I have just witnessed for myself one of the most hypocritical scenes ever before in my life!!
My sister's ex husband, ( father to 3 boys, 12, 15, 20 years) commited suicide a few days ago.
He has been a Jehova's witness all of his life and and also suffered from Bi polar disorder for most of it also, particularly bad in the past 3 years.
2 weeks before his successful attempt, he tried to kill himself but was revived, sent to hospital and convincing everyone, ( his sons and hospital staff) that he was "ok", he was sent home the next day.
My sister, although herself having been 'disfellowshipped' 3 years ago, rang several of the elders in the hope that they would lend some support to Andrew, her ex husband and hopefully help him during this very low time in his life.
Not one!!! Not one single elder visited him, almost ashamed they were!!
Not one of them offered any support to his children even though the 20 year old was now in charge of 'looking after' him!
Yesterday we had the funeral and after much deliberation behind the scenes, the elders decided that even though he had died by his own hand, they would 'take over' the funeral, which they did.
The elder preciding over the sad event talked about how imperetive it was that they form a comfort zone for these children, support them, give them spiritual guidance, help care for them, make sure they can attend meeting etc!
I want to know, where were they when Andrew had first attempted to take his life, where was his spiritual support? NO WHERE!
At the funeral, most of the attending witnesses refused to even look at my sister, let alone speak to her, they organised their own 'wake' knowing full well that she and the children had organised one elsewhere, they announced at the funeral where this wake would take place but didn't even mention the original one!
They just took over even though none of the boys had attended a meeting in several months.
I haven't got time right now to write the whole discusting story but this is a brief outline.
CaZ