What Your JW Relatives May Realize

by metatron 7 Replies latest jw experiences

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  metatron

  There's a lot of hurting manifest on this board. I've been there, with Witness relatives and friends shunning me ( more or less).

  As you encounter these people, it may be easiest to kindly remind them of the near future of Jehovah's Witnesses:

  In ten years, the average Witness will be about the same as any other religion.

  Yes, there will always be a few Witness fanatics, just as there still are in the Catholic church, despite pedophile priests

  and lots of quiet erosion. Yet, change is happening and the old men who run the Watchtower are losing the next generation

  of young Witnesses - with all that indicates. Contributions have dropped so that the Society has had to dump subscriptions

  and food service at assemblies and most hardbound books. They dropped pioneer hours to 70 a month and dropped the

  minimum for publishers to at least 15 minutes a month, as they get more desperate to hold on to the numbers they

  love so much.

  Sure, your relatives would be loathe to admit that things are going this way BUT that doesn't mean they can't quietly

  change a bit - as long as you don't challenge them too much about it.

  I appreciate reading your posts about relatives ESPECIALLY those that tell of mothers, brothers and the like suddenly

  "giving" a little, attending a (worldly!) wedding, going to a baby shower or just simply communicating when that was previously

  verboten.

  The more obvious the decay becomes in the organization, the more congregations shun the sick and depressed,

  the more uncaring elders manifest themselves to be, the MORE they may come to long for the comfort of their own

  flesh and blood.

  Take heart, don't give up, and remember that time is on our side. Chronology and cold doctrine may pale in compelling power

  compared to the cry of a newborn grandson, the celebration of a graduation, or a wedding that involves a new mate, who's much

  "nicer than that brother in the 'truth' she used to be married to!".

  metatron
• 

  RunningMan

  In June, my mother (who is 78) attended a graduation party for the grandson of her Presiding Overseer. The whole congregation got together to throw the party. They live in a rural area that has almost no kids - in 20 years, all the congs in the area will be gone.

  Anyway, this event may not seem odd until it is taken in context, but 25 years ago that very month, I graduated from high school. And, I won an award for the highest average in the graduating class. I did not go to my graduation. No one in that part of the world, in that time period went to their grad. Now, this may be a regional thing, but my, how times have changed.
• 

  Gopher

  The more obvious the decay becomes in the organization, the more congregations shun the sick and depressed, the more uncaring elders manifest themselves to be, the MORE they may come to long for the comfort of their own flesh and blood.

  My parents and 2 surviving grandparents have all been associated with the WT Society for 50 years or longer.

  Of those 4 JW's, only one grandparent treats me like family. The others are still afraid of jeopardizing their standing with the organization and so will not see me, my wife or family or my sister's family either.

  They still believe the organization is wholesome, clean and the only one blessed by Jehovah himself. Of course, one is an elder, one an elder's wife, and the other a full-time pioneer. So they have a "lot to lose" by any kind of normal relationship with me.

  I'm at wits' end trying to figure out what to do to normallize things. So I just go about living my productive and happy life without them.
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  pamkw

  I agree, sometimes I think my mom might really care about me. Since I left Kansas last March and moved to Alaska, she calls me on the phone at least once a month. The last time we talked for over an hour. I guess moving away made her realize she missed me. But when we lived in the same area, I was lucky to get a hello from her. We no longer talk religion or anything like that, she has finally stopped trying to get me to come back, and just accepts me like I am. But it took moving thousands of miles away for her to do that.

  Pam
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  wednesday

  You are so right. I was quietly not agreeing with them for a long time before I just stopped attending. We were quietly celebrating Thanksgiving and New Years and July 4th, for some time. We actually disagreed with quite a bit, we just kept the main belief that of a new System. We had even stopped believing that only JWS would be there.

  There is always hope.
• 

  Undaunted Danny

  I endured brutal school persecution during the WT$ militant years early 1960's.Then things only went from bad to worse,contracted severe unrelenting ulcerative colitis with a colostomy in 1970 at age 13.1975 didn't 'deliver me'...

  Had a violently disasterously dysfunctional JW family was a 3rd gen Jdub.I saw all my loved ones crash and burn.

  I am REALLY PISSED!

  Blood thicker than dogma?That's i,t 'hope springs eternal'.The same wind that snuffs candles kindles great fires. and better to light one candle than curse the darkness.
  
  Absence makes the heart grow fonder,ah what the heck.
  
  
  
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  Devils Advocate

  Hey Danny, what are you REALLY trying to say ? LOL
• 

  czarofmischief

  my own family is much kinder and more accepting than they tried to be. They were the ones that sought ME out after six months of shunning. Time IS on our side.

  Grim Reaper, take away Jaracz and Adams, and the tower will fall...

  CZAR