Hello everyone! I hope you are all well. I haven't posted in a little while. I've just been adjusting and enjoying my new life outside of the org. But a recent event resulting from the 2016 RC prompted me to come here and post today.
I talk with my mother in law every Monday to catch up. So she calls like usual and the conversation is good for about 5 minutes. Then she starts to tell me how great the RC was this past weekend. She knows we haven't been to anything jw in a while, but not really why. She's been extremely bothered by my husband's beard tho and suspected something was up because of it. Anyway, occasionally she brings up jw stuff and I successfully change the subject. But this time was different. fresh off the RC indoctrination, she was extra pushy. I told her I was happy she enjoyed the RC and tried to move on a couple of times.
So of course she keeps trying, telling me about the theme of loyalty to J-God and powerful videos, blah, blah, ..... I finally told her I'm very happy she enjoyed it, but we decided it's not for us anymore, and that includes our little boys. I told her I'm not interested in what went on, so we can just talk about something else. She didn't let up, wanting to know what happened, etc.. geeze they have to know everything! I wasn't going to run from it this time tho. I finally just said to myself "f-it, here goes". I told her we took the time to examine the religion outside of what the org provided and we came to the conclusion we don't believe or agree with it anymore. Guess what the next words were out of her mouth? "So you are saying that you both disassociated yourselves from Jehovah's organization?" Huh?? I'm like is this my mother-in-law or a elder??? She switched into cult jw mode so fast. I told her "no, that's not what I'm saying, we just stopped attending and practicing. It's not a big deal to us. We don't belong to that org anymore so we don't subscribe to any of their rules and regulations. That is your terminology, not ours."
So of course the conversation took a bad turn from there, and it went on for over an hour with lots of jw junk being thrown at me. At one point she says "Im just telling you my opinion of why I think I have the truth like you are telling me your opinion on what your thinking is now." And I told her "yes, that's fine. But the difference is, I already know why you believe what you believe. I believed it for 37 years. So there is nothing you can tell me about jw that I don't already know, and it won't change anything. It's not going to work."
She kept asking me what did I read to make me feel like this, because she couldn't believe that I changed my mind. I told her it was my gut that lead me to investigate the religion, not what someone told me to read or look at. I didn't read to make my decision. The material just confirmed what I had been feeling for some time. I told her she could find the same information I did, and it's not from any apostate stuff. Of course she said "I don't need to do that because I have faith that I'm in the truth." And I told her "I have facts. And facts trumps faith to me every single time. There is nothing you or anyone can say or do for us to go back. This is a final decision."
She says "so you know what this means for me, right?" I said "no, tell me mom, what does it mean for you?" She proceeds to tell me that she loves us but has to put j-God first and she has a conscious decision she needs to make. So I asked her this question. "So you are going to tell me that because we changed our mind on believing what you believe, you are thinking about shunning your son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren? And you honestly think that is ok and a rational thing to do?" There was a brief pause where I think she actually thought about that. But the indoctrination kicked back in and she again parroted what they are ordered to respond and said said her loyalty is to j-God first and she will make a conscious decision on that fact. So I just ended the call by telling her that we loved her very much and I hope this doesn't change our relationship. But based on how the conversation went, I know it will and I won't be surprised when it does.