Posts by roberto avon

67

Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father

by Zana in

my wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.

my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .

sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.

roberto avon

What I do not know if they push for a bible study because we are a mixed couple and the were afraid tomloosing the kids, anyway it didn't work.

67

Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father

by Zana in

my wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.

my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .

sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.

roberto avon

Hello Zana,

they tried when they were 13/14 ( an elder ) but as I told you I didn't let them. My brother in law

is an atheist married with a Jw ( sister ) and he is allowing that his son has a bible study ( he started when he was 14 ).

Their marriage was far more complicated.

67

Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father

by Zana in

my wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.

my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .

sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.

roberto avon

Hi Zana,

I understand that it is a little bit strange. As I told you, the first 4/5 years of my marriage I had a bible study and attended 70/80% of the meetings with my wife.

She used to read bible stories from the yellow book to my first daughter. At the beginning I didn't interfere to much with the education of my kids, I just tried, since I was working and travelling a lot, to play with them and before sleeping read them some stories as Peter Pan, Pinocchio other Grimm stories or I just invented them ( you can immagine which they preferred ).

Another thing to consider is that at christmas we used to go to my parents ( catholic ) who celbrated christmas.

In Italy religion is " almost " obligatory at school but we decided not to let them attend. But, for example at dinner when we discussed the evolution theory my wife told them the Wt point of view and I just tried to explain my kids that it was just a point of view and that the evolution was antoher possibility of how life on earth started.

My father, only once, told me I was allowing my wife to much and that I had to intervene but Imtold him that everyting was under control.

The important things that I did was ;

- not allowing the kids to attend the meetings during the week. An elder once asked why and I told them; " meetings finish to,late and they have to go to school." He than asked me at which time they went to bed ( what I expected ) and I told him 8.30 so that he coulnd't go on with the discussion.

- iI absolutely didn't want them to have a bible study ( besides the mother ) before an highschool degree

- I allowed my kids to read Harry Potter and play with yu ghi oh cards.

- for me school and education was very important

At 8 or 9 my daughter told her mother she was an atheist. I think my two sons are agnostic as I am.

Yes though she is very liberal I think it is difficult for her but honestly in 27 years the distance between her and the congregation grew steadily. When the Jws in the 80s spoke of Armagheddon ( 1914 generation ) she married me and had kids.

The last memorial when she came back home she was sad but she didn't tell me anything. I used to acvomany her so now and than but 7 years ago a very aggressive overseer tried to convert the whole family and I almost had to throw him out ( my wife told him that I didn't want him to come ).

They just cannot respect me.

I am trying to tell her that here parents made an enormous mistake by joining this religion and that they are all nuts. I spoke to her about child abuse but she didn't want to read B. Anderson's website. But she told me she believed me.

She usually answers; ; " why should I leave my religion, I go not evem once a week to the KH and I just go and pray ).

She has always protected her private life and has some very food non Jw friends.

She once told me that she will not change this, even if th Gb obliges her.

Let us see...

16

Can a marriage between a catholic and a jw work?

by roberto avon in

this topic was posted yesterday on an italian fb page.

i replied that my personal experience was very positive.

of course i have to admit that my.

roberto avon

scary21, nice reading you. My wife was baptized when we married. From non practising catholic I became bible student of the Jws but after a year and a half I stopped, just because I couldn't believe this nonsense. The first five years of our marriage I usually accompanied her to the meetings and some assembly ( a horror for me ) then I totally stopped going. As our kids grew up they decided that they absolutely didn't want to be a Jw. My son is engaged now with a non practising catholic and my daughter was with a practising catholic. Very curious if my kids will ( re ) convert to the catholic religion or will convince their partners in a non religious marriage. Concerning myself, I became agnostic, however, since Frances became Pope I feel myself a little more involved as I love his messages.

16

Can a marriage between a catholic and a jw work?

by roberto avon in

this topic was posted yesterday on an italian fb page.

i replied that my personal experience was very positive.

of course i have to admit that my.

roberto avon

ok, I accept your point of view, especially what you say that if I would have been a Jw ( the contrary ). But as all marriages there is a dompromise.

