Locks of Love--Can you ever imagine JWs doing such a thing?

by rebel8 50 Replies latest social current

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  Frannie Banannie

  Would you be surprised to find out that you are wrong, that some have indeed done just that?

  Personally, I'd be underwhelmed. Ya see.....it'd just be one little bitty drop in a BIG EMPTY BUCKET of charitable acts done by them.

  I'd like to amend this to say that I was responding to "Beep beep's" post because it sounded as though the poster thought we were wrong about the WTS acts of charity. Alligator mouth overloadin' my humminbig behind, I know now.

  The women of the WTS who've done this have shown remarkable SPINE and gumption and an innate sense of kindness, which is hard to do from where they stand. I commend them.

  Frannie
• 

  BlackSwan of Memphis

  I am glad to hear some dubs have donated their hair so obviously my statement they would never do it was incorrect. I hereby revise it to "MOST jws would never do it". I will be more careful to speak in legalese from now on.

  I wanted to be involved in charity work when I was a dub and it was prohibited. I remember wanting to do a walkathon and since my dad was an evil unbeliever, my mother left the decision to the elders as usual. I had to ask the elders' permission, and of course they said no, it would be better to use that time to stay home and read the Youth book. So I guess raising money to save a wildlife refuge from development....by taking a walk in the park......was much worse than sitting on the couch reading the same exact teachings I was already familiar with. To this day I have never personally known even one JW who participated in a charity; it was/is prohibited here. Keep in mind I live in WT NY state, so maybe the proximity to the mother org made my experience different than yours.

  My belief that dubs are rarely involved in charities has been borne out by the many experiences of others, not the least of which was the insular "dubs only" response the JWs had to the horrible hurricanes in the South

  2 key points:

  elder permission and area that a person lives.

  There are probably many more variances we could find if we wanted to.

  You sound like a person w/ a good heart, rebel.

  meagan
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  garybuss

  A few times I visited area churches one common thing they all seemed to do was pause after the pastor opened the service and have a greet your neighbor break. The service just paused and everybody stood up greeted, and shook hands with and everybody they could reach. The first time I saw this done I thought to myself . . . THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN A KINGDOM HALL.
  
  Half of the Witnesses I know are pissed at the other half and we have disfellowshipped people mixed in with disassociated people and Witnesses are supposed to NOT say a greeting to all of those. Christians 1, Witnesses 0.
  
  
• 

  Beep,Beep

  ""I wanted to be involved in charity work when I was a dub and it was prohibited.""

  ""I remember wanting to do a walkathon and since my dad was an evil unbeliever, my mother left the decision to the elders as usual""

  Two questions, 1. Where are charity works prohibited?

  2. Who's fault is it that your mother felt the need to ask the elders?

  Charity is and was up to the individual, been there done that. The difference is that I would never reveal my charitable works as per Matthew 6:1-4

  ""6

  "Take good care not to practice YOUR righteousness in front of men in order to be observed by them; otherwise YOU will have no reward with YOUR Father who is in the heavens. 2 Hence when you go making gifts of mercy, do not blow a trumpet ahead of you, just as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be glorified by men. Truly I say to YOU, They are having their reward in full. 3 But you, when making gifts of mercy, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, 4 that your gifts of mercy may be in secret; then your Father who is looking on in secret will repay you.""

  Sorry things work differently where you are.
• 

  rebel8

  I really did not mean to start a controversy and I definitely don't want to seem argumentative. I acknowleged my choice of words in the op was poor. Since you asked these questions, I will answer, but I hope we are cool, Beep Beep.

  Where are charity works prohibited?

  I think we can agree that works for non-JW charities are not prohibited in writing. Many of the rules JWs live by do not come in the form of literature though--surely we can agree on that too. The literature emphasizes the role of the elders and listening to their advice, so the WTS endorses the elders' use of personal judgement.

  We can certainly surmise from reading the literature that non-JW charity work is discouraged. The WTS has been bashed the Red Cross several times over the last century in its literature, and more recently has made comments about other charities too. (I was just with a JW yesterday who engaged in the same old bashing of charities.) There is also a lot in writing about associating with non-JWs and using your time in pursuit of things related to JWs, too. So all we have to do is connect the dots and it's fairly easy to see charity work is discouraged.

