I've been around JW for a long time, its nothing that bad...They are just god fearing trying to be good at all times. I have never witness any misogyny if anything the women are more vocal then the men from what i have encountered.
Its a lot worse then i thought. The wife & i tried talking to her the other day & she basically broke down crying feeling we are against her. This is the first time she has shown any type of emotion or even talking back. I guess all is loss but hopefully i at least planted a seed in her head. So when she has doubts she will remember our conversation. I dont think ill push it any further for now and just build our relationship from there. Like i said majority JW are good people that i have met. Even the wife's family members are outstanding citizen.
That's unfortunate, but it's good that you approached her together as parents.
There is absolutely misogyny there, whether you see it or not. The best thing you can do now is be prepared, because the educators at JW are absolutely ready to combat you. "Honor your father and mother " Both Jews and Christians focus on this, so you can fall on that if she doesn't want to listen.
love how MISOGYNY was wedged into this, without the other side of that coin, MISANDRY!
faust says it best here.
and as for op:
the girl is young, there's still time, the seed is trenched as you said.
the issue i have with this whole concept, is it's never a choice, ALWAYS foisted.
some clearly break out of the programming, usually violently.
not a bad thing when the rudely awoken can see their point is made.
if the lady still communicates after the fact, it's more than a start...
Good luck man. I will just mention a couple of last things. Someone in the thread suggested the Crisis of Conscience book. I have not read it myself, but I have heard it is a very useful book. In general, there is a growing amount of books on JWs as well as information online.
There are many resources on the online you can find from a google search. I like this particular site:
Likewise, there are a lot of resources on youtube, from people themselves, and even documentaries. I like this one that aired in Canada not long ago:
These sources might offer some different opinions on JWs than you are used to, they might also help with your particular situation. The more information you have on the matter the better I think so you can make the best decisions.
Interesting. Some here know, my wife was a JW, her entire family is still active in the church.
They're definitely controlling and manipulative, that's for sure. They made things HIGHLY difficult on my wife and myself early on in our relationship.
I'm going to have to watch those shows, I'm curious what they say. I don't think most people know exactly how large and widespread they really are. They're nearly everywhere across the entire globe and are highly organized. Possibly one of the most organized religions I've ever seen.
That's fairly close to what they currently teach, although they're softer on the whole "judgement" part now. I went through their whole indoctrination process, read all of their pamphlets and sat in hours of classes. I don't recall seeing anything about the Michael thing though, all of their lit just spoke go Jesus as Jesus. They do not follow the idea of the trinity and still stick to the whole 144,000 thing due to the verse in Revelations.
Ugh. I honestly can't say which of those I like less. Jehovah's Witnesses can be annoying but mostly hurt no one other than themselves, while Catholicism has been an absolute blight on human history for as long as they've been around.
The Remini video brought out a lot of testimonials from the people I knew in JW growing up.
One lady has a brother that got out, but a sister that she hasn't seen in 10 years.
I've been doing a ton of thinking on this one and had some stuff to add about JWs.
Here's a fairly solid video of what I've seen, this gal went through much of what my wife did:
No need to watch much past the 9 min mark unless you really want to.
JWs are insanely tight, and controlling. They do their best to control every aspect of their member's lives and like she said, you basically have zero life outside the faith. There is next to no room for free thought and free study of the Bible is mostly discouraged. They have companion books for nearly every book of the bible and they tell you what to read and what to think. As stated before, they are HIGHLY organized. They make and release the Watchtower, it is literally what that week's talk will be on at the Kingdom hall. There are no pastors, there are no free form sermons. You read what is in the Watchtower and that is it. All JWs have the same talk on the same day.
What really sucks the most about it all is just how locked down their lives are. They are not allowed much interaction with the world. They really don't celebrate much (besides wedding, births, and graduations), they do not attend any higher education, most hold menial task jobs, they do not have anything to do with the government. They refuse to do anything that will interfere with their going to meetings 4 times a week. It is fitting that they call themselves the "faithful and discrete slave"
Everything is on rails, everything is planned, you spend most of your free time at meetings or JW events. You want to talk about misery...look no further than what they call assemblies...2-3 days of never-ending "talks" and "dramas". They have no Sunday school, their children are expected to sit through all of this.
