Tough to break it to em...tough to get through

by mavie 6 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  mavie

  
  So I meet with a few elders by myself recently to talk about some questions I had regarding the faith and how suffocated I was feeling inside it.

  They took everything pretty well, started crying a little, but ended up letting me proceed with my questions...albeit not as an MS in the cong. I am going to continue to ask questions about the faith to the elders, as they can't answer them for me. All I get is the same old, "we won't ever know everything" and "we are imperfect". They don't get it. Dishonest quotes in WT literature has nothing to do with knowledge or imperfection.
• 

  AuldSoul

  Boy do I feel your frustration. I wasn't an MS, but I had the same experience with the BOE for a year before I gave up.

  Have things improved with your wife? I remember you mentioned that she was certain the organization was God's because she had personally experienced God working in her life. I'm sure the strange intertwining and equating of organization to God is not lost on you. Have you been able to help her see the distinction?

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  mavie

  Well AS, as she prayed to Jehovah when feeling suicidal, and attended JW meeting during her recovery, it is not much of a leap to take.

  She still has unquestioning faith, despite evidence to the contrary. I'm not pushing it...I love her deeply and am confident she will see in time.

  On a side note, I am beginning to understand why my parents were easily converted. They don't question anything! I realized this after observing them swing from one food diet to another, in spite of much evidence these diets, like Adkins, are very harmful. It's frustrating putting together a logical argument and then realizing the other person doesn't care about logic.
• 

  AuldSoul

  I realized this after observing them swing from one food diet to another, in spite of much evidence these diets, like Adkins, are very harmful.

  Funny that you should connect this with believing everything. I never made the connection, myself, but my family has done this my entire life. From Mix-i-go (a fuel additive) to TSI (Total Success Incorporated) and their magical panacea "Aloe Vera Jelly, to coloidal silver, to herbs of every function, to diets spanning the gamut from wheat germ diets to gluten-free and everything in between...the next thing we try will work! For...whatever it is...that the next thing is supposed to do...

  I got off that merry-go-round at 21 and endured much tut-tutting over the following decade about ignoring the latest fad wonder fix for what ails you. Because, after all, everyone knows that the body is energy and magnetic fields at ultra-low gauss helps the body come back into balance. And guess what? They can tune a radio frequency that will heal you long distance.

  Ugh! But I think you put your finger right on it, there, mavie. I need to come to grips with the fact that my family hasn't cared about logic for a really long time.

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  Gill

  Auld Soul - Mavie!!!! You have the same parents as me!

  I warned them not to go to an 'award ceremony' which was in regards to a letter that was sent to them that they had won a TV, or Satellite blah blah etc. They would not listen. They ended up buying time share and being tied into a fifteen year mortgage that they could not afford which nearly broke them when my father was sick. They have more vitamins and fad diets, and weird and wonderful contraptions in their home that they can't and don't need then you can imagine. They are gullible and do not think, or are not able to think. As you said, reasoning is lost on someone who can't or won't think.

  That's where and how the WTBTS finds its victims.
• 

  greendawn

  "we won't ever know everything" and "we are imperfect"
  
  Those are the classic thought stoppers when they have to deal with difficult or impossible questions, yet they are missing the point if they want to they can understand things better and more correctly unless they are mentally retarded.
  
  Instead of hiding behind such falsely reassuring excuses, and also that "jehovah will give the right light to the FDS in due time, we are in good hands we don't need to doubt or worry about anything. Jehovah and the FDS are looking after us"
  
  Note Christ doesn't enter the picture here though the head of all christians. Are the JWs really christians?
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  mavie

  greendawn, it is SO hard to communicate this to a JW. It requires a paradigm shift in thought process. If someone truly believes an organization is inspired of God, then any seeming contradictions or objections MUST be wrong. However, what if repeated dishonesty was found in how this org quoted scientists and other leaders in their respective fields? Is that imperfection? Trying to get a JW to understand this is painful.