Research Data Wanted: Married to a JW or child of one parent in and the other not

by Lady Lee 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Lady Lee

  I am looking for information from several groups of people.

  1. People who are no longer JWs but have a spouse who is still in.
     • Never-been JWs
     • Was a JW (baptized or not) but left after marrying and spouse remained in
     • DFed, DAed or faded and still have a spouse who is in
  2. Children (now grown) who were raised with one parent a JW and the other never been
  3. Children (now grown) where one parent left the JWs and one stayed in.

  If there are categories I have missed let me know. I need this to be pretty inclusive and focused on couples where one person is a JW and the other is not.

  I will be asking questions re:

  • Stresses in the marriage due to the conflicts in beliefs
  • Ways differences are dealt with or not
  • Reactions when the JW demands their beliefs be served while beliefs of non-JWs are discounted
  • Negotiating holidays, family weddings, funerals or other religious services held in a religious building
  • Resolving issues regarding blood when the non-JW would accept but the JW will refuse for the non-JW spouse or children
  • Defining the level of dedidication to the JW lifestyle by the JW
  • Effects on the non-JW spouse and children who are caught in the middle regarding the demands by the JW.
  • Differences in how never-been JW and ex-JW may handle conflict with the JW regarding the religion and how children will be raised (if any)

  I am brainstorming at this point and still working on the questionaire. Once I have more input on questions from you I will be posting the questionaire on JWN.

  For those who don't want to answer publicly they can PM the responses to me. Just copy and paste the questions and post them in the PM box along with your answers.

  Any thoughts?
• 

  Anony Mous

  Maybe letting us know what the purpose is. Is this going to be a scholarly article w/ data analysis or just an opinion piece, how about anonymity. Is this going to be published widely (newspaper) or just on another blog. Are both sides going to be interviewed or not?

  There is already data from the Pew Research Group and many other data collections on religions in general.

  Other points to concider:

  - Correlations between a spouse's extended family membership and the retention of the member

  - Where do you think your spouse's priorities and loyalty would be if it came down to it (and if you're interviewing couples does the spouse agree with that).

  - Benefits of these types of relationships
• 

  Lady Lee

  My hope is to present an opinion piece at a conference for cults. But I need more than just my opinion so I want to hear from others. If the presentation is accepted I would consider submitting it for publication to an academic journal and perhaps a shortened version to the media. At this point I am just collecting data.

  Anonimity is promised which is why I suggested some people might prefer to respond via PM if they don't want the whole world to know.

  I have no idea how this information would mesh with what happens in other groups. The info I have read so far is that no one has really discussed this in regards to cults or high control groups. It could be very difficutl information to research unless there is a large pool of people who are in relationships with active members
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  LisaAnn

  I'm in your first catagory. Both JWs when we married, now he is and I'm not. Two kids, one at home one on their own.
• 

  Lady Lee

  KisaAnn

  You bring up some interesting questions in my mind.

  • Were both kids home when you left?
  • Or is the younger one old enough to decide not to go to meetings? Or maybe he or she still goes?
  • Are there disagreements about whether the younger one goes?
  • If one of them got sick and the parents are called in an emergency as "next-of-kin" who would decide issues re blood if needed? Have you even talked about it?

  Don't answer them now. Wait for the survey. But if you think of others questions that you think might be important please add them.
• 

  JRK

  I am catagory 2. Just a little confused, I thought you were against surveys like this.

  JK
• 

  Lady Lee

  I'm not against surveys at all. They are a very important tool in understanding how people are affected by various situations.

  What Simon, the board's owner, is against is asking people for money. There have been a few scams here where people got hurt or gave money and nothing came of it. And I totally agree with him. My task as a mod here is to deal with issues on the site that break the posting guidelines, notify him and let him decide what to do about it.

  • Sometimes that means locking a thread until he sees it.
  • Other times it means moving a thread off the board into ADMIN until he deals wit it,
  • And when requested or in extreme cases move a thread into the REMOVED sectioon of the board. If it is an extereme case - it means notifying Simon so he can delete the poster - like the most recent character posting links to porn sites on the board.

  And believe me, he tends to agree with the mods more often than not. But not always
• 

  Jim_TX

  Category 1.b
• 

  sherah

  I'm in catergory 2 and am willing to help with your survey.
• 

  Lady Lee

  I will try posting it on Monday and we will see what happens