Doctrine on JWs marrying non-JWs?

by Margie 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  Margie

  Princess Daisy Boo, thanks for sharing your story. I agree that my sister should just do whatever will make her and her intended happiest, but unfortunately, our mother's behavior is casting a pall on what should be a happy event. It makes me really upset for my sister.

  Atlantis, thanks for the screen print.

  It sounds as though my mother has doctrinal support for being a jackass over this matter, unfortunately. If anyone can think of a way to doctrinally support that my mother should attend (or is not prohibited from attending), it would be really helpful. Maybe I should just tell her that I posted the situation on a board filled with ex-JWs and they all support her not attending my sister's wedding. I'm sure she'll be happy that the apostate community agrees with her decision making, LOL.

  Thanks again everyone.

  ETA: Oompa, jgnat and mustang all posted while I was typing. Thanks for the food for thought. I really appreciate your all taking the time to respond.
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  AudeSapere

  First off, JWs believe that they are the only true religion and everyone else is false. To 'marry only in the lord' is taken to mean to marry only another JW - and preferably one in good-standing.

  Interesting that you noted the discrepancy between the JW who is actually getting married to a non-JW and the JW who would just be attending the wedding.

  I don't think I recall any serious sanctions on the marrier (although they have probably already resigned as pioneer, ms, etc).

  Two incidents come to mind. One was my believing-but-not-baptized brother. He was engaged to marry an active witness. My mom vacillated between will- and will-not attend the wedding. Why not? Because the bride-to-be was marrying a non-believer, her own son~! She was leaning toward more toward not attending but a few days before the wedding spoke to an elder who told her it was OK to attend her son's wedding.

  A sadder incident was that of minimus's mother. The elders came down hard on her for attending a family member's wedding. I forget the relationship but she suffered severe emotional and spiritual pain over this. Made me angry and made me cry. I've wondered about her since first hearing the story. Don't know what her current situation or position is but I hope she has been treated better lately.

  -Aude.
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  AudeSapere

  Here's some links to a few old threads of Minimus:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/78958/1.ashx (Letter from Society that attending will have consequences)

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/79283/1.ashx (Pioneer Grandmother is removed from list for attending granddaughter's wedding)

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/80724/1.ashx (Uncle denied microphone privileges because of attending niece's wedding)

  Now that I've posted these, I think I'm off base from the original question. Sorry for that. But this was such a sad and weird situation and since I've done the work, may as well leave the links. It's not too far off the specific subject so please forgive me.

  -Aude.
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  Margie

  Now that I've posted these, I think I'm off base from the original question. Sorry for that. But this was such a sad and weird situation and since I've done the work, may as well leave the links. It's not too far off the specific subject so please forgive me.

  I forgive you, Aude! It's not exactly what I was asking, but it's interesting and illuminating nonetheless, so thank you for posting your thoughts and the links. In my mom's case, I don't think there would be any negative repercussions with her congregation and I don't think my mom thinks there would be, either. For one thing, my sister's wedding will be in another state and won't be attended by any JWs other than her immediate family members that choose to attend.
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  Tired of the Hypocrisy

  I dunno, King David had a good and loyal man killed so he could hide the fact that he had already gotten the guys wife pregnant. Any other Israelite would have been put to death with the slut alongside him. They were not really "in the Lord" were they?? But they got to live on and have more kids even though the innocent little bastard was executed by God......

  I think that they are full of crap and should grab big handfulls of it and shove it into their big flapping yaps.....
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  WTWizard

  To put it bluntly, they do not like it. There have been washtowels against even courting worldly people as long as I remember.

  Why? Because all the witless is allowed to do is field circus and talking about the Kingdumb and whatever is in the Washtowel. They have to believe everything the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger tells them, and the worldly spouse will not believe it. In fact, many worldly spouses will find the holes that can be used to blow apart the crap doctrines, pulling the believer down with them.

  And so they can put up additional barriers against people getting married at all, forcing them to stay forever celibate so they can use the energy instead to get the extra 0.000001 publisher.
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  james_woods

  But this was never a disfellowshipping offense? Or, even a "dis-associating" offense, like service in the military?

  I certainly can remember a number of people who ended up doing this, and never heard of a committee over it, just some browbeating.