Blondie I agree it's just that emotional trauma from a jw expulsion can take a long time to heal.
Visiting JW parents... should i be evil?
by jimakazi 15 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
mrsjones5
My parents are in their 60's and diehard jws as well (even though Dad only goes a few times a year) and they still interact with us kids (none of us are jws). I dont engage them anymore about their religious choice as long as they dont engage me about my choice.
Josie
-
Es
As they dont shun you I would just leave it as it is. If they are happy then just let them be es
-
blondie
Blondie I agree it's just that emotional trauma from a jw expulsion can take a long time to heal.
Greendawn, that's true but it is better not to try to find a simple answer to a complex situation. My parental problems started long before I left. My parents are abusive in many, many ways and being JWs did not change that (but it didn't cause it; they would have been abusive anyway). I have found that for people to wake up to the WTS lies, they have to have to experience pain from unloving treatment from their so-called brothers and sisters themselves. Sometimes many times over a prolonged period. I'm such a case. I finally exhausted all the "logical" reasons for being kicked in the chops by people who said they loved me. Who knows what our parents or friends are observing in the congregation? What cognitive dissonance they are trying to deal with? Who knows what the next CO talk will hold or what cruelty they will witness at the KH, cruelty they thought impossible. Few on this board left over night; it was an accumulative experience. I certainly do know what it is like to be rejected on the basis of lies by those I thought loved me and those I thought I could trust with my life. But don't define yourself by what others think of you. Know that the things you do are loving and with a desire to help those you can. Blondie
-
greendawn
Many people do suffer emotional (or sexual) abuse apart from the spiritual abuse that is common to all R & F and for them it's better to leave the org but some are doing quite well and are happy to stay in and give the org 7 or 8 hours of their time each week in return for a social life.
In Jimakazi's case I have the impression that his parents are happy with the dubs, even the most arbitrary and brutal jw would respect rather than abuse emotionally, people in their mid 60's. -
blondie
That's the key, greendawn, by his own report his parents are happy. So keep in contact. Someday they might turn and say, "such and such happened in the congregation, we can't believe that God approves of that."
Blondie