Hi Friends, I have not been on this board in awhile, and I would like to get some thoughts from some of you. I have noticed a change within my 4 siblings in approximately the last year and a half to 2 years regarding their communication with my Mother and I. They have either phoned us, texted, emailed, or written a letter or card to us. The conversation has been good, and on any topic that comes to mind. But the question I ask is: Why would they want to talk their brother or mother who is no longer a part of the organization? What has changed that now ALLOWS them to communicate with us when it was not acceptable?
When I use to attend as a young boy and for many years afterward, we were always COMMANDED that you were not to associate with family members that were DA or disfellowshipped or no longer a part of the organization. We were taught that people of that sort along with non witnesses would be destroyed in the END, if they did not change their ways, in other words, if you're not a witness in the sense of the word, you would be destroyed.
What has God asked of us, but to Love him, worship him, and honor his Son. He does not speak things and then change his mind as the organization continually does week after week. The society would pull scriptures out to explain why you should not have anything to do with your family that is not part of the organization. The RULES and REGULATIONS were applied in such a way that God was speaking to the GB, and they would speak it to us. Now it appararently it seems fine to communicate with us, because God changed his mind. What scriptures do they use now to counter the so-called scriptures they used before? Has God changed his mind again? I hardly think so. They have abused his name and his Son so badly, that God has nothing to do with them.
What is really bothersome to my folks and me, is the attitude of ignoring us, no communication, no family reunions, or getting together, and my parents having no association with the grand kids who are grown and married now, and no concern of any sort to show GENIUNE AFFECTION AND LOVE. While they have started to open up and become more communicative, they have not addressed or asked for forgiveness for the disregard for the many decades of pain and grief, and we're suppose to just forget about that. That's the part that bothers us.
As my mother very wisely pointed out. "If Jehovah is working on them, which in our opinion he is, then we should be patient with him, and see it how it works out."
So maybe this is something that is changing for others as well. Just look at all the changes that have been made in the past 3 years. (No beards, No more service time, meetings that don't involve heavy learning but has become so childlike without meat, and those ZOOM meetings, now thats got to be fun. No dress up and relax in the lazyboy with a drink, and the stupidity of counting your 10 minutes a month or whatever it is, using tablets to spread the message of hope instead of the bible, and many other changes that have been made so that MEETING ATTENDANCE can improve.) Well, the meeting attendance is'nt working.
It seems that worshipping God has become cheapened, and its quite sad. I am glad to be free from all this since the mid 80's, it is nowhere the same organization that I was in. I am sad that so many continually suffer. And I hope that things will get drastically worse so that people will wake up and realize how far they have come from the real message.
Happy Trails to all,