Hey guys! I am not a JW, never been one, but linked to a born in JW via family. Last week I received an email from an anonymous person. (Fake name, gmail account) literally no clue who it is. Attached on the email was the Raymond Franz book Crisis of Conscious. I have read the book in the past. I was wondering if I should tell my JW family member that I received this email, read this book and it blew my mind, they really need to read it ASAP. Or will this do more damage than harm? I look forward to your feedback. Thank you!
Anonymous email arrived in my inbox! Advice needed please...
by Anon_SA1 9 Replies latest jw friends
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punkofnice
JWs will out a forcefield up when they sniff something that may be negative of the Watchtower corporation they worship.
It's your call what you do.
Beware there isn't a virus attached to the email too.
Let sleeping dogs lie methinks.
When a JW is ready they will wake up on their own. Just my 2 penneth.
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millie210
I tend to err on the side of being cautious usually.
Any chance your JW family member sent it to you?
If the answer is no -could you tell your family member you got it and have no idea who sent it and just shrug and see if your family member poses a follow up question?
If they dont just drop it?
As for the "mystery email person",
Maybe hit reply to the email and say you appreciate the book recommendation and have some more questions and see if they answer you back?
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neverendingjourney
When I was a child, my Catholic aunt made me sit down and read some anti-JW pamphlet published by her church. It contained all sorts of "lies" such as how the Witnesses had actually predicted the end of the world in 1914, 1925 and some "nonsense" about 1975. I immediately dismissed it and went back to living my normal life. It wasn't until I was in my mid 20s that I began doing independent research and realized what I had read was actually correct.
I know it's not of tremendous use to you, but take that story for what it's worth. The indoctrination we're subjected to is very strong. In my case it took many years of suppressing doubts and some very specific circumstances to get me to entertain the idea that my beliefs were wrong.
Combating Cult Mind Control has the best suggestions I've ever read regarding how to attempt to get a JW family member to reason. There's probably no advice we can give you that isn't already in the book. I wish you luck.
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MagicMItchJensen
There's people shunned because they stop using certain coded language we JWs used once upon a time. If they shun those using certain works like "Jesus Christ is my lord and Savior" how far do you honestly think your going to get dropping the name of Ray Franz whom they consider Satan's Second in command?
Your best bet is to slowly ask honest questions that won't throw their shields up, that's all we can tell you or share because they do not want the truth, it's a dream world of deception witnesses enjoy living in. Scary don't you think, they would rather live inside all their anxiety and depression and constant state of "Fear and fleeing humans don't do well with(PTSD starts with constant fight or flight.)
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oppostate
Was there a message along with the attachment? Some of us in my congregation also got a message, over a year ago, similar to what you're describing with CofC attached to it.
The elders were all over this and it was the talk of the car-groups for a few weeks last year.
It was almost like if you didn't get one you kinda felt bad and knew you weren't in somebody's contact list who shared a message with a hundred JW buddies email addresses in the To: field and you weren't included.
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cha ching
Sounds intriguing!
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ABibleStudent
Hi Anon_SA1, Why not reply to the sender and suggest that they email your relative.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
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rebel8
Isn't this a copyright violation? -
AFRIKANMAN
Hi - What if the sender actually knew you and your circumstances quite well and was Genuinely trying to assist you and those you are connected to? It could be a "God-send" -
Now you are truly in a position to tell your relatives / JW connections that you have read this book which seems very genuine and non-vitriolic in its content- etc etc and that it has some really eye-opening stuff.
You cant get disfellowshipped for that - although if you are ....lets say in a romantic relationship with the JW... you could risk them telling you to break things off etc. And they may just have a mommy who is not a very lateral thinker and who would go ballistic if her child was being shown diseased apostate stuff etc and if self-same mummy runs off to equally nutty and mentally rancid cousin [still - in ] who feeds her head with a lot of negative shit ....................either the love of your life gets with the picture here or you may be wasting good valuable time in your life and may have to make the heart-breaking decision to move on in life.
Some of the people dialoguing with you - even anonymously - may just have your best interests at heart
Go do some figuring out!
Go well !