elder tries to lecture me on parental respect (page 3)

johnny cip

GDT; no i don't know everything, but i know jesus never choose the wt in 1919 to be a prophet in his name 4-1-72 wt etc etc etc. as for verses . what parent would give his child a stone when he asked for bread. the wt is like a heavy yoke of stone. that they impose , on your family to dis own you in a twisted way to make a false gospel binding in the name of god. jn 7;18 gal 1;8 etc. eph 5 says to expose false teachers. read the whole chatper. the wt teaches respect for the society. jesus taught respect for him . respecting the heavy yoke of men in brooklyn , is not respecting the one that died on the cross for our sins,. you are the one that needs to read the gospel of jesus . and dump your old self in the ways of men . un believer did a fine job with that wt task master(pharisee). i'm still waiting for those greek scriptures that say respect your parents when they blackmail you with false teachings... john

Soledad

I hear ya unbeliever. While I was drifting away from the WTS I was constantly badgered by the elders, that my non-meeting attendance was disrespectful towards my mother. I was also in my 20s during this. I finally got to confronting one of them when he got pushy.

elder: "dont you care about your mother? dont you love her? why not attend for her sake?"

me:"is that what your kids do? do they just pretend to be JWs for your sake? how does that make you feel? why aren't any of them baptized?"

of course he couldn't come up with an answer! after that he stopped bothering me.

the point is that unconditional love earns respect and trust. JW parents have no clue what that is much less show it towards their children.

gdt

"do good to those persecuting you'; 'love your enemies'; 'do not go on reviling';' return evil for evil to no man'; 'vengeance is mine, I will repay.'......who said that? Sorry guys, I cannot accept that there is any justification for vilifying people, but just my opinion.....major wars are only a continuation of minor 'word wars' and hardly Christ-like. but then not everybody agrees with that do they. trying to be nice kind and humble to all men/women is not a sign of weakness. I just believe no matter what that especially applying those principles in our attitude to our mother is the right thing to do. cheers,gdt

kls

gdt until you have walked in some of our shoes, you would see some parents do not deserve the respect you are suggesting.

gdt

kls, your remarks are really quite unnecessary, even though you have every right to speak up. I did not perceive that we should only respect those who deserve to be respected, as if we are the judge and jury of whom we should be nice to, and if they don't meet out standards or our judgment, we have a right to be disrespectful. Sorry, can't ever agree to that idea. May be typical 'dog eat dog' attitude, but is that the best any of us can do? And by the way, why suggest I have not 'been in your shoes', or are not in fact 'in your shows now'? , case rested, i just felt that you mostly cheered on a young person 'standing up' to a brother/elder who knew how much his mum is hurting because of his attitude, would't you try to kindly be of help ? gdt.

Stephanus

Try any page of the Christian Greek Scriptures, if you wish,

Ahhhh! That explains it all. And someone was wondering where the pro-JW trolls had gone, just the other day!

Big Tex

trying to be nice kind and humble to all men/women is not a sign of weakness. I just believe no matter what that especially applying those principles in our attitude to our mother is the right thing to do.

Actually gdt, I agree with part of what you have to say. I believe that you receive, for the most part, what you send out. I cannot find it within myself to hate. So while recognizing that I will never achieve the ideal, I do try to treat others as I would like to be treated.

Having said that, I also recognize that there is evil in this world. There are men and women capable of great atrocities. So while I believe the above, I also believe in the necessity in protecting ourselves from the evil that men do. The vast majority of abuse (whether it is sexual, physical or emotional) occurs within the family. It is therefore reasonable that where such abusive treatment occurs, we must take whatever measures we need to protect the person we are.

I myself have not had anything to do with my family of origin in 12 years, even going so far as to change my name legally. I have no respect for my parents. I don't love them, but to be fair I don't hate them either. They are, to me, an irrelevent shadow of my past. But I have the advantage of 15 years of time, and 7 years of psychotherapy. Others are still in transition to where they need to be. Resolution of anger is part of recovery. It is not an easy process, and sometimes not a pretty one to watch, but it is necessary.

I choose to believe in a God who accepts that we can only work with what we are presented. It is a gift, part of Grace.

Valis

Big T...you can also reason from your experience and that of many others that if you do not treat your children well, you shouldn't expect much or blame them for not wanting much to do with you. One hopes that they are a good parent and if not then gawd help in the long run.

forgiving our fathers
by dick lourie

maybe in a dream: he's in your power
you twist his arm but you're not sure it was
he that stole your money you feel calmer
and you decide to let him go free

or he's the one (as in a dream of mine)
I must pull from the water but I never
knew it or wouldn't have done it until
I saw the street-theater play so close up
I was moved to actions I'd never before taken

maybe for leaving us too often or
forever when we were little maybe
for scaring us with unexpected rage
or making us nervous because there seemed
never to be any rage there at all

for marrying or not marrying our mothers
for divorcing or not divorcing our mothers
and shall we forgive them for their excesses
of warmth or coldness shall we forgive them

for pushing or leaning for shutting doors
for speaking only through layers of cloth
or never speaking or never being silent

in our age or in theirs or in their deaths
saying it to them or not saying it -
if we forgive our fathers what is left

gdt

It was a pleasure reading your thoughts and insight Valis and Big Tex, thanks. May your problems be as few as the feathers on a frog's back!! gdt

Valis

and may you gdt, realize it aint as simple as that for many people...especially in your replies to fellow board members.

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

elder tries to lecture me on parental respect

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