12 Have empathy for unbelieving relatives. While we may be overjoyed about the Bible truths we have learned, our relatives may mistakenly believe that we have been tricked or have become part of a cult. They may think that we no longer love them because we do not celebrate holidays with them. They may even fear for our eternal welfare. We should show empathy by trying to see things from their viewpoint and by listening carefully to discern their real concerns. (Prov. 20:5) The apostle Paul endeavored to understand “people of all sorts” in order to share the good news with them, and a similar approach can help us as well.
Periodically I look to see what bull shit my family still has to read and found the above.
What? So the Watchtower is advocating our family members still stuck in should be willing to try and see things from our point of view and listen carefully... How can I get my parents, my cousin, my uncles, and other relatives to see my point of view and listen carefully to my concern they are part of a cult.
I suspect this is impossible. The bold sentence above says the aim of seeing their viewpoint is to "discern their real concerns" (as if thinking they are in a cult is not a real concern!?). Further, the last sentence show the ulterior motive, all this listening is with aim to find an angle to spin to try and preach to us unbelievers. And while I view my self as an unbeliever (I'm an atheist), to them I'm a disfellowshipped apostate so I doubt they will listen to me if I tried.
I just find it astonishing the level of disingenuousness the above paragraph contains! Not to mention the implicit duplicity (oh, this idea only applies to group x, but not group y, despite both groups not believing in our teachings).
I also find it appalling the idea of only trying to understand where someone else is coming from without a genuine interest or care in their viewpoint, but only to find a way to argue your case with them. The automatic discounting that their view must be wrong because it isn't your own -- wow, just wow -- no wonder JWs are so ignorant! They have no ability to be open minded about anything as they think they already know it all.
Lastly look at the level of thought control in this paragraph: "we may be overjoyed" (what about the JWs not overjoyed?), "we have learned" (have JWs learned anything or have been told what to believe?), "may mistakenly believe" ( again example of being told what to believe, no JW has "learned" they aren't a cult member -- kind of contradicts the "we have learned" phrase), "We should" (telling what to do again), and "real concerns" (again the cult accusation must not be really the concern).