by bebu 21 Replies latest jw friends
Bebu, you or your son might wanna pull this friend of his aside in the near future and let him know that yall'll "be there" for him if things get rough at home. Let him know he's got somewhere to turn where he won't be judged or made to fear for his life for not conforming. Doing this will also let him know you're FAR from chopped liver, (((Bebu))), and who the real Christians aren't in his life.
Frannie
Have you forgotten, Jesus showed up 2000 years ago, again in 1914 and nothing has happened yet. Why should we expect more later?
Ken P.
Sorry to hear that bebu. Please make sure that none of that religious shame rubs off on your son.
Perry and Hubert, my son is aghast at his friend's church--besides feeling the frustration and disbelief of how they view him/us. He (and his friend) feels ashamed of that church!
My son's friend is caught in a struggle, and I am prepared to let him know (as you said, frannie), that he can always contact me if things get really bad. I'm all for children hanging in there as far as humanely possible, but I'd be glad if I could be indirectly responsible for helping the folks get counseling. Both sides have to do their part.
Thom, it took me a while to understand what those folks were singing in the video clip. I believe I will slyly pass the link along to my son, who will surely share it with his friend. They will appreciate the laugh!
bebu
Terrible. Just terrible.
Well, it's not like you did anything wrong. So chin up. Religion, like the media, can only hurt you if you let it.
Be brave!
CZAR
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 believe Christians in general have to essentially deal with an internal conflict between being tolerant...or...being what they consider "truthful". I just think its a byproduct of being in a fundementalist Christian religion. Eventually, the truth of what a person truly believes comes through.
- Preston
I can SO relate to this post, 18 years ago or there abouts, I was that kid your son is friends with. I was raised in the Worldwide Church of God (Herbert W Armstrong), and since learning from this site what JWs are like, I have seen more and more areas where they are both similar. I so hated going home to this environment that I took to going to a friend's house after school instead of riding the bus home. My friend's parents were very understanding, after getting to know me and talking to me they realized that my home situation was pretty untenable. So, they let me hang out with them quite a bit, I was nearly another member of their family, eating dinner at their house, etc.
Once my parents figured out where I was spending my time, and how I was trying to avoid them and their strict religious beliefs, they started complaining to the school principal, calling my surrogate family on the phone and harassing them by making threats of reporting them to the police as having kidnapped me, and other tactics. I think they actually DID call the police on them at one point, my memory is fuzzy on some of the crazy stuff that went on back in those days. At one point, due to the complaints of my father, the school principal pulled me into the office for a talk. He informed me that because of my father's complaints, and certain legal technicalities I was obligated to take the school bus home. He told me that if my home life was that bad, I should call social services, police, etc, but in the mean time, I MUST go home on the bus, once there I was no longer his problem and could do what I wish.
Well, I was a stubborn kid, and I thought that was pretty crappy in the first place, and it was much easier to walk to my friend's house only about a mile from the highschool than it was to get away from my house which was about 6 miles away from town. I kept doing the same thing, and ended up suspended from school for not taking the school bus. The irony here is that adherents of the WCG (and JWs too) were always talking about how corrupt "worldly" organizations like government and school systems were, yet my father used the police and school administration to enforce his will on me.
Anyway, the point of me relating that story is this: be very careful with this situation. Depending on how nutszealous this boy's parents are about their religion, they could become very hostile toward you, and make things very uncomfortable.
Thanks for these latest replies.
Czar, my chin is back up! <---see? LOL. (How are the girls? )
AllAlong, that is quite an interesting story!! (Amazing to be suspended for not taking a school bus!!) Thanks for sharing it. And I can completely understand the situation you are talking about.
For one year in college, I worked at an emergency shelter for teenagers. Many of the kids were runaways from difficult homes, with emotional/verbal/physical abuse (or combinations of those). Sometimes the kids were extremely stubborn, but sometimes it was the parents. The staff at the shelter tried to promote counseling to parents because the kids alwats got counseled (in order to help them get to a point to see and think more clearly). We had to work to never drive a wedge in their family relationships through our opinions or actions, yet balance that out with searching out truthfully WHY the problems existed... refereeing, in a sense. Very tricky! And I don't want to have the son get cut off--or have the parents cut us off, because then communication opportunities are completely impossible then. I do want their son to be aware of what kinds of resource choices there are for him in the community, though, just so he won't go off any deep end... and that we'll be pulling for him (and his folks).
I wish I knew what denomination they were. Can't find anything easily on the web. The son doesn't know any name for this church; he doesn't think there is one. Their pastors have no homes--the members take turns housing them. Church buildings and paid clergy are ungodly. The women don't cut their hair. The men keep their hair short. No alcohol, movies, dancing, bingo, or whatever. Rules, rules, rules... Must be the Church of Rules.
bebu
Hello everyone, I've lurked here since the beginning, and this is my first post. Bebu, this group may be the "2x2's" or "Cooneyites" which began somewhere in England in the early 1900's. The women don't cut their hair (most wear it in a "bun"), no TV, all other churches are false. They call themselves "The Truth". (Sound familiar?)
If you google "2x2" or "The Truth" you'll find websites about this group They also go to "Conventions" where large numbers of them gather for talks by their "workers".
MF
Wow, thanks MF2!! You are right about the bun, and you are right about the TV, too... I haven't heard talk of conventions, but that's probably because I've not been really listening for it.
OH, and BTW, WELCOME to you MF2. Thanks for making your first post (and very helpful) on one of my threads!!!!!
bebu
