Oct. 09 Awake: What's Missing?

metatron

The October Awake is a well crafted issue called "Secrets of Family Success". Lots and lots and lots of advice against getting divorced. Also, against cohabitation and ex-mates fighting.

The magazine contains 6 "Profiles in Success" - stuff like coping with losing a parent or child in death or being adopted or facing financial trouble..............................but...............

Not one Witness experience about dealing with divorce. WHY? BECAUSE THAT WOULD CONTRADICT THE FANTASY LADEN IMAGE OF WITNESSES AS MORALLY SUPERIORPEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MARRIAGES FALLING APART. So, 'here's how Joe Witness coped with a dead child but not a dead marriage'.

The reality is that Witness families are crumbling and Witness kids are breaking loose from cult control - that is the real reason why this Awake magazine was printed but the Watchtower Society can't bear to honestly admit to these hard facts because it would suggest that they are impotent to stop these trends and that their preaching work is a futile and meaningless effort thereby. It would tell people, "don't listen to us, we can't fix family problems any better than you 'worldly' people can" and they can't have that, can they?

metatron

bluecanary

I hated the family book even as a diehard Dub. It was so useless but they were always shoving it down our throats like it was a magic cure-all.

WTWizard

They do not want people to believe that the witlesses have divorces (adultery does happen, because they are stuck with the rules, which strip the excitement off the marriage) or are trapped in loveless "marriages" that would be better off terminated. Or, especially, that the structure of the religion precludes getting the most out of your family--no time to yourselves, all the rules, hounders intruding your private life, and the like.

Keeping in mind that the Asleep! is a public journal. As such, it has to present a favorable image of the religion--and divorces (and loveless marriages, which are the same thing and lead to adultery and separations) are not part of a favorable image.

sir82

Silly Metatron - "Jehovah's Witnesses" don't get divorced!

Of course, "some" Jehovah's Witnesses engage in adultery, which leads to divorce - but by the time the divorce takes place, the guilty party is "no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses".

Problem solved!

dinah

I've seen the whole adultery-reproved-divorced-re-marry thang several times. It happened once in mine, and twice in a neighboring congregation back when I was in. Usually the innocent spouse just leaves the organization, while the two "sinners" remain.

What do they expect to happen when they want everyone married so young so they avoid fornicating to beat the band?

wantstoleave

Can you please elaborate on the divorce part? My divorce will be through in a couple of weeks, and I wonder if the elders bring me round a copy of this once they find out Im no longer married!

wantstoleave

Dinah....Ive always hated that too.

Example, couple I know of. He has sex with a sister in another hall. He leaves his wife and 2 kids. He and the other sister are DF. Wife divorces him. He and the other woman are reinstated within 6mths and move into the KH of his wife! Everyone talks to them and acts like nothing has happened. Poor wife!

Another example I know of. Young sister sleeps with married brother. Repentant, reproved. Little while later, she sleeps with a different married brother. Again, repentant, reproved. Short time after that, sleeps with yet a another married brother. This time she is DF and he along with her, as he decides he doesnt want his current wife. Six months later, both reinstated and accepted back into the congregation. Same one his wife is in, AND the other 2 brothers she had slept with too. They marry a few months after reinstatement, and have most of the congregation attend the wedding (in the KH) and reception.

How unkind and cruel is that? Sometimes I HATE the rules!! Some have such blatant disregard for who they hurt in the process.

undercover

Of course, "some" Jehovah's Witnesses engage in adultery, which leads to divorce - but by the time the divorce takes place, the guilty party is "no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses".

The rules on divorce actually encourage adultery. I've seen it happen many times. A couple is unhappy. They resent each other, they can't even be civil anymore...yet they can't divorce. They're completely miserable.

The solution? One of them decides the only way out is to just go ahead and do the deed elsewhere and get the ball rolling on a scriptural divorce so they can put it behind and move on.

It's coping with the situation in the only way they know but it's illogical as hell. Sinning (adultery) to keep from sinning (unscriptural divorce).

skeeter1

Also, against cohabitation and ex-mates fighting

The problem with ex-mates fighting is in the child custody area. Courts must decide custody "in the best interests" of the child. Spouses with negative attitudes about ex-spouses are less likely to get the bulk of custody awarded.

In the JW-apostate situation, the JW ex-spouse is super critical of the apostate JW ex. Haven't we all heard JWs equating the ex-spouse with the Devil, name calling, etc. I think this WTS line about "ex-mates fighing") is a first attempt to change the JW spouse to having a better nature towards the non-JW spouse. But, I don't think it's to promote family harmony but to help the legal staff of the WTS win custody away from apostate ex spouses.

Skeeter

steve2

I've seen the whole adultery-reproved-divorced-re-marry thang several times.

A nice summary of a well-known pattern in lots of knigdom halls. This has "plagued" many-a congregation in New Zealand. It's also called: "trading in your wife for a more recent model" (as in "car") and "having your cake and eating it too" (as in "doing your time" outside the organization and then coming back in once you've hitched up with someone younger and prettier).

Yes, no surprises that the PR magazine makes absolutely no mention of this far from uncommon and disgusting trend. The level of human misery that underlies this kind of juvenile behaviour reveals the cruel hypocrisy of the organization's moral-high-ground claims: If you sin, do your time and then come crawling back to us - and we'll approve of you and your new wife - provided she is also a witness.

Oct. 09 Awake: What's Missing?

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