I faded 20 years ago and have stayed in touch with me family. Both my brother and my sister who are still in do not even talk about the religion or beliefs to me. We talk about everything and when it comes to xmas or birthdays they, just stay away for a couple of days and don't even ask me about it.
My dad who is an elder has for the past 20 has always tried to witness to me. I always said I do not believe JW's anymore because when I grew up I was telling people about this generation was 70 to 80 years and did not believe in 1914, so as long as I did not talk to anyone else about it I could not be accused for apostasy. I always tell him if armageddon comes tomorrow we will all be saved.
The problem I always had was he couldn't help but witness to me every time I visited my parents and I would feel bad every time I visited them, so the visits would slow down and then I would feel guilty that I wouldn't see my parents enough.
It took me 20 years to figure out how to have a relationship with my parents, I decided that the only way I could answer my dad's witnessing was that every time he would start a JW subject I would have to have a biblical answer
So I did my research on youtube and got all the biblical answers against any JW argument.
e.g.
what does salvation means - Romans 10:9,10
Eph 2:8,9 - we are saved by faith not works
1st century discipline we divinely named christian Not Jehovahs witness - Acts 11:26
Who is the truth not what is the truth John 14:6 I am a follower of god and not 7 men in brooklyn, only 1 mediator
What is the good news -1 Cor 15:1-4
I do not jump from scripture to scripture and I stay one the same subject.
After one discussion, he told me that if I wanted to know the truth I would only have to listen to the JW's and and then accused me of being an anti christ because I have left the teachings of christ. The scripture he quoted says to be anti christ is not believing that Christ died and was resurrected in the flesh, I answered how does that make me an anti christ?
He then told me that he could not talk to me about the bible or the JW's anymore. (I'm thinking GREAT!!!)
It took me 20 years to have a great relationship with my parents, its quite amazing what we talk about now that religion is not part of our discussions, I have got to know them as people not robots, we talk about their lives when they were children, how the met and am getting to know who they are as people and how they feel.t
I know it is hard for my dad to keep his mouth shut but if my mum sees that the subject is getting close to religion she reminds him that we do not want to argue about religion. IT FANTASTIC
I know our relationship will never be the same as being one of them, but I am glad I am not one of them.