I love all the responses so far.
Tammy - I do still believe in God and Christ, I would consider myself a spiritual person but not a religious person. I have mentioned to her in the past that to be a JW means to accept without question that Jehovah is using the GB as his channel for man and without that complete faith in the organization it would be impossible to go out in service and try to convince someone else it's the truth if you don't believe it 100%. I would like proof from the scriptures that they were chosen. I have never gotten a clear answer, just basically that they are who they are because they say they are. Silly me, I always thought Jesus was the mediator between God and man, not the organization.
Black Sheep - it was a couple of years ago that I asked her that and she actually replied with something that made sense. She admitted that it took her a while. I can't remember exactly what the reply was but I remember that I was going to follow up with something else but didn't have the energy to spend a couple of hours on the phone with her about it. She puts a wall up if she suspects you are coming at her as an "apostate".
Talesin - I like the way you think and that will definitely be the gist of the letter. I guess I want to find a way to politely say to her, "what if you are wrong and you've judged us to die at Armageddon and alienated us from yourself and the rest of the family?" She is definitely the matriarch.
smmcroberts - my children are all grown, only 1 got baptized and he got disfellowshipped not too long after that for fornication. He tried to get reinstated after a couple of years. We moved and he started going to a different hall-the elders at this one approached him after several months to put a letter in, he did but the original committee denied it. He tried again a few months later and they denied it again because he had had sex after getting disfellowshipped even though he stayed celibate while trying to get reinstated. He gave up after that and hasn't looked back. He was the only one of my kids that actually thought it was the truth but now he wants nothing to do with it.
Fernando - a lot of great information. Quick question...What is legalism and what is the opposite? I don't come on this board too much anymore but I have seen a lot of talk about it. I don't understand myself so would never go there with her without fully knowing it myself.
When the whole UN thing came out, she was the only one I approached about it. I told her that it really bothered me and I felt like maybe Jehovah removed his spirit from the organization because of it. Afterall, he changed his mind about the Jews so why not the witnesses especially after going to bed with the wild beast. It didn't affect her at all, in fact she said that unless Jehovah came down to earth directly and told her the organization was wrong, she would follow them. It's hard to reason with that so I dropped it. She mentioned it to several elders and the circuit overseer. The CO and the DO came by once to encourage us back to the meetings and asked us if it was because of the UN thing and I told them that was part of it. They said they didn't understand why the society would do that either. I was dumbfounded that it was accepted without question.
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