I find the Jehovah Witness religion (and honestly most religions) very frustrating to understand. To me, the idea of what religion should be, is based on a foundation of love, support and family. Whereas I find specifically the JW religion (and often people in other religions) seems to be focused on Alienation & Judgment. I say specifically JW’s because they are very insistent about not celebrating Christmas’ & birthdays which causes them to miss out on family & friend functions throughout the year. I don’t see why Christmas & Birthdays are so evil and I like to think that if there is a God, he wouldn’t be so petty as to send me to hell or keep me from heaven based on the fact that I ate cake once a year to celebrate my age.
I’m bringing this up because another one of Tyler’s cousins, who is the same age as Tyler, just told me she is pregnant (due Dec 21) and is going to be a single mom. Tyler’s mom has 11 siblings and I guess they were brought up somewhat JW but not everyone stayed in the JW religion. In fact I think maybe only 2 or 3 of the siblings are the only ones that are JW’s. Others are Catholic, or non-religious, or exploring alternate spirituality (like Mary). Anyway, Cousin Amanda, is unfortunately from one of the siblings that are JW and very strongly so. In fact when Tyler’s Grandpa passed away it was Amanda’s parents who got into a big fight about religion with Tyler’s Auntie Jenny (who is a Catholic one) and her parents went home very shortly after the argument. Tyler’s family reinforces my believes about the JW’s because they have a family get together at Christmas every other year and the JW’s never attend. I’m not sure why the family doesn’t make an executive decision to do it at a different time of year so that everyone comes but yeah…
Back to Amanda, as I predicted, her very strongly JW parents are basically ostracizing her because she is having a baby out of wedlock and therefore they cannot and will not associate with her. I am totally for the whole “not enabling bad behavior” but completely cutting someone out of your life because they are having a baby seems very drastic. Babies are essentially innocent beings who are being punished by a lack of family support and relationships because of their religious beliefs. Single mom’s would especially need the support of loved ones to get them through the stress and chaos of an unexpected pregnancy. I don’t know the details, but Amanda shared with me that she thought she was unable to get pregnant so was quite surprised when she did.
The whole situation is contrasted with the fact that Tyler’s cousin Jennifer, who is almost 10 years younger than Amanda is also pregnant and her mom (who would be sister to the Amanda’s mom) is being as supportive as she can as she lives in Ontario while Jennifer resides in Medicine Hat. Jennifer’s dad is a less than thrilled but I am sure he will still be there for Jennifer as he has been her primary caregiver for the last five years.
I guess in my opinion, unexpected pregnancies are something you need to deal with on a pro-active preventative basis and isn’t something you should punish after the fact. I think it’s important that the parents of the new baby need to struggle a bit and learn that there is sacrifice involved (like you shouldn’t baby sit for them so they can continue their partying lifestyle) but I think you should at the very least be a strong emotional support for them. I am going to try to contribute what I can to the support network of both of these newly pregnant ladies - and they both naively asked for my advice ha ha. I might just send them copies of some of my blog posts!
I’m bringing this up because another one of Tyler’s cousins, who is the same age as Tyler, just told me she is pregnant (due Dec 21) and is going to be a single mom. Tyler’s mom has 11 siblings and I guess they were brought up somewhat JW but not everyone stayed in the JW religion. In fact I think maybe only 2 or 3 of the siblings are the only ones that are JW’s. Others are Catholic, or non-religious, or exploring alternate spirituality (like Mary). Anyway, Cousin Amanda, is unfortunately from one of the siblings that are JW and very strongly so. In fact when Tyler’s Grandpa passed away it was Amanda’s parents who got into a big fight about religion with Tyler’s Auntie Jenny (who is a Catholic one) and her parents went home very shortly after the argument. Tyler’s family reinforces my believes about the JW’s because they have a family get together at Christmas every other year and the JW’s never attend. I’m not sure why the family doesn’t make an executive decision to do it at a different time of year so that everyone comes but yeah…
Back to Amanda, as I predicted, her very strongly JW parents are basically ostracizing her because she is having a baby out of wedlock and therefore they cannot and will not associate with her. I am totally for the whole “not enabling bad behavior” but completely cutting someone out of your life because they are having a baby seems very drastic. Babies are essentially innocent beings who are being punished by a lack of family support and relationships because of their religious beliefs. Single mom’s would especially need the support of loved ones to get them through the stress and chaos of an unexpected pregnancy. I don’t know the details, but Amanda shared with me that she thought she was unable to get pregnant so was quite surprised when she did.
The whole situation is contrasted with the fact that Tyler’s cousin Jennifer, who is almost 10 years younger than Amanda is also pregnant and her mom (who would be sister to the Amanda’s mom) is being as supportive as she can as she lives in Ontario while Jennifer resides in Medicine Hat. Jennifer’s dad is a less than thrilled but I am sure he will still be there for Jennifer as he has been her primary caregiver for the last five years.
I guess in my opinion, unexpected pregnancies are something you need to deal with on a pro-active preventative basis and isn’t something you should punish after the fact. I think it’s important that the parents of the new baby need to struggle a bit and learn that there is sacrifice involved (like you shouldn’t baby sit for them so they can continue their partying lifestyle) but I think you should at the very least be a strong emotional support for them. I am going to try to contribute what I can to the support network of both of these newly pregnant ladies - and they both naively asked for my advice ha ha. I might just send them copies of some of my blog posts!
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