Just finished writing a 5 page letter to my JW mom (I was raised JW and DFed several years ago, but she has maintained limited contact with me because of my daughter, her only biological granddaughter). I expressed lots of love and positive thoughts but also detailed why I won't bring my daughter to meetings and allow her to be indoctinated (something my mom has been pushing for more and more).
Then, not having mailed it yet, I received a letter from my mom, also very loving, encouraging me to return, but telling me she will no longer have contact with me personally. If I want to drop my daughter (who is only 3) off at her house for unsupervised visits and write letters in my daughter's name to keep her updated, that will be fine. And she would also like me to bring my girl to the KH.
I'll be happy to keep my mom posted on how my little one is doing but, I'm so so sorry, there's just no way the rest of that is going to happen. My baby is not going to grow up with any variations of the JW-inspired nightmares I had.
Still, I decided to scrap my lengthy, in-depth letter of explanation as to why (with its inclusion of the shifting policies that have cost so many lives and the 'Oops, we did it again' failed chronologies and mistaken/misunderstood prophesies that weren't actually prophesies and so on). Somehow, I'm going to keep it short and sweet and very simple, and try not to wrinkle the paper with tears. She's been a part of this Thing for 62 years, for goodness sake. What could I possibly say that's going to make a beneficial difference now?
When I left, my attitude was a very mild and peaceable 'live and let live', but after all I've heard and read here and on other good information sites, combined with all that I have experienced myself, I feel so angry!!! Not at the majority of JW people, most of whom I found to be very kind-hearted and (unfortunately) eager to please God and/or Christ through someone and something they take to be Their faithful slave, but at that "slave" itself who is looking more and more unfaithful all the time, having betrayed and continuing to betray the naive, and often desperate, trust of so so many.
Never (again) will I give anyone or anything that kind of power over my life or that of my daughter!
I weep for the broken families, broken hearts, broken minds, and broken bodies all of us have witnessed... then I close my eyes to search the darkness and the depths, to see what sort of healing and what form of justice there might be for us... I know it's there. Maybe we can help each other find it... maybe we already are...
