Worldly Relatives

sammielee24

While you were a JW how badly did you feel obliged to treat your non JW relatives? Did you not visit with them? Did you keep your kids away from them? Did you refuse to attend weddings and funerals? and now that you're out...how did you go about making ammends? Have you visited with them or explained why?

Elsewhere

When I was being raised I was shielded from my "worldly" relatives and was never allowed to really get to know them. I don't even know their names.

kazar

When I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses I visited my non-Witness relatives frequently. I always left literature in the prospect of converting them, which they politely took but never read, for which I am eternally grateful. I did attend the funerals and weddings, but was always cautious and afraid demons would be involved -- but never were. I always took my children.

Cygnus

Weddings, funerals, and the odd times I'd happen to visit Grandma when they were there is all I've seen of them in the last 20 years. When we were kids we saw each other more, naturallym My dad always told me the story of how when his brother, my uncle, was 17 and studying with a JW, the guy blew him off once on study night and he never showed interest again. Funny, cause at Grandma's house, the pictures of him, his wife, and their two daughters, my cousins, all "unbelievers" are front and center on the fireplace mantle. My family is the most balanced and off-kilter family in the world. But whattya want, we're Irish folk who only got into the USA by pretending to be Cornish.

mrsjones5

my parents were and still are pretty liberal jws especially when it comes to "worldly" family members. I remember going to a family reunion and hanging out the the worldy family members cuz they were more fun.

Leolaia

My father remained a "pagan" so we went to all the family gatherings, weddings, Christmas parties, etc.

jaffacake

Hey, no one take this the wrong way, but I was brought up a Catholic then a SDA, before spending most of my adult life as agnostic/athiest.

Worldly was a term I too was brought up on. But I can honestly say, the JWs I know are more 'worldly' in the Biblical sense than many non-JWs. How dare they claim this word as their own and distort its meaning to mean non-JWs when the Biblical meaning would certainlt include most JWs within its scope.

Ellie

My dad had a few kids to his first wife before he married my mum and became a witness, he never bothered with them and I suspect that was partly due to his beliefs.

I'm now 25 and have only met my half brothers and sisters a handful of times, I don't even know all of their names and I wouldn't have a clue how to track them down.

Finally-Free

When I was a JW I virtually ignored my "worldly" sisters, nieces, nephews, and their kids, even though they always tried to be nice to me. When I DA'd NOT ONE of them told me that I behaved like an asshole for 20 years. The act like nothing has happened. They were just happy to get me "back". I can't describe the shame I feel at the way I treated them all those years, and I'm at a loss about how to go about making amends.

But I really had a nice day at my sister's place today. A bunch of family members were there to BBQ. I wish I knew ahead of time it was my nephew's wife's B-Day. I would have broght her something.

W

thom

My brother quit being a JW as a teen, but I didn't. He got himself into alot of trouble with drugs and stuff and the family basically ignored him. My grandfather and I were really the only ones who helped him out. Eventually getting him into rehab where he cleaned up.
He married and has kids and all those years he had nothing to do with family or with me. I always wanted to but he treated me like sh** for 20 years, so I just gave up. I figured that was it.
His wife though would keep in contact with me and when I told her I left the JW's she told him and he completely changed toward me. Apparrently, he assumed that since I was a JW I hated him (which I didn't). His explanation for all the abuse he laid on me was that I was a JW just like the rest of the family and I hated him. Well, my family did treat him badly, but I didn't. He just assumed I thought the way they did and would not give me the opportunity to prove otherwise. He was hurt WAY more than I ever was by the religion.
Only in the past 6 months have we talked, he's expressed why he acted the way he did and now realizes that he was doing it to protect himself and feels bad that he never gave me a chance. We have a great relationship now as both of us have decided to just put the past behind us and move on. His family is now my closest family, I flew up there (Alaska) this summer and helped him build a foundation under his house and we had a great time. I wish we could have done this alot sooner, but the past is the past so forget it. At this point, we're close family, but when I was a JW there was no relationship whatsoever. But the "different" part is that it was he who would not allow the relationship.

Worldly Relatives

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