Can You Reach Out to an Unbelieving Mate? - KM November 2010

by jgnat 69 Replies latest jw friends

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    O, don't get me started on manipulation. My (non-JW) mother is a master at it so I am immune to it's charms. A pioneer sister suggested that I would be a more supportive wife if I joined. Hah. I don't need to be a cheerleader, faking for a team I don't believe in, to prove my love.

    I painted an "ideal" scenario for my hubby to prove my point. I would join the society and as a good Jehovah's Witness wife, I would quit my job and go in to full time pioneering. He would have to work more than his part-time job, and support the family. No more restaurants. We would lose our house to bankruptcy and become wards of the state, living in state-sponsored subsidized housing. We would have to sell his large collection of sports memorabilia and our electronic toys. He blanched and changed the subject.

  • Ding
    Ding

    "He blanched and changed the subject."

    He didn't tell you it wouldn't be a problem because the paradise earth is just around the corner???

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    Ding, hubby does bring up the short time we have left quite often. We have a tacit agreement in our family that he is in charge of short-term plans and I am in charge of the long term ones. That way we're covered.

    Moshe, I see the problem right away. The "Job's comfort" that an elder may try to provide would only work on families where there is some sort of Christian orientation. The Witness message just does not work without a bible in hand.

  • whereami
    whereami

    No wonder the wifey was extra nice to me this week!!!

    I knew something was up. Thanks for the heads up jgnat.

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    He blanched and changed the subject.

    Yeah. Cuts both ways. My wife enjoys the lifestyle of the wife of a retired corporate exec, but she seems to believe she would have no trouble giving it all up in a heartbeat for Jehovah. She's always the best dressed one at the meetings and always one of the most, if not the most wealthy women in her congregation. No way she'll ever have to worry about it, though, so the observation is only of academic value.

  • Finally-Free
    Finally-Free
    If a divided household experiences a crisis, such as the death of a family member, the elders may invite the unbeliever to sit in when they give comfort to the family.

    This is almost a backhanded acknowledgement that they are aware that facts, logic, and reason can't support their beliefs. Overwhelming someone who is in an emotionally vunerable state probably accounts for most of their converts.

    W

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    It really is despicable, finally-free.

  • TD
    TD

    "An unbeliever who has not been receptive to Bible discussion..."

    "Bible discussion" strikes me as a code phrase for something far more specific

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    I am absolutely on your page, TD.

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    The short study I did have, we mutually agreed after several sessions that I wasn't "ready". If the person is not complaint enough to submit to the program, they are dropped like a hot potato.

    There was a much bigger danger that I could infect the study leader with new thoughts.

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