Hello,
I've been visiting this website for some time, and this is my first post. I am a “friends and family of” (although the registration page would not accept this, so I had to enter something else.) For quite a while I have been involved in a significant friendship with a BK member. From this experience I have a number of questions.
My first question is: what does it mean to be a friend of a BK?
To elaborate on this: I speak of friendship in the true, deep meaning of the word, and not as an acquaintance or someone you know. To what extent and how does one express disagreement about BK beliefs without driving the person away? To one extent does one listen to understand, while not giving the impression that one agrees? What about this “detachment” thing. What other considerations are involved?
I appreciate any insights from other “friends and family of” from your experience. I also appreciate insights from BKs, questioning BKs and ex-BKs. What kind of friendship would have been most meaningful and important to you as a BK and when you began questioning?
To give a bit of background: I met my friend and began the friendship through our mutual work. He seems to have developed a way to move and work in the world, while keeping BK rules (diet, celibacy etc.) It took a while for me to learn that he was a BK (which I had never heard of) and longer to get a more in depth understanding of the belief system (both from him and your website). By now I feel I have learned a lot about an organization and belief system, without any conscious plan to do so. So I am also trying to sort out how this has impacted me – but those are questions for a later post.
Thanks for any and all insights.
I've been visiting this website for some time, and this is my first post. I am a “friends and family of” (although the registration page would not accept this, so I had to enter something else.) For quite a while I have been involved in a significant friendship with a BK member. From this experience I have a number of questions.
My first question is: what does it mean to be a friend of a BK?
To elaborate on this: I speak of friendship in the true, deep meaning of the word, and not as an acquaintance or someone you know. To what extent and how does one express disagreement about BK beliefs without driving the person away? To one extent does one listen to understand, while not giving the impression that one agrees? What about this “detachment” thing. What other considerations are involved?
I appreciate any insights from other “friends and family of” from your experience. I also appreciate insights from BKs, questioning BKs and ex-BKs. What kind of friendship would have been most meaningful and important to you as a BK and when you began questioning?
To give a bit of background: I met my friend and began the friendship through our mutual work. He seems to have developed a way to move and work in the world, while keeping BK rules (diet, celibacy etc.) It took a while for me to learn that he was a BK (which I had never heard of) and longer to get a more in depth understanding of the belief system (both from him and your website). By now I feel I have learned a lot about an organization and belief system, without any conscious plan to do so. So I am also trying to sort out how this has impacted me – but those are questions for a later post.
Thanks for any and all insights.