bluesapphire	Re: Matthew 25
	Farkel, I just posted this reply to another post but coincidentally, it is an living example, in practice, of what you describe in your post: I remember one day towards the end of my JW life, a young Mexican man came into the hall just before the meeting. It was pouring rain outside. Thunder and lightening. The man came in to get out of the storm. He asked if it was a church to which I replied that it was. He must have thought it was a Christian Church because he asked for food. I said I would see what I could do. While I went to talk to my husband, I noticed a couple of elders suspiciously talking to the man. They had unfriendly and unhospitable looks on their faces. He only spoke Spanish so I went over. I couldn't believe my ears. They were asking me to find out what he wanted. I told them that he was hungry. He had just come over the border and had no place to eat or sleep. The elders wanted me to tell him that we were sorry but we couldn't help him. Instead I told him to wait, my husband would help him. The elders did not like this because it made them look bad. I didn't want to bring a stranger home with us, but he was hungry. Plus, even if he was bull-shitting us, who cares? What's it gonna cost to feed the guy a McDonalds burger and fries? So he sat through the meeting (my husband had a part so we couldn't leave). We went and talked to a few other elders. I couldn't believe that the very ones (one in particular) who made it a habit to be into everything that was none of his business - and I mean every little thing, were ignoring the situation and pretending it wasn't happening. It was not their concern. Nobody would pitch in $5 bucks to get the guy to a cheap motel. I was sick to my stomach. The same idiots who thought themselves high and mighty and oh so holy because they had repaired the CO's roof, didn't want to help a fellow human being. My husband and I took the guy to a motel and paid for it ourselves. We bought him dinner and told him where to go the next day to get a day labor job. It was the least we could do to not bring "reproach" on Jehovah's organization after the way the elders behaved. And it wasn't just the elders. It was the entire congregation. Afterwards we got slack for it. Everybody had something to say. The thing is that I had worked for a Catholic rectory when I was a teenager. And daily people came asking for food. We always had food to spare. We had a closet full of canned goods and people would regularly donate meats and dairy products. Never did we turn anyone away. Many times all an illegal immigrant had to do was go to Mass on Sunday and he would make contacts for employment afterward while having coffee and donuts in the auditorium. My dad would oftentimes hire different ones to help him with yard-work and once they even stayed in our club-house in our backyard for a few days. We always gave them some of our family meals and we got to listen to their stories about their families back home and their plight. Those memories came flooding towards me. I can tell you that I probably attended 10 meetings after this event. My faith in the organization had already begun to erode and this was just one more thing to chip away at the dissonance I had already acquired by this time. Such an obvious lack of love didn't go unnoticed by my kids either! Didn't Jesus say that whoever sees a man hungry and doesn't feed him it was like doing it to Him? Those are the ones he will say, "Get away from me! I never knew you!" The GB conveniently apply this scripture to themselves. They say that by selling their magazines we are doing it for the "least" of Jesus' brothers. But I ask, "How can this apply to them when they are not in jail? They are not naked? They are not hungry? So how could we follow Jesus' command to them? How can we visit them in jail? How can we clothe them when they're naked? How can we feed them when they're hungry?" Obviously, it applies to our neighbor. Every time I see the magazines bragging about themselves and how they help victims of natural disasters even though they are not JW's. I just feel like barfing. They do nothing unless they can have bragging rights. Nevermind those who do things in silence, seeking their reward in heaven. I think this lack of love is a great way to go. I am sure every JW will have a similar story. The lack of love is OBVIOUS. See, Farkel, you are absolutely right. What you have is righteous indignation! These pathetic slime-bucket, sons of the devil, have taken Jesus' words and twisted them. They are EVIL!
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