WTS view of Red Cross, etc

by blindersoff 17 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  skeeter1

  Everyone will have a rainy day. After I left the JWs and went to a new church, I've grown to be more charitable. I do not give 10% to any church, but pick my own % & my own causes. Ya know what? It has made me care less about money. I just wish I had more time to volunteer.

  My favorite charities are Doctors without Borders, the Salvation Army, the Christian Children's Network, and the Humane Society. Through CCN, I've helped a girl in Bolivia, and we write & e-mail each other, and I send her school supplies, etc for over five years. Very worthwhile to either give direclty to a child, or to give to the funds to help countries.

  I have given to the Red Cross, but worry about the Church of Scientology's involvement in the group. It is my understanding that the Red Cross allowed these members into their shelters after Katrina. If you think the WTS is a controlling cult....

  In short, I've never given a dollar where I have not gotten back much, much, more.

  Skeeter1
• 

  Honesty

  The WTBT$ has consistently lied about the Red Cross for over 50 years. I heard the same comment Danny heard from the BS conductor when our 'Book Study' ingested the JW Blood Brochure.

  BTW, now that I am no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses and am Christian I give blood through MEDIC.

  Bob Evans Walland, TN
• 

  TallTexan

  As Blondie (nice new avatar) said, do not think that one comment made 54 years ago can be said to be a representative view of the Red Cross. .. I am sure that if any reporter contacted Brooklyn today for a comment, he would receive something far more polite.

  And your point is???? If you contact Crooklyn and ask if they harbor pedophiles, were a member of the UN, or know that 607/1914 is bogus, do you think you'll get an honest answer. As for the article being old, well, yes. However, just because they've become more 'polite' and 'positive' in their recent magazine does not mean that their overall feeling has changed. They just hide it much better. Remember, the ones in control now 'grew up' with the harsh views represented in the WT quote - do ya really think they've changed???

  As for donations? I am sure that witnesses are not barred from donating money to them. It would be called a "personal matter" . Of course we know that charitable giving of all kinds is rather discouraged so that there is all the more for the good old Worldwide Work Fund. I suppose it is a competing charity..

  Unless things have changed in the 6 years since I've been inactive, donating to the Red Cross is NOT a personal matter. Roll up on a group of elders and pioneers and say "Hey, I gave $500 to the Red Cross because they gave our brothers in Louisiana and Texas supplies" and see how well it works out for you....can someone give a definite answer on this? What is the WTS "present truth" on donating to the Red Cross? Blindersoff, thanks for the quote......
• 

  MerryMagdalene

  They have portrayed the Red Cross in a what I would consider an unfavorable light as recently as 1990:

  In the United States alone, blood banks collect some 13.5 million pints [6.5 million L] of blood every year, and they sell over 30 million units of blood products for about a thousand million dollars. This is a tremendous amount of money. Blood banks don’t use the term "profit." They prefer the phrase "excesses over expenses." The Red Cross, for instance, made $300 million in "excesses over expenses" from 1980 to 1987.

  The blood banks protest that they are nonprofit organizations. They claim that unlike big corporations on Wall Street, their money does not go to stockholders. But if the Red Cross did have shareholders, it would be ranked among the most profitable corporations in the United States, such as General Motors. And blood-bank officials do have handsome salaries. Of officials in 62 blood banks surveyed by The Philadelphia Inquirer, 25 percent made over $100,000 a year. Some made more than twice that much.

  Blood bankers also claim that they do not "sell" the blood they collect—they only charge processing fees. One blood banker retorts to that claim: "It drives me crazy when the Red Cross says it doesn’t sell blood. That’s like the supermarket saying they’re only charging you for the carton, not the milk."

  --g90 10/22 3-7 "Selling Blood Is Big Business"

  ~Merry
• 

  MerryMagdalene

  Unless things have changed in the 6 years since I've been inactive, donating to the Red Cross is NOT a personal matter. Roll up on a group of elders and pioneers and say "Hey, I gave $500 to the Red Cross because they gave our brothers in Louisiana and Texas supplies" and see how well it works out for you....can someone give a definite answer on this? What is the WTS "present truth" on donating to the Red Cross?

  (Can't get rid of the quote box for my comment here) Tall Texan, I have no idea what "present truth" is on donating to the Red Cross specifically, but I was rather surprised to find the following, possibly out-dated, truth regarding giving to charities in general, in the g76 12/8 27-28:

  Does this mean that it is altogether wrong for Christians to give to charitable organizations? No. Certain charities do accomplish a measure of good. So, it is a matter of personal choice as to whether a person donates to such a cause.

  Of course this was preceded by these discouraging remarks:

  As for charitable organizations, many have proved to be frauds; and even legitimate ones frequently send but a tiny amount of the money they collect to advertised worthy causes. "According to the State Board of Social Welfare," writes Francis Cerral in the New York Times, "charities raise about $22 billion a year in the United States and $2 billion in New York. But in some cases, no money or as little as 5 or 10 percent of it ends up going to the charitable purpose, with the rest being pocketed by the fund-raisers." Back in 1974 one church-sponsored charity collected $3.3 million. Astonishingly, only $54,000 reached the advertised charity. An indication of what happened to the rest is seen in the fact that $45,000 went to one of the church’s clergymen, and $110,000 to three of his assistants.

  I think that would be enough to make sure the average JW gives only to the WTS which is entirely trustworthy and reliable when it comes to spending its members' donations to help others...trying to take the owner of a research website to court, defending pedophiles in court, buying more and more property, setting up beautiful replicas of the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple as it looked in Jesus day...

  ~Merry
• 

  DaCheech

  During 9/11 at first the Red cross was holding back funds because there were so many charities collecting money. The 9/11 survivors got plenty of cash.

  As a result of people donating multi million $$$$$$$ to these other charities, the Red Cross at that time took a financial beating.

  I find it useful and fullfilling to donate to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army
• 

  gumby

  As has already been mentioned, it's not a judicial matter if one gives to the Red Cross. It's one of the things however you do not boast about all over the hall. Most people....individual witnesses included.....do not say "hey brother Bob, I just gave 200 bucks to the Red Cross, man I feel good about it!"

  I really likes this hypocrital piece of bullshit from the society,

  But let the disaster be on a smaller scale where the returns in publicity are not so promising; then the widely acclaimed charitable organizations do not flock to the scene.

  It is clear that they choose the publicized tragedies, that their giving may be publicized along with the event. The motive of attention and credit perches plainly on their every "good deed".

  Oh how awful! You'll never hear the witnesses encourage their members to make a good show for onlookers! Never do they say to dress, walk, act, behave like a model citizen in every respect so as not to bring reproach on Jehovah. And never do they encourage the publishers to show to others how neat and clean they are that it might encourage others to join them. Never put the Watchtower and AWAKE! on your back dashboard when traveling to assemblies for worldly people to see.

  The WTBTS wants favorable media coverage at every opportunity it can get......the same as ANY moneymaking buisness wants.

  Gumby
• 

  oldflame

  What is funny is emergency organisations do not only go to places that are publicly known as the WTBS makes their statements. It is the media that makes things known and not organisations like the Red Cross.

  I remember several years ago when a disaster happened and I told the elder I was studying with that I was going to donate some money to. He told me that I should reconsider, as I should only be giving money to the society and not to places like the Red Cross. How pathetic I thought and how selfish of a statement that was. It really made me sick.

  That's OK because someday God will have his revenge on those who are greedy and selfish and the self righteous