Not sure if this is the right area

Zoewrex

All - Of course I'm new to this board (or any board) and have an 'issue'.

My Father and Step-mother are both JW's and I know I can't argue with them. However they're important to me and yet after a visit, I feel as if they are chipping away at my own spirit. They are both intelligent and I still can't believe they fell for this - they went JW recently (in their early 50's). So my Dad is collecting a number of Ancient Christian books and uses every 'Bible' reference to attempt to convince me it's the End of the World and my Step-mother is reciting to me the do's and don'ts. I will say the change in their behavior is astounding and to be honest MUCH better in her case, now that she believes she's trying to be a Christian woman. Walking with the Lord has changed my life and I need prayers. My daughter & I will be visiting them for 7 days and even though they help me to unwind from the NYC Rat Race, some of their conversations spin me back into a deep and spiritual frenzy.

Any advice? We live about 3 hours away and get to see them just about every other month for weekends. I'm going to order the books mentioned on this site and am looking forward to reading them both.

Tracy

Loris

Welcome to the board. You are in the right place to keep your sanity while dealing with your parents new found "religion"

Read the books as soon as you get them. I hope one of them is Crisis of Conscience. If not order that one right away.

You will need all the mental armor you can get. The indoctrination methods of JW's are extremely effective. It begins to sound true in such a short while. Many of us here can atest to that. No amount of intelligence is a sure defense. Only facts will save you from being sucked into the black hole of JWdom.

At the same time attacking them will not work as a defense. They will take it as proof of the "truth" of persecution. They are being conditioned to view you as dangerous to their faith. So be kind and respectful towards their beliefs. And at the same time requesting space for you to disagree.

This will be a difficult time for you. My prayers are with you.

Loris

DanTheMan

If you are a Christian, you may find Ron Rhodes' books about JW's to be interesting.

JW's develop a persecution mentality very quickly, understand that the Watchtower organization is very paranoid and thinks that the whole world is aligned against them. I know it's very difficult, but try to be calm with them.

RAYZORBLADE

Hi Zoewrex: Welcome to the forum.

Looks like already, the two preceeding posts from a couple of the members have given you some good suggestions on reading material etc.

This forum is full of many people coming from a variety of experiences as former or soon-exiting JWs. We have former pioneers, elders, ministerial servants, Bethelites to name a few.

You'll find many answers to your questions.

Please hang around with us, and post away. We'll get to know you better.

Best wishes, to my neighbour across the border in New York State.

Valis

Greetings Zoew...it doesn't matter where you post something like this...it requires our attention for sure. Let me give you a bit of a simmilar situation...My parents are JWs and they have tried many times to proseltyze my children and the mother of my children, (we don't live together...just for clarification)...the most hateful thing was one day when my daughter and I were walking along and we saw a dead bird.....she said the bird was with Jehovah and I kindly told her there was no jehovah...she started crying! I can't even tell you how pissed off this made me...as I have always been of the opinion that when my kids get old enough to worry about the existence of a god or any of that, then all I can do is hope they know better than mess w/JWland....Getting presents from daddy on the holidays doesn't hurt either...*LOL*, but sorry I got off track...After the incident w/my daughter I called my parents and asked them not to do that anymore,no meetings, no JW cartoon videos, no JW stuff...I was even nice about it...my mom got upset and my dad got macho threatening w/me...telling me "Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?..."...That's when I informed them they would not be seeing my children if they persisted...plain and simple....Now, how does this apply to your case? Simply do not engage in that kind of discourse with them and inform them that you have no interest in that do not wish to speak of it period. Stand up for yourself a bit....it gets better for you after that.

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

freedom96

First of all, welcome to the board. Second of all, with your parents getting involved rather recently, they have a much better chance of being shown the real truth and getting out.

Research, and give it to them.

DevonMcBride

Hi Zoew,

Here is some more advice. The JW's are considered a cult and there are a few good web sites on cults you may want to check out. www.freedomofmind.com and www.rickross.com are two of my favorite. If you learn about the mindset of a mind controling group such as the Jehovah's Witnesses it may help you when you visit the family. Steven Hassan from Freedom of Mind also has a great book about cults called Releasing The Bonds. That book helped me.

Francois

Valis is right. Handle a problem while it is small, and you will have no big problems. Nip it in the but now, or you'll be back here looking for ways to undo things that have developed that never would have if they'd never been allowed in the first place. If you give a JW an inch, they'll take 144,000.

And, um, welcome.

shamus

Welcome!

Great comments so far. I also suggest that they not talk to your kids about it whatsoever. If your kids get into it, they will grow into kids that will not give you the time of day, b/c you are "pagan". Seriously.

Just tell them that you know what type of religion they are, and that you are looking at both sides of the issue. Tell them that you are reading Crisis Of Conscience, and see what they say. After reading that book, your eyes will be wide WIDE open to the cult, and you will really see why all that we say here is true.

Also, don't let them go on and on about it. Tell them that you've had enough, and don't want to talk about it anymore. Shut them down, b/c they are going to drive you nuts with religious nonsense for hours on end.

Mystery

Tracy -

You didn't say old your daughter is. If she is young; please don't let your parents tell her things like "you are going to die if you don't worship Jehovah". Valis is right - don't let them get to your daughter.

You are old enough not to let them "scare" you. Even if your daughter is in her teens; if she had been around your family a lot, she probably trust your parents, she shouldn't she? Now grandma & granpa began telling her about the end of the world. It would scare any child or young adult.

Protect your child above all else.

Welcome.

Not sure if this is the right area

Share this