by Scully 50 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Does anyone know if it is common practice for JWs to take down or remove photos of DFd or DAd family members within their homes?
If so, is there any basis for this practice within WT Literature™? Or is it simply a matter of "going beyond the things written" in order to hurt and disrespect the target, and extended family members who have close ties to the target?
I never heard of it. Is it a matter of "out of sight, out of mind?" Seems harsh.
I know of one pioneer couple who didn't want to display their pioneer school photo because of a brother in their class who turned apostate. Years later this pioneer couple become apostates themselves. Aaah how sweet it is.
3Mozzies
A number of JWs tried to convince me I should forget my pre-JW existence as though it had never happened. I resented this, as it's a part of who I am.
I used to have a poster size photo of myself and 4 of my buddies on our motorcycles in front of my house. One day when I came home from work my ex proudly exhibited to me the photo of me, which she had cut out of the poster and framed. The portion with my old friends couldn't be found, not even in the garbage. Knowing her, I suspect she burned it. In fact, all the photos I had of my pre-JW life were gone. As a result, I have almost no photos of the first 25 years of my life, other than some baby pics my mom had.
The astonishing thing was that she actually expected me to be happy about it.
W
edited to add: When I stopped regular pioneering due to health my pioneer book and the pic of my pioneer class vanished too.
I never saw or heard anything like that. I think it's a personal decision, based on the pain of losing a friend/family member from their cult. Or, a rejection of them, attempting to treat them like they should be dead.
S
Wow, Finallly-Free. Your ex sure had a lot of gall to do that.
The astonishing thing was that she actually expected me to be happy about it.
Pretty presumptuous. I hope you got really pissed at her for that.
When my jw Father in law died my jw Mother in law took all the family photos off the wall and she had a lot of them. Most of them were not witnesses. I never knew why but assumed it was because it was too painful to be reminded everyday of what she lost. (Her hubby). The family photos were just a painful reminder to her of fun family times with her hubby..at least that is how I saw it.
I felt the same way when hubby died. It was a long time before I could look at family albums without going into a crying spell. Too many happy times that would be no more. Some see it as happy memories I say them as sad.
After a while I was able to seperate and make personal albums for each of my 3 children and their families..the kids loved it and each has their own memories to look back on. The grandkids enjoy seeing their mom/dad as kids also.
Possibly that is how they feel tho, as Serenity said.. "Out of sight out of mind"
Snoozy
where I grew up ALL the pics from Dfds were cut out from the pics... so whenever we would go visit peoples homes and they would show us their albums almost all the time someone had a one or 2 holes
Cyber....
Snoozy
The stories on this thread sound like a contentious divorce: cutting faces out of pictures, eliminating personal momentos. This makes sense I suppose, because it's breaking similarly strong emotional bonds.
When they go to the studio to have a "family picture" taken without telling you about it, that's a powerful hint that you're now a non-person. How I wish that was a hypothetical scenario!
