Hey Kat,
I presume your last comments were directed at me so I suppose I better clarify what I meant.
My parents (along with many many other JW's) see the world in very clear shades of black and white. If there isnt a Watchtower or publication to cover a matter they get very nervous.
My very desicive wording simply told them in no uncertain terms that I no longer bought into their way of thinking. That just because they saw something in a certain way didn't mean I had to. My entire upbringing under them was very much a long list of what 'I wasn't allowed to do' because 'it said so in the Watchtower'.
I find Jehovah's Witnesses generally a very arrogant group of people. When they are dealing with families i.e sons and daughters particularly they take liberties in their mode of conduct that would otherwise be socially unacceptable. In my parents case they thought, at the time I was talking about, because I was in my early 20's and to a large extent still very naive about life they could talk to me in any manner they chose. They, to my mind, abused their parental position and still dictated and talked to me as if I was some 10 year old boy in their care. It was my right nay duty to stand up to them and tell them their mode of behaviour towards me was totally unacceptable. They wouldn't treat ordinary people in the street or fellow workers in that manner, so by what right had they to do it to me?
My kids love their Gran and Grandad (unconditionally) very much and I would never be the one to initiate a situation where contact was cut. But I have to temper that view with the very real day to day conduct of Jehovah's Witnesses where the ties of family can be brutally cut at the whims of the latest Watchtower. Especially now with the Watchtower entrenching themselves into a 'them and us' postion and I personally forsee a time in the near future where the Watchtower will get JW families to treat even 'fallen away' ones (I was never DF'd of DA'd) in the same manner as they shun disfellowshipped and disassociated persons. I live in constant fear of having to explain to my children suddenly why their Grandparents have cut off all contact.
My view on the matter is very simple. As long as they treat my family and I with the respect we deserve and no worse than any other person then that's fine. This simply entails them not bringing up religion in any shape size or form.
As an aside though, my brother went nuclear on the matter. He reverse shunned them. As a result of the upbringing he and I received he finally flipped (for reason to long to go into here) and told them "As long as you remain Jehovah's Witnesses I want nothing more to do with you. Come back to me when you have abandoned your religion!"
Whilst I personally think this is going too far I understand and to a large extent have a great deal of sympathy for him. Also when my mother told me about it in tears one day, I rather waspishly said: "Well at least now you know what those poor sods you disfellowship go through."
I'm sorry Kat but parents bear a great deal of responsibility for bringing up kids as JW's (it is totally different from coming into 'the truth' as a grown adult) and if it brings them repercussions when the children grow to adults then they must bear the blame for the rusults of their own parenting.
Hope that clears up what I'm talking about.
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