Hello all,
Although I am out, my parents are still involved with the JW's. After the fiasco they went thru with me and my brother. They have remained "faithful", but at the same time deal with there own feelings of doubt and disgruntlement. My father was at one time a prominent elder in our area who was removed, because of all the gossip in the area about his out of control children. I honestly think they would stop going themselves, but know nothing else. My father once time told me that he goes to meetings etc because that is what he has done all his life and he knows nothing else. Believe me there was quite a fight when i told him that, I thought, he didn't so much have faith, but rather a life long habit.
Anyway....I digress. The point was that my mother and father are still a very reliable source of info for me, and still fill me in on people that i know, and tend share a lot of there negative expierences with me. I thought i would relate a story here about what is going on in my local area with a family that I have known for as long as i can remember.
A young sister, 23 years old, got married last June. Three weeks to the day of the marrige, her husband roughed her up. He was drunk. He smashed furniture, spit in her face, and threw her around. She ran out of the house. Called her father who on his way to get her called the police. The police arrived at the home to find the girl hiding in her car down the street. She told them what happened. They went into the house, saw the damage and physical evidence on the girl and arrested the husband. He spent a night or two in jail.
The congregation was divided, some supported the husband due to ties with the family, some supported the wife. The girl moved out and back in with her parents. The elders tried to encourage them to get back together, but told the girl she had scriptural grounds for seperation. But that they felt that if the elders gave them both some counselling, they could work it out. Now here comes the kicker......the elders told her that pushing and shoving is very often a fact of life in marriage, and she should forgive him. When mom told me that i nearly fell over. Three weeks in to wedded bliss a wife can and should except a little spousal abuse.....i thought i had heard everything but i guess i was wrong.
Turns out, that while still seperated he messed around on her too. Now they are in the process of a "scriptural divorce". However he was never df'd for any of it. Apparently he acted, in the elders words, out of depression and anxiety. The elders said he showed repentance. At this point almost the entire congregation is against the girl......want to know why......apparently the whole thing could have been avoided if she had not overreacted to some minor, pushy and shoveing, from a drunken husband who was not in his right mind.
where did the love i used to hear so much about go
Any similar experences out there