My sister called me quite out of the blue last night. She's a full on active JW and actively shunning me like the rest of the family are. I dont quite know the reason why she felt last night was the right time to call but im glad she did. Although it was basically her trying to re-convert me back.
Conversation went on for over an hour until her phone battery died at 12:05am. I wont give the entire conversation but the salient points were:
HER: You know it's the truth. You're just angry at the organization. Remember, men are imperfect. It's not God's fault.
ME: <holding in my laugh> No, i know it's not the truth.
HER: No, you used to believe it. You cant just stop believing it. You've been reading apostate stuff.
ME: When i was a JW, i used to study a lot yes. But only the society books and magazines. When i was DF i spent months just reading the bible. Nothing else. I'd come home from work and read until i went to bed. Then on weekends just read. I highlighted scriptures to look up. And topics to look up. Not only from JW.org but from real theological textbooks and history. You're religion is so not the truth. In fact, of all the religions claiming to be christian it's the most far removed from Christianity i've ever seen.
HER: You need to come back to the meetings. We miss you.
ME: If you miss me you know where i am.
HER: So you're not coming back?
ME: No. I will never. Never go back to that religion. (I avoided the world cult because a few months ago the last time i used it she got really angry and slammed the phone down).
HER: Ok so you dont believe in the religion. But you believe in Jehovah and Jesus.
ME: No.
HER: No?!!!
ME: I dont believe Jehovah exists no. I believe Jesus existed and was a charismatic man but he certainly didn't do all the things that's written about him.
HER: But the bible...
ME: But The Lord Of The Rings... shall i believe in Frodo and Gandalf? It must be true, it's in The Lord Of The Rings.
HER: Now you're just being silly.
ME: You have a man who can raise the dead, cure lepers and walk on water. And outside of the gospels no other writer of the time period wrote anything about it. Archimedes, Plato, Marcus Aurelius didnt do half the things Jesus apparently did. And there's an abundance of things written about them all through history.
The conversation went on for a good while. Standard JW nonsensical reasoning that, im ashamed to say, i used to use myself. Of course everything she said had a perfectly reasonable answer. Her phone died before we wrapped things up.
I wonder if she counted her time?