My darling sister came over Friday night. My husband was at a conference at work on Friday night, and I thought it would be a nice time for my little sister (15 years younger) to come over, hang out, eat some popcorn, and watch a movie. We changed into our jammies, rented "The Village", and piled into my fluffy, decorative pillow ridden bed, to watch the movie. Of course, we chatted as women do.
My sister has a lot of bills right now, so she moved back home with our family <mostly JWs> until she can pay off her debts. She comes over to my house, or to other friends' houses to get away from the stress at home of a family that is crowded into a small space, with three JW's: one terminally ill, one a full time pioneer, the other DF'd, and the other, Dad, who is a Greek Orthodox. She was born and raised JW, but was never baptized, and left the religion when she got out on her own, but is still sympathetic to the religion.
I decided that I would talk to her about the apostofest in Dallas. I talked to her about it, and she said she wanted to see the pics, so I showed her. She said "Country Girl, Mom does not care about your involvement with the apostates, because she already knows that that is a sign of the end coming, and she expects it." HAHHAAHAH... and I thought I was making headway with the JW's in my family! IN fact, I have APOLOGIZED to my Mom for bombarding her in earlier years with information I was learning from the apostates, and she just recognized that as the persecution that would come at the end and doesn't hold it against me. Hehheheh. I asked my sister if she thinks that JWs were the ONLY ones being persecuted. I think she thought they were. But I told her that ALOT of religion all over the Earth were being persecuted, and JWs aren't the only ones, and that if that was the sign they were looking for, they were clearly in the wrong.
Well, she didn't know what to say to that.
All I am glad of is that Mom doesn't hold a grudge against me, and can put my behavior down to listening to the "apostates" and not down to my self. She can't put it down to "persecution as dictated by God" because I already know that several religions around the world are persecuted, hers not being the FIRST. The thing that really sticks out with me is that we always were taught that we would be persecuted because we are the true sect. Well, LOTS of religions have been persecuted, and so have lots of corporations. I was watching CNBC's presentation on WAL MART last night.. and it looked just like a CULT... or AMWAY.. it's all the same thing: people being intimidated, led, pursued, etc. to believe in a certain philosophy without being able to think for themselves. WalMart has bad press, and well it should. It needs to redesign it's employer/employee relations and make all employees equal. They just lost a 7.5 million dollar suit to a guy that ws disabled. And there is a class action suit pending, and another 50 or so suits so that they don't bring their stores into local areas. EVERYONE'S getting persecuted, not just the JWs....
If they rely on that scripture that God's people will be "persecuted" .. well .. who do they look at first? Them, Christians, or employees of WalMart?
CG