Thanks for your best wishes folks, yadda, I appreciate your viewpoint but my optimism and instinct (due to previous conversations with said elder) lead me to think he's a genuine bloke, so I don't feel too apprehensive about opening up (a little) to him. Kate, I can't bring myself to exit yet, I don't wanna disappoint my elderly parent, so I think slow fade is the way to go. I don't mind expressing myself A LITTLE to one of the body so they know there's a reason for my inactivity and I'm not just being lazy (and COULD be gee'd up with a little encouragement) especially if it's a difficult unanswerable question I'm struggling with. And Billy, Thanks for that, I've already read those threads but it's dead handy having them linked together here, I'll definitely be going over them againagain! Lost generation, I had already decided in my mind to stick to ONE issue, and that was going to be the generation one, since if I picked the FADS then that really could spell serious trouble! Like I said earlier, the elder already recognises the scriptural difference between doubters and apostates so if I play up the 'struggling with doubts, working on it' card, it may well buy me some breathing room. Or it might well mark me as a project. In which case it's time to say thanks but no thanks, I'll work it out with jehovah, leave me alone.