B
Butterfly
Guest
I am not sure it is as simple as that with family - i do not have my grand parents anymore, but certainly looked upon them in a much deeper way than friends. How they react to us goes much deeper. Surely you can understand the dilemma for Michael, I can.If your grandparent's love for you is conditional, you don't need friends like that.
I am a lone Christian in a family, even that brought about dilemmas , and I didn't have the pressure of negative reactions to deal when I came to faith at the age of 21. I wasn't endeavouring to leave a cult and stand up to my family, but I was often torn.
It's all good and well giving advice, but quite frankly some of the advice being given to Michael is without any kind of empathy with regards to his age, fears and the reality that even an older adult would find it incredibly difficult leaving the JW's and standing up to family members ingrained in its teaching. Obviously he is presuming that he would be completely rejected, which may well be the worse case scenario - but it is still a possibility ( although I am more hopeful that he would have his dad on his side )
As for the comment that he should talk to his parents and not strangers, he is seeking help from ' Christians ' because of the pull towards Christianity - to me it seems logical to confide and talk it through with those outside of the JW's first.
Rita