We recently were visiting lifelong friends of ours in another state. These people are UBER-devoted JW's. I mean they are prototypical "Witness Zombies" who do exactly what the GB tell them to without fail and always with a smile on their face. But, they also happen to be some of the most genuinely kind and loving and generous people we know. They truly do live the kind of loving life that Jesus showed us too. It is possible to be both Zombies and good people.
Anyhow, these folks are always looking after the wayward and "lost sheep" in their congregation. Helping these people out with money, food, child care, rides here and there. Whatever they can do. All genuine. So, a young single mother who works full time has made it a habit of dropping off her young daughter (2-3 years old) to be babysat a couple of days a week. These friends of ours are basically surrogate grandparents to this little girl.
The little girl has all the signs of being a child with emotional issues from having a single mother (who is a ding bat), no father, and is shuffled off to various babysitters all week long. Our friends do their best to give her some stability. Their house is filled with toys and games and child furniture, etc. They make her eat properly and take naps at a regular time and try to insert some normalcy in her chaotic life.
Well, I give you that long-winded preamble to be able to tell you what I saw that really, really bothered me. One morning the little girl wanted to watch cartoons on the iPad as is normal and acceptable. BUT!!! When she picked up the iPad and began to dial up a cartoon channel for herself, the "grandmother" tells her in no uncertain terms (and it was said in a way that made me know this was a regular rule of the house) "You *have to* watch a couple of the Caleb videos on JW.org before you can watch your other cartoons." I watched, silently, as the child made a disappointed face and then she begrudgingly began watching the Caleb video.
The whole episode (plus several other things that were said, seen and/or happened while we were there) made me get an instant knot in my gut. To see blatant mind control tactics being used on a little baby girl right in front of my face, however well-intentioned they may be, was just another leap forward in my resolve to get myself and my little family away from this cult. As much as we love these family friends and as much as they truly love us, we have to distance ourselves from them steadily. I cannot risk my kids getting these sort of doses of mind control.