Forgiveness the JW way -is'nt right!

by wozadummy 6 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  wozadummy

  For many years it troubled me the way the watchtower handled the matter of forgiveness.

  From the Bible we gain the insight that Jehovah forgives ,and is always ready to forgive, people who approach HIM repentently .

  But it always seemed to me that when articles were commenting on how we should always be ready to forgive others ,we had to extend it beyond even what Jehovah does and try to make ourselves forgive even those that expressed no remorse over what they did to us :

  to keep peace

  to move ahead

  to emulate God & Jesus

  to show love for the brotherhood and blah blah blah

  This always seemed unreasonable to me , to expect more from us than what even god is willing to do! When I asked others about this naturally the point was avoided.

  So let's give a scenario:

  Elder abuses with swearing and serious lies and calls a person a dishonest cheat with slander in front of 3 JW witnesses. The basis of his accusations is totally untrue and the person tries to reason with the Elder and the Elder promptly tells the person to go away and never speak to him again!

  The person goes and can"t fulfill the scriptures completely because he can't have a meeting with that Elder because he is prohibited.Person seeks help from congo overseer, meeting arranged at Kingdom hall with commitee, Elder rings person in the morning and mocks person and refuses to go to commitee as CO says he does'nt have to .

  Meeting goes ahead any way with embarrased committee and 3 witnesses who saw even worse things after the first event. Result - Elder continues even till today 4 years later gaining more prominence but still no apology. Iff a publisher did this he would be DF';d

  So how can the person be expected to forgive in these or maybe worse or even less circumstances?

  anyone help? opinions please?
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  crankytoe

  I would have a hard time forgiving without an apology........Actually I would not forgive without at least an apology.

  Maybe try missing a few meetings, and if anyone asks why, tell them brother so and so stumbled you?

  Crank,
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  FairMind

  I'm with you 100%. There is a certain elder who slandered me and then haughtedly lied about it. I would forgive him in a minute if he said he was sorry and owned up to what he did. Since he hasn't then I'll just say that I won't miss him when he dies.
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  Honesty

  Sometimes we just have to face up to the facts.

  The Jehovah's Witnesses are far removed from the real God of the Bible because they are being deceived by the Governing Body.
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  TresHappy

  Elders command high authority and although they say that they make mistakes, getting them to admit it is another story. You've been given this power and you've abused it previously and no one has ever brought it to your attention, it's a hard thing to swallow - especially a JW elder. Some of it is total ignorance, although I think most of it is total arrogance.
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  wozadummy

  Thanks for the comments ,they really show there is something amiss in the org.

  I think it is probably the foundation for their problems in handling people properly when problems come up. So judgementall and yet can't see their own error which leads to so many leaving dissallusioned.
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  Perry

  How about this whopper..... "Love your enemies". This certainly seems to go far beyond mere forgiveness.