews to something as furiously assinine as the blood issue (sorry but I have lost too many loved ones' lives to the JW's damning demands already), and I'm not too thrilled about them being raised in that mind-control, either. I have tried my best to keep level-headed about this, knowing that the more I open my mouth, the more determined they will become.

I am to drive out and visit with them in just a few days and stay for a couple of weeks. I have done lots of homework on this site. I want to be prepared to have an answer for anything that might come up, and I need to be SUBTLE!!! I just don't know exactly how to approach this, and I know there is no doubt that the subject WILL come up while I am there. She is already using Jehovah's name to answer any of the baby boys' pondering questions. I have considered showing them the video on the Witnesses, here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6861723185926041712
but I don't know if that would come on too strong. I have also considered just saying to her "well, you know how we just Google whatever business opportunity or medical advice we get to gather all the information possible, just promise me you will Google the Witnesses, too, so you can see all of the information from all sides."

Please advise with any tips or experiences that worked for you. Any and all comments and/or suggestions are tremendously appreciated. Thanks so much... and thank you all for being here.

mama1119

Wear a t-shirt that says "DON"T DO IT!!"

smellsgood

oops

sf

Click me {I'll ~bump~ the thread too}:

Great Educational Tool for those studying or thinking of studying with JWS

sKally

BabaYaga

Oooh, looks great, SKally, thanks for the link! I'll go back and scour it for pointers!

And thanks so much to all for the suggested resources...

exwitless

Take them a brand new copy of Crisis of Conscience as a gift and urge them to read it cover-to-cover before deciding to completely hand themselves over to JWs. After all, once they commit, they won't be "allowed" to read things like that, so they should take the opportunity while they still can.

mkr32208

No no go to tshirt hell and get the shirt that says "I'M JEHOVAH" in big letters on the front and on the back it says "and you didn't witness shit!"

As to what to SAY...? Hummmmmmm I would ask them about the blood issue! Ask them what they will do when and if it arises and WHY they will do that! I think thats a real nerve to strike with parents.

jwfacts

Asking questions is less confronting and gets them thinking. Telling them things is more likely to have them switch into defending the 'Truth".

Blood is a good one. Ask if they have thought about what they would do if there was an emergency and one of the children needed a blood transfusion. This then leads to a string of questions on why the Watchtower has changed its stance, why they can take blood fractions but not donate blood. Etc.

Or question whether it is healthy for the children to be raised to believe Jehovah is soon going to kill all their school friends.

There are a string of questions that you may want to consider asking at http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/questions.htm

jgnat

How about sowing a seed? Something like, "You've always struck me as an independent-minded person. I admire you for taking a stand for something you really believe in."

and later

"I'm sure you'd leave if you discovered the society has been lying to you. You'd be too smart to stay."

Then leave it for another day.

BabaYaga

You all are giving me such great pointers... yes, asking questions the good-old Socratic method (hope they don't put Hemlock in my iced tea, haha) Dissonance!!! And yes, jgnat... I was thinking along the same lines as far as being as positive and complimentary as I could... and ever so slowly...

agh! Thank you all so much for the help I am a little more than flustered about this visit. I just hope I'm up to it and that I don't get too passionate (I'm really so angry!) ha!

Help! Suggestions on what to say to a Niece who is Studying...

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