Awake! No. 2 2018 on marriage

by john.prestor 11 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  TD

  I guess I'm not understanding the nature of the objection.

  Perhaps this advice is an emotional trigger for those who've lived in the JW culture of abuse (?)

  Nobody should put up with abuse, but when you step outside of that context, marriage very often is about allowing yourself to be wronged in various other ways.
  

  A perfect example (Although probably not what the author had in mind...) is the process of helping a spouse out of this cult. Those of us who've been through this ordeal have put up with a great deal of crap along the way.

  I put up with it because I knew the glassy-eyed, slack-jawed automaton spouting platitudes that would insult the intelligence of a nine-year-old was not my wife. The kind, considerate and very intelligent person I married was still in there somewhere.

  But even in day to day mundanity, things as simple as a tooth-ache, hormones or even a mental lapse can make people do and say things that are out of the character.

  Surely these aren't hills worth dying on, are they?
  
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  john.prestor

  To me it comes down to what they want and why they write something like this. They want to make people weak and submissive, it's not just about women, they try to make the men like that too, and it means people walk all over you becauss you never stand up for yourself, you dont think you should, you don't know it's an option. The Baptists raised me like that and it took me ages to figure out why people harassed me on the street and walked in front of me or outright made fun of me. When I stopped acting submissive and weak, I started acting more dominant, and now people show me respect.

  Their advice sets people up for abuse. That's why it upset me.