I have to admit that my wife was very happy that the " blood question " was under my responsability....

16

Can a marriage between a catholic and a jw work?

by roberto avon in

this topic was posted yesterday on an italian fb page.

i replied that my personal experience was very positive.

of course i have to admit that my.

roberto avon

Bugbear, this is exactly what I mean when you accept to marry a man/wife who is a non Jw you know

that put your family first and religon will be a personal thing and not anymore the only meaning of your life.

If you think this way it can work as it worked for us. I will not deny that they have tried to convert me and my kids but also thanks

to my wife we remained as we were and the kids could make their own choice.

16

Can a marriage between a catholic and a jw work?

by roberto avon in

this topic was posted yesterday on an italian fb page.

i replied that my personal experience was very positive.

of course i have to admit that my.

roberto avon

Hello everybody,

this topic was posted yesterday on an Italian Fb page. i replied that my personal experience was very positive. Of course I have to admit that my

spouse is quite liberal since she married a non practisant catholic. We married at the town hall, had three children that didn't recieve the catholic baptism. We were very open with the education of our kids and I agreed with my wife telling them stories from the bible book. On the other hand I didn't want them to attend the during the week meetings because of their school and didn't want them to have a bible study till aftr highschool ( and with my supervision ).

Now that that two of the three are grown up ( 26,21 and 13 years ) they have chosen not to be a Jw ( they never wanted ). Our marriage was a compromise but it worked well. I organzied the birthday parties and christmas and other things. I really can say after 27 years that we have a happy marriage.

The comments I recieved on the ExJw ( against shunning ) FB page were quite negative and almost everyone seems to be convinced that it is absolutely impossible a mixed marriage with a Jw, in this case with a catholic.

My esperience says that it can work and my feeling is that the fact that Italy is practically a 95% roman catholic country the comments were to negative and that in other countries mixed marriages are working better. Of course both catholic and Jw should be liberal.

What do you think about it?

17

Hey There...An Introduction to a Married IN nonDub (unbaptised pub)

by HeyThere in

jw
friends

hey there all, i just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and thank you all for this wonderful site and all the helpful discussions sich a loving arrangement .

my name may (or may not) be tracee.

i may (or may not) live in texas.

roberto avon

Hi Hey There

I am also married to a Jw born in and since almost 27 years.
Didn't have too much trouble as she is a very liberal Jw but from her congregation and family so now and then we had some problems.

My three children ( 26.21 and 13 ) don't want to know anything about this cult, un spite that my wife always told them stories ( the famous yellow book ) about the religion.

On the other hand I told them " my stories " as Peter Pann,,Pinocchio and the Grimm tales. Also we have our Christmas trees and birthday parties and my wife accepts it because she understands that she can't oblige anyone tomattend meetings and so on.

I would " advise " you to concentrate on your family and especially on your 3rd child
and get her of of the jw cage.

When your husband will be the only one, he maybe will start thinking

67

Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father

by Zana in

my wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.

my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .

sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.

roberto avon

cultbgone

I agree that it is a bit scary. Good night ( it's 11 pm in Italy )

67

Raising kids - JW mother, agnostic father

by Zana in

my wife and i have two wonderful children aged 1 and 3. i was raised as a lutheran but stopped believing in my late teen years.

my wife is what i would call a liberal jw (yes, i believe such people exist .

sooner or later our children will have questions about religion and the differences mom and dad show towards it.

roberto avon

JGNAT

you're right but to be honest I was also lucky because my oldest daughter who now is an atheist ( she says, but yesterday she went to the movies to see Noah somi guess she is just agnostic as I am ) and helped me a lot in detecting these stupid sisters ( of course there are also good sisters ).

My wife and I go along very well but I still do not trust the Jws and this is the reason why I am here.

I compare them to al qaeda cells, they sleep for 15 years and all the sudden they speak to a family member or friend of yours that are, maybe, facing a difficult moment promising a solution for all the problems.

The rest you know..