  If it wasn't discouraged, wouldn't we see a lot more of it? I mean, many JWs have a sincere desire to help others so I'd expect to see lots of charity stuff going on. Yet we see very little, per capita that is. We can come up with anectdotes of JWs donating their hair--that is truly wonderful. However, that doesn't constitute convincing evidence that JWs are traditionally involved in charities. Their record shows they are traditionally uninvolved in helping non-JWs.

  Who's fault is it that your mother felt the need to ask the elders?

  I guess I don't understand the purpose of this question; blame doesn't seem to be applicable to my points or yours. Regardless of my mother's bad judgement in asking for their advice, we have to hold the elders personally accountable for their own actions, don't we?
• 

  calico

  1. Where are charity works prohibited?

  It's one of those "unwritten rules"

  So much for unity--I've been associated with many congregations--they each have their own "unwritten rules"!
• 

  fairchild

  A sister at the KH I went to is going completely bald. She is 50, and het twin sister is already bald. Since I have very long hair (It reaches as far as underneath the back pockets of my jeans), we decided to use my hair and put it into a wig for her. Everyone at the KH was all excited about it and nobody ever said that such would be wrong. We contacted a custom wig maker in Washington who will make the wig some time soon. I was told I needed 3 ounces of hair, but since my hair is rather thin, I don't have quite 3 ounces yet. Hopefully soon. Even though I no longer go to the KH, we are still going to go through with this. I don;t think that JWs are against donating your hair. At least, they are not against it at the KH I went to.
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  Frannie Banannie

  1. Where are charity works prohibited?

  Charity is and was up to the individual, been there done that. The difference is that I would never reveal my charitable works as per Matthew 6:1-4

  Beepbeep, charity is simply NOT condoned in the WTS, other than charitable acts towards the organization or acts that would make the organization look good in the eyes of the general public.

  You are correct in your quoting of scriptural content however. I'm sure that IS your individual choice, but don't fool yourself into believing that the organization as a whole is charitable. A charitable attitude involves mercy. If they were merciful, they wouldn't condone disfellowshipping, public humiliation in the form of reproof and shunning, nor would they encourage people to refuse life-saving blood transfusions, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitim. They are a judicial organization and a publishing company and a religious cult. Nothing more.
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  dozy

  
  "Re: Locks of Love--Can you ever imagine JWs doing such a thing?"

  Doh! I can't just imagine it - I have seen it - a sister in my congregation had her long (ie she could sit on it) blonde hair cut off & gave it to a local charity - the picture was in the local paper. The article didn't mention she was a JW , so apostates can't claim that she was doing this for publicity for her faith,(Sorry , I can't find the link - I'll post it if I do.) Everybody thought this was a good idea & commended her for it.

  To say that JWs never engage in charitable work is nonsense - to say that it is banned is nonsense.

  The more I read apostate websites , the less respect I have for you guys!
• 

  luna2

  dozy, Its lovely that in your congregation individuals are not discouraged from being charitable to outsiders. That is not the case, though, in every congregation. It rather depends on the attitude of the elders and sometimes the pioneer sisters as to what is acceptable and what isn't.

  The first congregation I attended we had some very strong-minded, in-your-face elders who made it their business to set you "straight", according to their consciences, on just about anything you wanted to do. I worked for one of them and therefore had daily contact with this guy. I guarantee you that if you did something for a community charity that took any sort of time or effort at all, he would be right there letting you know that that was NOT the best use of your time. If it was for other JWs fine...as long as you got your service time in and didn't miss any meetings.

  The second congregation I attended was not so anal about it, not that I was aware of anyway. There was one sister and her non-JW husband who raised dogs for the blind and I don't believe they were ever harassed about it....at least not enough to make her stop doing it.

  Growing your own hair to donate to a charity is probably not something a moderate group of elders at a KH would get too exercised about because your hair is going to grow anyway and it doesn't take time or attention away from "the more important" things. I highly doubt, however, that this would ever be condoned if the sisters decided to do this as a group for non-JWs and it became known in the congregation.