Hi Gang,

I’m worried that our dear friends and neighbors are entrenched in a cult or cult-like religion (Jehovah Witness).

Five years ago the wife would open her door to have Bible studies with them. The husband was against it. Little by little her beliefs changed. But she was always a thinking, discerning being throughout the process so I never worried.

Well, one day the husband talked to them and now the family goes to worship and Bible study (both taking up all Sunday) and he takes other classes with them. They are little by little taking up all his free time. OK, yellow flags are waving, but fine.

The red flag came when my son said, “Can we have my BFF (the neighbor’s son) go out to dinner with us.”
“No, it’s a school night.”
“(IT’S HIS BIRTHDAY!!)” (JW’s don’t celebrate holidays/birthdays)
Before we knew it we were out to dinner with our family and a mildly depressed kid tacitly celebrating his birthday without saying it was his birthday. We went out for frozen yogurt instead of cake and give him new-ish unwrapped toys saying, “Oh, we’re cleaning out the closet, I know you like RPGs, here’s one if you want it… OMG, it’s your birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, I heard you’re having a sleepover in a couple weeks..?”
The mother called me saying “Thank you, thank you!” What had once been “her” thing, the husband commandeered and was becoming a true JW!
Again, OK, fine.

Recently the husband has been calling me up and having the family (or ME) over for dinner, but as a thinly disguised attempt to proselytize. OK, I have a mixed background with rabbinical and Lutheran clergical legacies running in my veins (and brain) so at the first “dinner” when he tried to rope me in I started talking about the Aramaic vs. Greek translations. (JW’s aren’t allowed to look at other translations but he doesn’t know that yet).

The second dinner he tried again. At one point he said, “When Jesus was telling his Apostles ‘Greater things you will do than me’ he was talking to THEM, not US.”
Me: “How do you know?”
Him: “It’s amazing how people can pick certain passages in the text and have it be totally out of context.”
Me: “Exactly”
Him: Argues
Me: “So if He was only talking to his Apostles then the Great Commission is really for THEM, not US, and spreading the Good News is the whole point of your religion.”
Him: Leaves table and slams a door, doesn’t return

OK, I don’t mind a theological debate, but I feel like I’m a “project”. With the wife it’s different. She’ll say, “I feel bad for having Nutcrackers in the house, I don’t want to offend Jehovah.”
Me: “With ISIS killing people in the Middle East right now, I don’t think Jehovah cares about the Nutcrackers.”
No one’s right. No one’s wrong.

Even my DH says that the husband is becoming a JW soundbite/pamphlet.

So I go on the Internet for the first time typing in “Jehovah Witness”. In my face are all, “JW is a Cult!” and “How I Escaped Kingdom Hall” and “The Watchtower Destroyed My Family!”

Community, if you are or have friends or family who are JWs, am I over reacting? How do I handle? I understand the zeal of a convert, but I had nightmares and haven’t slept well this week and during the day there is a “clawing of the mind” in me going “Danger! Danger!”

Thank You so much in advance for your help/advice!

Inky