Parents still believe the JWs altough they know all the bad stuff.

GBSJG

My parents where not raised as a JW but converted to the truth true field service. I was raised as a JW by them.

I have told them all the things that I've learned through this board and several books about the WTS. They are open enough to discuss these things with me. That is something I'm very thankfull for when I read some of the other stories on this board.

So they know about the lack of proof for 607, the UN membership, adding the name Jehovah to the NT, failed prophecies, pyramid teachings, criticsm about the bible itself, inconsistencies in the blood doctrine, etc.

With 607 they honestly admit that all the contrary evidence is very strange and they don't know how to explain it. Showing them that the world isn't worse since 1914 is very difficult and they hold on to that. The UN membership is a painfull error in there eyes but nothing more than that. Every point I discuss with them they can understand why I'm having trouble with that point but somehow we always draw the opposite conclusions. They will not read any apostate literature and don't like the fact that I do, but I can always tell them what I've found if I can provide evidence for it. So they basicly know all the bad stuff about the WTS.

I just can't understand the way they think about the WTS. I understand that's why it's called faith and I've got no hope for them to break with the WTS thats there own call. On the otherhand I can't imagine that all the info they now have has been upbuilding to there faith and perhaps those seeds of doubt will grow some day.

Did you had a similair experience, that you could calmly show a JW all the things that are wrong with WTS but he still doesn't agree with you?

megsmomma

It feels so hopeless, huh? The WHOLE REASON I started to research all this stuff is because my mom made me feel so guilty about leaving JW. I thought I may even go back to save my family...Then I found out all this stuff, and I was SHOCKED. I really didn't even know what the JW's believed! So, imagine my excitment when I called and told her what I discovered! I never thought it would make her so mad and result in no more conversations! They are truley brainwashed....and some just enjoy their purpose from being in the org. (I guess)

kwintestal

I can't say I've had similar experience with my parents as you have yours. My parents refused to discuss anything, and when I did bring up anything at all they immediately discounted it as lies and refused to hear any more. You are very fortunate that your parents will discuss this with you at all as obviously they've been instructed not to by the WTS. Sure, they may not have voiced the same opinion as you, but perhaps they're not ready to? I couldn't imagine leaving the JW's later in life with a lifetime of pushing people (non-JW's) away from me and how I'd settle into society after that. A scarey though. I wouldn't push them, but give them time. Maybe they'll leave, maybe they'll stay but whatever they do it'll more then likely be them doing what they feel is best for them.

Kwin

blondie

Belief may mean they might need to change and they don't feel they are ready to change.

Fe2O3Girl

If you asked 1000 XJWs what persuaded them that JWs don't have "the truth" you would get 1000 answers. Given how easy it is to get the information that you have presented to your parents, there has to be more to why people stay (and leave), or there would be hardly any JWs in the developed world.

For some people, finding that the key doctrine of 1914 is built on (at best) dubious chronology is enough to break the control. But a lot of JWs don't have a remote grasp of the 1914 teaching, so why should that bother them?

Being JWs is providing your parents with something that was missing in their lives - that is why they converted. Apart from climbing down from their choice, being JWs is still giving them something. What is it? Do they like the sense of belonging? The superiority over worldlings? Not having to think much about any decisions (from what shall we do tonight, what shall I wear, to what medical treatment will I accept)?

Have they ever talked about how they learned about the JWs? What were their circumstances? What drew them in? I think that is the key.

GBSJG

Have they ever talked about how they learned about the JWs? What were their circumstances? What drew them in? I think that is the key.

My dad was first interrested and my mom didn't want to know a thing about it. She was very critical about the JWs and religion in general. At that time she even did some research about what others had to say about JWs. Of course at that time there wasn't as much info as there is now. That is probably also the reason why I can talk freely with them about these things, I can imagine if they where also raised as JWs it would be a different scenario.

But I don't know exactly why they converted to JWs at that moment. Thanks for the suggestion it's a good topic to bring up when I see them again.

reneeisorym

From talking to other people who were like your parents before leaving, it was always doctrine that changed their minds. I suggest coming up with a sound argument that our hope is going to heaven and not the paradise earth. That is very easy to do if you do enough research before opening that can of worms.

Also, listen to this testimony. It might help you. It is a guy I have met telling about how he knew all of the bad stuff but it wasn't enough .. and he tells what finally was enough.

http://www.jwinfoline.com/audio/jay_hess.m3u

OnTheWayOut

While I am young at exposing the WTS to active members, I usually don't get too far.

They don't allow you to make a point without resorting to the mantras-
"The light is getting brighter"
"Jehovah will straighten it out in due time"
"He is using imperfect men to accomplish his will"
"But who else announces (God's name, the literal bible, the Paradise)?"

I have made excellent strides with a few JW's. The most tame response was
"We are serving Jehovah God, not men, there are plenty of problems with the
organization, but nobody else out there has the truth." A PURE CONTRADICTION
THAT SITS WELL IN THAT PERSON'S MIND.

Of course it happens to many of us- We are up against a mind-control cult.

garybuss

My dad was company servant, city overseer, an elder, and convention chief financial officer and he knows much more dirt than I do. Years ago I showed him information I had about the Witness group and he said he had 300 times more information about the organization dirt than I did and he doesn't care. He said it's (being a Witness) still the best way to live. He said I couldn't of had a better life.

He likes being a Witness. He likes the Witness people. He even appreciates the Witness people he doesn't like. He likes meetings, and service, and study. He loved the secret meetings and the trials. I must have spent half of my childhood waiting for him to come out of a closed door meeting.

He'd talk for 4 solid hours at the Kingdom Hall, and then on the drive home he'd be sullen and silent and he wouldn't say one word to anybody on the ride home. At home he'd never say a greeting or a goodbye to my brother or me like he did to the Witnesses at the Kingdom Hall. The only time I ever saw him smile or laugh was at the Hall.

deeskis

My parents have been witnesses since childhood, they're now in their seventies. They both left the org for about ten years but my mother started attending again after some family illness, she needed something to help her cope. She started going back to meetings on her own and my dad sat at home alone for a year and then joined her.

I've told them about some of the things I've discovered about the society, they explained it away as apostate lies. However my dad let it slip that he had gone online to see what I was talking about. They also say that it's the best of a bad bunch.

I really feel that they love their circle in the cong, they'd be pretty lost without it, they don't shun me (not for a long time). So it's a case of each to his own.

Best wishes

D

Parents still believe the JWs altough they know all the bad stuff.

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