How Can You Possibly Love God More Than

by Englishman 7 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Englishman

  .......Your Children?

  Oh, I've read all the Scriptures. I know how Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac too. But it seems to me to be a very unreasonable and harsh thing for a loving God to demand. It's just not natural to my mind.

  Surely, when a man leaves home, marries and has children, don't those children now take first place, aren't they now Numero Uno, even pushing one's own parents down the Love List? That being the case, and our being taught that God is the Eternal Father, would God really expect us to put Him before our children? You Grandparents, do you really expect your grown-up kids to put your welfare before that of their children, that is to say, your grand-children?

  When we hear about JW parents who shun their erring children, do they shun out of love for God, or do they shun because they believe that they will save their own necks in the unlikely event of the Big A arriving in their lifetime? Is their sticking with the JW religion done out of love for Jehovah or terror of him?

  Just wondering.

  Englishman.

  Bring on the dancing girls!
• 

  Pathofthorns

  When we hear about JW parents who shun their erring children, do they shun out of love for God, or do they shun because they believe that they will save their own necks in the unlikely event of the Big A arriving in their lifetime? Is their sticking with the JW religion done out of love for Jehovah or terror of him?

  I think for some they have been conditioned so much over the years that they feel that shunning their children is the "right and loving thing to do".

  I am viewed as "bad association" and they are hoping to "shock me to my senses". (and I'm not even disfellowshipped.. LOL)

  JW family relationships are so dysfunctional that they seem to be able to drop family members in this way and for it not to be a terribly emotional experience. Strangely I also feel little loss as far as they are concerned.

  Shunning family members *technically* is not forced. It is something that has been encouraged and they do of their own volition. I believe fear of Amageddon or Jehovah has little to do with it.

  It is a bizarre and twisted expression of love in their minds. This combined with a JW view of justice and punnishment and their concept of 'protecting' their closed society from 'corrupting influences'.

  Path
• 

  Francois

  Right on.

  The real issue for me is, what kind of god would pull a shameless, heartless stunt like that with Abraham? God supposedly "knows the heart" of each of us better than we do ourselves. For what reason then did Abraham - or any of us - need to prove our love for god via such an inhumane piece of trickery?

  It's all in the nature of the God being worshipped. Jehovah, as previously noted, is nothing more than a tribal notion of God and a savage one at that; a human concept of God as superhuman complete with all the failings, faults, foibles and fuckups of his human subjects writ large.

  The old pre-church Wiccan conepts of The All are more majestic than is Jehovah. Wiccans didn't engage in human sacrifice, nor animal either, but by golly the Hebrews did. And evidence points to their sacrificing of humans prior to the advent of Moses, who substituted in the child-like and ignorant minds of these desert savages the idea of animal sacrifice.

  We cannot possibly be any more spiritual than the God we worship, and Jehovah is just not that spiritual of a god.

  My two cents.

  Thanks for introducing the topic.

  Francois
• 

  flower

  Path,

  Hmm. i read your reply and its funny but i think the total opposite is true in my case. my fam also has that unnatural ability to cut off a family member without blinking an eye. thats just the way it is if you leave the truth. but i honestly dont think it has anything to do with wanting to shame us back into the truth. i dont think they do it out of love at all. in my case its a case of just blindly following the orgs instruction on the matter. it may not be 'technically' spelled out as a command from the org. but their literature on how to treat da'd and df'd family is pretty clear what their point of view is. when there is an issue like there where the org doesnt 'technically' require something but just suggests and leaves it up to the person, most of the Jw's i know including my fam want to do it the way the org suggests. to them the orgs suggestions are to be followed almost as closely as the orgs commands. yes you can go against it but to say 'well the org does not say we HAVE to do such and such..' would get you attention from the other jw's. and maybe even a few would stop associating with you as much.

  bottom line, (imho) they do it because the org 'suggests' to and thats as good a reason as these zombies need.

  flower
• 

  Pathofthorns

  I agree with you flower. They are doing as they have been conditioned to do. But the answer they will likely give in explanation of their behavior is what I have stated.

  Path
• 

  Mulan

  This has been one of my pet peeves for a LONG time. The thought that a loving god would ask a man like Abraham to kill his beloved son to prove his love, is just too much. It's almost enough to make me an atheist. Instead, I think I will just doubt the Bible........ Afer all, the nations around them practiced child sacrifice, so the writer just threw that in (it's a thought).

  As for families shunning their own.........I did it when I was a loyal dub, so am not terribly critical of that one, because I understand the mindset. But, it's still a disgusting rule, with no basis in God's love. Why can't they think that out? I never did either, until the "bricks started falling", but you would think they would do a little reasoning, wouldn't you?!!!

  Marilyn (a.k.a. Mulan)
  
• 

  Esmeralda

  Hey Eman :)

  That being the case, and our being taught that God is the Eternal Father, would God really expect us to put Him before our children?

  I can't reconcile that either. It seems against every fiber of my being to love anything or anyone more than the child I carried for nine months and have loved and cared for. I don't want to worship a God that doesn't understand that!

  My six year old was just struggling with this issue a couple weeks ago. Here's the link to how that conversation went:

  : http://www.wtsurvivors.homestead.com/why.html

  It's sad to me that she already knows, at six, that her JW Dad will never love her the most. At least she knows that I will

  Happy New year to you and yours!!!

  *hugs*
  Essie
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  Englishman

  ES,

  You link was spot-on.

  Kids need to believe that they are the most important thing in their parents lives, who wants a god getting in the way of that, only Muslim fundies!

  Englishman.

  Bring on the dancing girls!