Practising 'Goodness' - from the District Convention

passwordprotected

As heard at the district convention. 9 part symposium on how to display the fruitages of the spirit.

Goodness

16 year old sister is interviewed on how she has displayed the fruitage of Goodness.

The speaker preludes her comments with the statement that she'd been put 'under enormous pressure' by a situation at school. My, my, what could this terrible situation have been that put this poor young sister under so much pressure not to show goodness.

She explains thus;

A dear friend of hers at school was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly the cancer spread rapidly and aggressively through her body. She was given just a few short months to live. She was only 15 years old at the time. The girls parents planned a big celebration to take place on her 16th birthday. The girls would wear ball gowns, the boys would wear suits.

The poor young sister was put under pressure by the dying girl and her family to attend this celebration. This was difficult, as the young sister desired to do good, to demonstrate the spirit of goodness. She had to explain that she could not attend the celebration.

The dying friend was hurt, as were her parents.

The girl died 4 months later.

The second way this young sister does good is learning how to sign the meetings to deaf people. Her entire Saturday is taken up with this pursuit. Unfortunately this means she gets to spend little time her non-believing father. However, this is good because she has the fine privilege of siging the meetings and conventions to deaf people, thus displaying goodness.

Needless to say listening to this experience ruined my lunch.

Do Not Call

That's sad. Such a twisted view.
What ridiculous examples of showing goodness!!
Makes me angry, sad, nauseous (and relieved that my kids haven't got to listen to this any more), all at the same time.

WTWizard

Goodness? Refusing to attend a birthday party of someone that is going to die soon? I think they ought to get their damn priorities straight.

For starters, since when is attending a birthday party bad for self or society? It celebrates another year of a person's life, and in this situation, one that could well be the last. It makes the person feel better for the day. And it marks the passage of time. In no way is that bad for self or society. Unlike distributing wastes of paper all the time.

Metamorphosis

A tear came to me eye when I read this.

I cannot believe I kept myself blinded for so many years and followed that type of reasoning.

A dying girl! For goodness sake every last thing you could possibly do to increase their level of happiness should be a priority. Something as simple as attending a birthday party in their honor knowing they will not have another. Reminds me so much of the Pharisees who lost their ability to have love, mercy, and justice. Witnesses are becoming more cold-hearted I believe as they cling to their fading hopes of the end.

Hence a girl leaves a dying friend upset.

Hence my wife leaves me.

Hence so many on here have to deal w/ troubled marriages.

May God have mercy on them - I know my course is to show as much love possible for the remainder of my life. Man will no longer dictate to me what my "Goodness" is or how it should be displayed.

Jeremiah - aka Morph.

sir82

Well now we know why there was no campaign to invite the public to the DC this year.

Normal, well-adjusted people would rightly be revolted by this kind of "upbuilding experience".

chickpea

how does a JW deign to call a non-JW " a dear friend"?

from that point on her "piety and goodness" is fallacious
because this unfortunate child stricken with cancer
clearly could never be a dear friend to a JW who is
in lock-step with the dictates of the b0rg.....

disconnect?

passwordprotected

Y'all need to understand. Her being asked to go to this party put her under pressure. Now I'm sure the young sister felt bad about her friend dying, but to be standing at a district convention, essentially boasting about displaying Christ-like goodness by not caving to the pressure to attend the (pagan) celebration was as nauseating as anything else.

This is Christ's love in action?? Hopefully she'll look back on the way she treated her dying friend and the way she put learning to sign to deaf people ahead of spending time with her dad* and realise how foolish she was.

*The cynic in me wonders if she explains not spending time with her dad to herself as, "Well, he's going to die at armageddon anyway, so why bother being close with him now?"

blondie

I wonder if the jw girl still visited this ill friend on other occasions. I don't think it was mandatory to attend this party to support her friend. If she thought signing for the deaf would replace visiting her friend on other occasions, that would be sick.

Blondie

amama2six

Yeah, it's commendable to upset a dying girl by not going to her party...I'm sure the Witness' "goodness" really showed her "friend" and parents the true essence of Jehovah's love. :rolleyes: And I'm with a previous poster...since when can you have a "dear friend" outside of the religion???

passwordprotected

The point is, though, by not attending, and thus not sullying herself with pagan rituals, she was showing 'goodness'. Be that as it may, presenting her act of goodness as a stand against being put under pressure to attend a dying girl's last birthday party is a bit shocking.

Practising 'Goodness' - from the District Convention

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