I’ve been openly POMO for about a year now. Initially my family did not accept this however overtime they have gone back to normal and I have made it clear. I will never be returning.
When I first left, I tried to tell them everything that was wrong with this religion and get them out but of course that did not work and they accused me of being an apostate. Anyways, the other day I got removed from the broader family group chat which has my grandma cousins auntie’s uncles (not my immediate family) and they are all very PIMI and tbh I was expecting that word would get out and and this would happen eventually. What I did not expect was for my parents to disagree with my removal and they left the group chat themselves saying they do not want to be apart of such a judgemental family (they stood up for me basically).
They told me the organisation places too much emphasis on the governing body and that they know there are flaws within the organisation. And they do not agree with the hierarchical nature of it. They also said that they understand why I left and as long as I believe in a creator (not even a god) they are happy and that God is much bigger than the rules of the org and he doesn’t care about small stuff like having beards or if you are a pioneer or not. I decided this was a good opportunity to bring up how the baptism questions changed from do you accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit to do you accept this as Jehovah’s organisation and they thought that was very wrong and they also said some of the songs are creepy.
They also barely have any friends in the truth and they are struggling to stay encouraged. My mum even sent me an exjw meme on TikTok but when I sent one back to her, she started defending the organisation again which shut down me sending anymore. Despite being POMO I do not want to push it as they already accept me which is rare, pushing “apostate” material may be too far.
I basically want to ask if there is hope that they will ever leave. to me It feels like the cognitive dissonance has set in but for some reason they are still staying in the religion and I don’t understand why especially after everything they have said. I know ultimately it is their life and their decision but it got me excited because I feel like there is hope but also they keep defending the organisation so I don’t know.
I’m just happy because I know I am very lucky that my parents accept me despite me being fully POMO. I hope one day they wake up