So on my last thread, I showed you all the email correspondence between me and my sister over the recent child abuse case the society was convicted in. So I had emailed my sister last Friday, and we were all getting together at a family gathering the next day. My mom was very stand-offish – she just said hi to me but otherwise ignored me the whole night.
So yesterday (Tuesday) I had to call her about something, and once we discussed that she said there were some things she needed to say.
She said that my sister had read her my email, and that it sounded like it was written by someone who had left the truth and she was heartbroken and felt dead inside. She apologized for not speaking to me, but said that if she had she would have started crying in front of everyone. She said that she has been worried about me and my husband for a couple of years now. She’s noticed that I never pray with my son before meals, she’s never seen a bible story book in our house, apparently even the fact that my husband got involved with “Movember” is a warning sign for her.
A friend of ours recently lost her father. Apparently he had committed suicide. She said that our friend’s mother and father had become apostates and all they did was read apostate literature, and that had invited demons into their home and this could be why her father died. She’s concerned because she knows I had read “those vampire books” (hehe, yes I have) and I could have invited demons into our home, that I should be more concerned over that because now I have my son.
She mentioned the child abuse case, and said that even though some in the organization might do bad things, it’s still Jehovah’s organization and everything they teach from the bible is 100% true, and that Jehovah will punish those ones. She said even though the annointed are going to have immortality, they are so concerned about helping us make it through these last days so that we can have everlasting life. She begged me to start taking our spirituality more seriously – teach my son to love Jehovah, and as I teach him, I will come to love Jehovah more too.
She started to talk about how she is so scared for us, for all of her children, that this is consuming her. At that point she started crying on the phone.
I’m so torn over this. I don’t know what to do. As a mother, I understand what you feel for your children, and what it’s like to be worried for them, terrified even, that they could do harm to themselves. Even though nothing my mother said changed how I feel about the organization, I can’t even imagine intentionally making her go through the pain of us leaving. But I don’t want to expose my son to this religion, any more than is necessary. I’m not taking him to all the meetings, in service, he’s not going to join the school or become a publisher. We celebrate his birthday, certain holidays. How much longer can we keep this hidden?
I hate the organization for this. I hate them. At least half of their members have to be in the same situation we are – stuck in here for the sake of maintaining relationships with our families and friends. Why can’t they just let us go??