Brenda Lee, in Out of the Cocoon, shares her experience of parental rejection and escaping the Jehovah Witness's cult in her book, in YouTube Videos, and in a televised documentary. Looking at the issue from the outside, I viewed it cognitively and considered it insanity that any parent could cut off all ties with family members if they didn't believe as they were told to believe. Not only is this indoctrination and brain washing, but I consider this psychological domestic violence and religious abuse. The scars can carve deeper into one's soul than if stabbed by a knife. My opinions fuel a righteous rage in my consciousness.
Beyond the cognitive, last night this issue stabbed me in the heart. Visiting the most beautiful and loving family anyone could ever know, I am so full of compassion. They have been cut off. Our friend's father has fallen under the spell of the Jehovah Witness's insane demands; and because our friend has been exposed to the Jehovah Witness's indoctrination and refused to bite the poison, he is no longer his father's son. He has been ostracized. Cut off. Our friend says he feels like he has been decapitated.
Not only do I feel so sorry for his loss and the pain of feeling disowned by his own father — he's lost his father before his father dies — but I feel bad for our friend's mother. Will she be able to see her darling grandchildren again? I wonder if she feels stuck, if she has biblical beliefs to obey her husband, and that means she has to also deny her own son and consequently the grandchildren. Could she stand up to him?
The thought of my not being able to see my grandson again is beyond my comprehension. There is nothing my son could do or think or believe, or not think or believe, that would cause me to cut him off. Nothing. I will love him until my dying day.
My idealistic child-like naivety says religion is supposed to be all about love, but it seems to me that religion is way too often about separation and judgment. May my friends' father have an epiphany and wake up to his insane psychologically abusive behaviors. This is religious abuse!
Paraphrasing Harry Palmer, creator of The Avatar Course, I often say: "When people realize that beliefs are merely art forms and not something to fight over, world peace will ensue." And I might add, peace and healthy relationships within families.