Conversation with my Dad

jeremiah18:5-10

My 73 yo dad called me tonight. He had just returned from the Convention. He proceeded to tell me he can't believe that a smart and successful man like myself can be so dumb so as not to believe that JWs have the truth.

I let him talk freely for a while without interruption, he's a lifelong witness and I do not wish to bring his world crashing down at this age.

He did however end up opening a door a had to go through. He asked how can I read the Bible and not believe in the earthly hope and what JW's teach. I said, "I don't wish to debate you or to insult you, but my answer is very simple. I started reading the Bible without assumption of truth. I don't read it to support the WT, the WT should support the Bible. That changes everything". Awkward silence, then I decided to bring the call to an end by telling him I'm grateful that he cares and that he shared his convictions. I told him I respect his beliefs and right to believe and that I have never and would never call him dumb for doing so.

Overall, it was nice to hear from him, he made me chuckle with his cult reasoning, but I simply can't unlearn what I now know about this organization. I had to share this with someone, people who can relate. Thanks for any feedback.

Jules Saturn

I get the same exact responses from my own father, it's sad actually. And I refrain from telling him the truth about his convictions so I respect it

joe134cd

I have the same problem with my father. My father thinks he has the right to tell me la de da about the organisation, and yet I can't return the favour with the serious misgivings and concerns I have about his organisation. I just bite my tongue. So help me LORD.

steve2

Sounds like my father who could not conceive of the notion that anyone raised from birth could really leave "the truth". I recognize in your father my father's eagerness to share and to question me about my supposed intelligence yet choosing not to be a witness.

When parents speak to you this way, you are put in a difficult spot. He died many years ago and I am happy that, in all the times he "innocently" cajoled me to return I never once tried to take the carpet out from under him. I knew him so well: For him life was a constant battle and he was in no frame of mind to learn that the organization he served so very completely was completely wrong.

Wheel Nut

My parents have been in for 50 years and me out for 30.

I've tried reasoning with them, I've tried studying the bible with them. If you ignore it, they think you know it's the truth but that you are too stubborn to admit it. I am now reduced to sniping at their faith.

Father sometimes throws the "Not long now" line about Armageddon in conversation. I continue it with "...before your god murders 8 billion innocent men, women and children."

If they still feel the need to 'witness' about their cult, I feel justified with challenging it with fact.

scratchme1010

Overall, it was nice to hear from him, he made me chuckle with his cult reasoning, but I simply can't unlearn what I now know about this organization. I had to share this with someone, people who can relate. Thanks for any feedback.

I'm on the same page with you with my own father, who is now in his 80s. My father doesn't talk to me anymore about anything JW, mostly because our interactions in the past haven't been too civilized. He was not a respectful man, and he had the belief that his children can never be right or could do anything better than him.

In your case it seems like you can have a conversation that remains at a respectful level. Also, I noticed that you addressed important things implicitly, such boundaries, respect, sensitivity for what he could feel.

Aside from the effect of waking up a person in his 70s and that person realizing that he has wasted his life in nonsense, you separated the person from the WT nonsense, which is something that every father (every good one, I mean) should want from his children, which is to maintain a relationship that is respectful.

I liked that you limited your answer to only what you believe and you because he asked.

carla

Has anyone on the face of the planet ever become a jw by reading a Bible without any jw litter-ature? Impossible. One cannot become a jw by reading a Bible alone.