New JW shows up at my wife's work..... (page 2)

ziddina

Ah, Open Mind...

Hypocrisy... I see... Ar, ar!! [Robin Williams as "Mork" - "Humor - ar, ar!"]

Broken Promises

I wouldn't have said anything until the last afternoon. And I would point out that I noticed the difference in behaviour, and that it helps confirm to me that God's spirit isn't with the JWs.

But that's just me.

OnTheWayOut

I'd rather be treated like the matter under the shoe than tell her I "am" a JW. It just leads to more JW conversations. But a little bit of Steve-Hassan-style subtle prodding might make it tolerable.

OPEN MIND- I'm sure your wife just thought THIS was a bowl of cherries to deal with. I thought she handled it well though. But in actuality it IS typical JW behavior- at least from when I've had dealings with JW's before I exited and after I exited the cult. JW's always turn on the charm if they find out you are a " brother " or " sister " as they've been programmed to react in a positive way in their minds like that. On the flip side of that same coin- they've also been programmed to only treat people outside the Witnesses with a businesslike manner and told ALL" worldly" people are a potential threat to their spirituality and are under " Satan's " control.

It's the same reaction active JW's give us if they find out we've been inactive for years. I mean- we might as WELL be considered " worldly " as the shocked , allegedly concerned look on an active JW's face tells us we are considered " inadequate ". If your wife explains to this consultant she is not going to many meetings - I dare say the consultant will cool off some towards her. Good luck with this

PaintedToeNail

Maybe the consultant JW felt she didn't have anything really in common with Open Mind's wife and wasn't comfortable just making chit-chat. That shouldn't excuse out and out rude behavior though. I've never been good at making chit-chat with 'worldly' people because I never learned how. For that matter I'm no good at making chit-chat at cong. gatherings either...what do you say when you refuse to go out in service and try to find any reason not to go the meetings and you don't get excited when people announce they are pioneering? I recently told a sister I was sorry to hear her hubby got appt'd an elder, then I had to explain myself.

steve2

This private consultant exemplifies the expedient JW mentality. She sounds like an extremely tunnel-visioned human being who is very capable of switching off and on the milk of human kindness. She'd knife your wife in the back in a heartbeat and not have the depth of humanity to feel any normal empathy. Your wife really needs to be on guard, I think, and keep watching her back.

Open mind

The more detailed analyses of Momma-Tossed-Me, Flipper and steve2 make quite a bit of sense, but at the end of the day, we're all just speculating here.

Giving the consultant the benefit of the doubt, PaintedToeNail's take might be right on the money:

"Maybe the consultant JW felt she didn't have anything really in common with Open Mind's wife and wasn't comfortable just making chit-chat."

This is probably best-case-scenario for the consultant and JWs in general. And if it's true, then it was a very unremarkable situation on the whole. Except for the last bit. That's the part that demonstrates the power of the JW religion.

If the consultant & my wife had both been Baptists or had formerly attended the same school and my wife said "Oh, you went to XYZ High School? So did I." If the consultant was still feeling non-chatty, she could say "That's nice. Small world." and continued to not pursue a conversation. But if a JW finds out that a recently-met stranger is a fellow JW, there's a very strong expectation that at least a few more sentences of dialogue MUST take place, IMO.

Picture this dialogue:

My wife: "Oh, I just heard that you're a Sister!! I'm a Witness too!"

Consultant: "That's nice. Small world." *walks away*

If the consultant did that, she'd be sending up big red flags that something's not quite right in her JW world.

In retrospect, my wife used the power of the cult to mess with this lady. And it worked. Yes, it was petty and manipulative.

(And it was a little bit of fun. )

The more detailed analyses of Momma-Tossed-Me, Flipper and steve2 make quite a bit of sense as well, but at the end of the day, we're all just speculating here.

Cheers,

om

New JW shows up at my wife's work.....