Will the Real Mother Please Stand Up?

Lynn Tryba
Nov 2 · 2 min read
Photo by Thong Vo on Unsplash

When I was growing up in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Jehovah’s Witnesses had a term called a “spiritual mother” — and maybe they still do. Or maybe it was a term cooked up by the local elders to address circumstances like my family’s, but I doubt it. I can’t imagine any of them daring to prescribe anything not dictated by the larger organization. Dad became a JW when I was 9. Mom, then 28, remained an “unbeliever,” in JW…

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