How do Witnesses honestly view their close non-Witness relatives that will never become Witnesses?
Close relatives who are not Jehovah's Witnesses
by Tigerman 12 Replies latest jw friends
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Swan
My Dad was an unbeliever, but I still loved him. Mom never gave up on him, and he was so ingrained with it by the time I got out, that he shunned me even though he wasn't baptized. When Mom was wavering, he was the one that became firm. That hurt. It hurt a lot. Still does, I guess.
Tammy
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Gopher
A popular saying about family togetherness is "BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER".
One time at a JW circuit assembly, we were told that this is untrue. Your loyalty to "Jehovah and his organization" would lead to your everlasting life.
Serious JW's (based on the above kind of thinking) may make little or no distinction between their non-JW relatives and other non-JW's.
It all depends on how serious they are about following Watchtower doctrine.
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Doubtfully Yours
Avoid close association, although relatives, still bad influence.
Give good witness in hopes they'll become JWs and reap the benefit of eternal life in paradise.
DY
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Billygoat
Well, when I was a JW, I wasn't that close to my non-JW relatives. Dad didn't let us become close. From what I can understand from his perspective, he feels sorry for them.
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Doubtfully Yours
Billygoat hit it right on!
DY
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DanTheMan
At the time I converted to JW's I wasn't very close to my family. But as the years went by, I became much closer to my older sister and the guy she married about 5 years into my 10 year JW gig. I came to prefer their company over JW's by leaps and bounds, and naturally I felt very guilty that I spent so much time with them without ever "witnessing" to them at all. I was embarrassed to talk to them about da troof as they are intelligent people who would have been appalled if they had known what a wacky cult I was involved with. I couldn't honestly believe that they were unwitting followers of Satan, doomed to destruction at the big A. And so the Watchtower's "worldly people" straw-man became more and more ridiculous to me.
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blondie
Actually we were quite close to our non-JW relatives. As my cousins got older and did not get baptized they were treated as if they were DF'd. It made a bad impression on the never-JW wives who then shunned the JWs. Didn't sit well with the JW grandparents, but they made their bed and had to lie in it.
I think some JWs forget that they are the best example of what a JW is to their non-JW relatives. They may preach a sermon, but it is better to live it.
Blondie
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zen nudist
from the reverse side , I found that JW families were closer to their own blood then to other JWs... which I thought we BORG were above...
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FairMind
Once my family and I got over our initial zeal for the "truth" we did not treat any of our relatives any different than before. The exceptions of course were birthday and holiday celebrations. Not participating in these celebrations was never a big deal to me but in hind sight it probably was a big deal to our non-JW relatives.
FM