My son's best friend's parents attend a really whacky religious group, similar in some respects to the JWs. Simply replace Armageddon with hell, and there ya go! I have just shrugged at it; they've been nice enough to me, very friendly.
This evening, their son asked me if he might be able to spend the night and go with my son to the youth group at our church in the morning. I shrugged and said no problem. He called, and then simply told me that he got a "no" answer (and I wasn't surprised).
But my son spoke with him before he left our home. Apparently the mom was shouting at him that he "wasn't a true Christian!!" and if Jesus showed up while he was at our church, he would certainly go to hell!!
Wow. I feel like she's either very 2-faced (cause she's very sociable to me and never says a negative word to me about anything), or else she's not sure how to broach the subject of her concern with me. ...If a person truly believes I am in THAT much danger of hell, shouldn't s/he say something?? I'm chopped liver in reality? (Their take on "bird food"?)
I am now wondering how they permitted my son to associate with theirs, because they believe long hair is a sign of rebellion... and hell is for the rebellious. (You can barely see my son's face, his hair is so long. ) They are so hell-petrified that they refuse to let their son go to a movie theater, lest Jesus return at that point... and he would then go to hell!
Their son is determined at this point to move as far away from his parents as possible, once he's 18. I hope we won't lose touch with him in the meantime (that is, that he gets cut off from socializing with my son or the rest of us). He's a fun kid. He needs a lifeline.
Thanks for letting me vent. If I didn't do it here, I suspect I'd be sending the mom a terse email! I don't think it would help.
bebu