Funnily enough, most of those horrendous acts were perpetrated by my first husband. I was thrown into furniture, walls, choked, had blades put to my chest and throat and so much more. Why do I say "funnily enough"? Because my husband came from a "godly" JW family. His very devout JW mother hated me. She defended her son's actions. I was the bad one. I shouldn't have said anything about it. I was wrong for even trying to defend myself and I smeared his good name by telling anyone. He threatened to kill me, seemed to try a couple times. Attempted to kidnap my daughter, even got his mother in on it. So, according to your beliefs I should have just suffered then. I should not have divorced a man likely to kill me. I should not have been free to find happiness in my life. To Hell with my life, my happiness, my right to be loved in my life. See, just yet another reason to chuck those beliefs, those scriptures and the "God" they supposedly speak for.
This is a sad story, but I have heard about such things before.
May I ask first of all, what your husband's religious status was with the Witnesses? Was he ever baptized or had he broken ties with JW's having never made a commitment to God? By your description, this man was certainly NOT cut out to be a Christian. NOTHING could justify his treatment of you, even if you were the worst wife on earth...there is no excuse for that kind of behavior.....not even for those who are NOT Christians.
As for his mother....what can I say? Did she ever witness her son's behavior? Did she see what he did to you? Did you retaliate and do him harm as well?
No genuine Witness of Jehovah, no matter how much they might harbor animosity towards their children's choice of a mate, would ever justify that kind of conduct. Aiding and abetting a kidnapping is also not something a Witness would do, unless of course they believed that the child's life was in danger. Even then it would be done through the proper authorities. We are not free to take the law into our own hands.
I have grave concerns for her spiritual status if what you say is true.....but on the other hand, I am hearing only one side of a story. The internet is full of these sorts of accounts and embellishments and justifications are sure to creep in, making the whole episode very lop-sided. I am glad that judges in court have to hear both sides in order to make a judgment.
Now, according to our (JW) beliefs, which are always scriptural and pertain to us as a collective body in the world, people outside of our faith may take a different stance, watering down God's requirements to suit a change in the world's standards. We won't do that. In your situation, you were perfectly within your rights to leave him. A violent relationship between parents is psychologically damaging to children, so I am wondering how long your child was subjected to this domestic violence? It sets children up to continue the abuse in their own relationships. We program our children often without any verbal instruction on our part...our actions speak way louder than our words.
If one is going to call themselves "Christian", there is no room for shelving God's laws to suit ourselves. They are non-negotiable and the Bible's recommendation is to wait and to to choose a mate very carefully....remembering that this is for life. Without God in a marriage, there is scope for so many problems to get out of hand....and no one source to turn to for the solutions.
I am not the judge of what happened to you because I only have one side of the story. It would be interesting to hear it from the other side, just to balance things out.
God knows the whole truth about everyone and is not swayed by any tears or accusations of foul play....He will judge each individual according to the truth of the matter. We can count on that.
