Sister Joining Jehova's Witnesses-Should I be Worried?

[agooga]

My sister is 43 years old, lives in a very small town about 1,000 miles away in our home town. We have relatives in the town as well. She has a 4 year old son (no father) and has fallen for a man there who is a JW.

They are seriously talking of marriage and she seems to be well on the road to adopting his religion.

We were raised Catholic, but she hasn't set foot in a church in years, as far as I know.

I know little to nothing of JW, other than the usual bad rap it gets as a "cult," etc.

I WILL BE DOING MY OWN RESEARCH (for all the FReepers out there who complain that people actually ask other people's advice/opinion rather than Doing Their Own Research). But I often find that I get some interesting POV's by soliciting here.

And, don't let my tagline scare you off-- I am not anti-religion in the least. I think religion in general has been a huge positive net gain for mankind.

[Vigilanteman]

Is she a Liberal? If so, be grateful that her possible new religion will discourage her from voting.

If she's a conservative, it is a good argument not to join.

[Toby06]

I hear so much about that stuff from youz Texans.

[ExSES]

Sister Joining Jehova's Witnesses-Should I be Worried?

From my experience..., only people who want to sleep late on Saturday mornings have to worry...

[pissant]

Stone IPA. Almost as good as our local NW IPAs. I posted that pic for obvious reasons instead.

[Toby06]

4 darn good reasons!

[queenkathy]

My sister was married to a JW. That was years ago and she's since divorced.

The "religion" messed her up very badly. She still has doubts. At that time they didn't "believe" in Jesus. They've since revised their beliefs. I think they believe in Jesus, but not his power.

They believe they are the most hated people on earth that the Bible talks about in the last days. They also think their leaders are part of the 144,000 Revelations talks about that will go around during the tribulation period and witness to those who didn't go in the rapture.

They also believe they are the ones who will clean up the earth after Armageddon.

These are things that my sister told me. She's 64 now and just a mess religiously. Some of these ideas are pounded into her head.

[agooga]

Hep me! Hep me! My thread has been beer-jacked!

Well, I'm with you guys-- no beer / no faith.

[Hound of the Baskervilles]

I would warn her once by telling her that JWs are not in the mainstream of Christianity and many if not most of the various Christian denominations think that JW is not Christian at all. Because of this she is taking a serious step possibly away from Christianity not toward it. If she is worried that her boyfriend will not want her unless she becomes JW then that is also serious and says something about his real love for her. Just try to make her think hard about it. Then I would drop the subject because she is an adult and when push comes to shove it is her own decision and her life. If you harp on it she will come up with a 1000 ways to justify it to you. If you tell her ONCE and let it drop she will be left to ponder what you said without any pressure. If you pressure her she and make a big issue of it she will be more inclined to want to stick to her guns.

[Michael Goldsberry]

Yeah, but are the delivered by a cute oriental and a blonde?

No.

[Michael Goldsberry]

It's really good stuff!

[Toby06]

Just bumping your thread along so it keeps getting attention. :)

[pissant]

Maybe on Thursday I'll start the first Beer & Babes thread. Only pics and comments of beer and babes.

[Toby06]

Mail me some!

[Toby06]

Ya GOTTA ping me to that! You cover 2 of the 4 food groups right there.

[pissant]

Jesus' First miracle was changing water into wine. So there is a religious connection here.

[pissant]

She pulls her pigtails and fills a new bottle?? LOL

[pissant]

I thought there was only 3. And we were just missing the pizza.

[Michael Goldsberry]

LOL! Oh, man... don't go there.

[CougarGA7]

Ugh. Where to start. I was once married to a gal that converted to the JWs. All I can say about that is if I had majored in psychology I could have written a thesis on her loosing her mind. I now refer to her as PB (psychobi***).

Here are some of the things you get to look forward to from your sister.

1. No more holidays. The only holiday they celebrate is call something like Niacin (or some other vitamin) 17. Which is supposed to be Jesus' resurrection. The holiday consists of going to the Kingdom Hall and being bored for 2 hours.

2. No smoking, but alcohol is ok since Jesus turned water into wine. PB could go through a case a day...and so could her mother now that I think about it.

3. If your sister is injured in such a way that only a blood transfusion will save her, then make preparations for her funeral. Blood transfusions are verboten.

4. Dont expect to be able to get ahold of her on Saturday. She will be out on Service. This is the door-to-door propagandizing that makes the Mormon's look lazy.

5. Dont even bring up religion around them unless you want a copy of the Watchtower showing up in your mail every freaking week.

That's just for starters. I have worked pretty hard to remove any memory of PB so I'm having trouble remembering other details. On the plus side, she did get psychotic enough that I was able to have the police cuff her and remove her from my house.

Good luck with you sister, I'm sorry to hear that she is getting sucked in by this cult.

[newgeezer]

And, don't let my tagline scare you off-- I am not anti-religion in the least.

After seeing your tagline—"Thank God I'm an atheist"—I see little need for you to be worried about your sister. She's no better or worse off than you are.