In short, JWs is a controlled, sheltered, sad existence. For those born into a JW family leaving the faith means being 100% exiled from everyone you've ever known. My wife's family are kind of rebels and have not shunned her like most JWs do. We were just discussing it last night, she was willing to leave them all behind to be with me...it was a massive decision for an 18 year old to be forced to make. Being "disfellowshipped" means being 100% alone and the fuckers look at it like this:
Her family did it at first and she was 100% cut off form everyone...it was terrible.
Cult, religion...I won't slap a label like that one them. Miserable, alone, mental elitists is more like it. Most JWs have this chip on their shoulder...they're quiet about it, but that arrogance is there. They consider themselves highly enlightened, deep thinkers despite how on rails their doctrine and teaching really is. I was in/out of their religion for years and honestly, the best way I could describe it is lifeless, joyless, massively time consuming, and horribly boring.
*EDIT*
I think that in short, JWs shelter their members and pump a ton of fear into them about leaving. When they do leave, they're 100% on their own and completely unprepared for the world due to their sheltered upbringing. When they get chewed up by the world, they often run right back tot he JWs instead of sticking it out. The JWs give them the old "see, we told you so" when they're beat up by life.
I think that in short, JWs shelter their members and pump a ton of fear into them about leaving. When they do leave, they're 100% on their own and completely unprepared for the world due to their sheltered upbringing. When they get chewed up by the world, they often run right back tot he JWs instead of sticking it out. The JWs give them the old "see, we told you so" when they're beat up by life.
Dangerous? I don't know...I guess it completely depends on how you define dangerous.
Will it white-wash your life making for a boring and dead end existence? Absolutely. Will it encourage you to do dangerous and life ruining things? No, not at all. For the most part JWs are clean living people who honestly do abstain from much of life's pitfalls. The seem to have a steady home life and most have solid marriages...it's just all encapsulated and without joy. They seem all shiny happy people on the outside...but they're not. It's impossible to be happy living in a sterile, controlled environment separate from the world.
Other known JWs that are black are Jackson family, Wayans family, Donald Glover, & Prince...Quite a bit of my wife's friends too.
I think that video smokehouse link just seems a bit extreme. Like most religions, people who have strong beliefs will be demonize by non believers. My wife wasn't raise that way and friends i knew were just like any other kid. I didn't even know they were JW until my graduation year in high school.
There will always be extremist you cant just judge all of them that way.
Other known JWs that are black are Jackson family, Wayans family, Donald Glover, & Prince...Quite a bit of my wife's friends too.
I think that video smokehouse link just seems a bit extreme. Like most religions, people who have strong beliefs will be demonize by non believers. My wife wasn't raise that way and friends i knew were just like any other kid. I didn't even know they were JW until my graduation year in high school.
There will always be extremist you cant just judge all of them that way.
It may be regional...and I'm not sure where you live...but I can assure you that where I live, they're all that tight and strict. My wife is the extreme exception to the rule, they all married inner faith and they're regionally that way.
So just background, my wife & i has been together for 20 years now. We have a great relationship despite having two different religion. She was raise as a Jehovah Witness & i Catholic so yeah very different.
Both of us aren't that devoted, me less so over the years. My wife on the other hand still goes to her meetings but still do the other things like celebrations of holidays. With kids she wanted them to have bible studies, which i also did before i married her. It really wasn't for me and was hoping wont be for the kids either.
So fast forward a few years now & my oldest is really getting into the whole bible study. Today i was made aware that she will not be attending her cousins birthday & also not attend one of her closest friends birthday this saturday. If this keeps on trending, doesn't look like no Christmas celebration either.
Im not really liking this & i know its ultimately my daughter's decision. I think with my relationship with her though, i can still influence her to celebrate holidays.
Should i just respect her decision or influence her not to get too crazy with the whole religion brain washing.
Cut her off. Tell her that holidays are about spending time with the family or she’s dead to you. Change the locks. Tell the other kids that if they speak to her, they are financially cut off too. Then burn down her yurt.
Cut her off. Tell her that holidays are about spending time with the family or she’s dead to you. Change the locks. Tell the other kids that if they speak to her, they are financially cut off too. Then burn down her yurt.
Cut her off. Tell her that holidays are about spending time with the family or she’s dead to you. Change the locks. Tell the other kids that if they speak to her, they are financially cut off too. Then burn down her yurt.