by wouldacouldashoulda 33 Replies latest jw friends
AE
It was the organized hospital visits of the Elders that was started. The WTS didn't authorize the program. The Elders saw a need and responded accordingly. Why should they even need to get permission from the GB?
Either way, it was stopped.
Later the Hospital Liason program was started, but that was simply to support the blood issues.
Anyone from Canada care to comment on this?
So did the elders stop because gb told them not to? Or they stop for other reasons?? I think it was lovely when they did that, i use to be assigned to visit ones too, especially if ones were from another cong but in hospital in our territory. Cant believe its stopped...how sad.
AE
The key point is, "it was an organized program" The GB didn't want that to be happening unless they set the rules. Rather than saying that's a great idea, we will help you develope it further, they stopped it.
There's nothing wrong with a local congregation setting up an informal program if they so desire, but not organised from a branch level. Sorry if I didn't state this earlier.
Dead JW found in bath after 6 days
JW Soup!
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No, AE, dissed said the GB stopped the elders for "going ahead" of the organization.
Angel Eyes, are you a Rastafarian?
6 days isn't so bad. If it wasn't for my friend Ray I could easily lie here dead for a month without anyone noticing. I don't interact with people a lot, and can easily take several weeks vacation and spend them in the house. Neighbours and family would not think anything wrong with me being unseen or silent for a long time. Even as a teenager my parents grew accustomed to me disappearing for weeks or months at a time. In those days I was more sociable, and would only go home when I couldn't find a party.
W
I think making any statements or judgments on this thread would be a mistake. On some threads people talk
about the "Hounder's" who don't just leave you alone and let you fade ... coming around to snoop or trap you up on lets say
Christmas or Halloween decorations . Then you have this one where they allegedly don't care or even come around !
Without knowing the people involved, the situation , how can you make a fair judgment ?
You're damned if you do & you're damned don't ! (This is not a pro JW statement..just a statement calling for balance )
I think the key thing rather to ask... are we personally doing what we can to care and protect others from neglect or needless harm ?
I think for about half of the Elders that it formly knew who had natural inborn love and compassion, this is buried or set aside because of
all the other requirements from GB (WT) . If there is blame I would tend to pass it alone a little higher up as the root cause .
The old express .. "The road to hell is paved with the stones of good intentions " (We meant to do that..were just going to do that )
Very good thoughts, Caliber. I think it is more the individuals in a cong. of any religion who truly take notice of their "brothers and sisters" and try to keep track of the elderly and alone. I think the 6 days that passed in this case is actually a pretty good score. Circumstances vary. But I've known elderly Witnesses who had no other friends or family but tended to blend into the background. Kind of sad. I remember once an elder discussion about keeping track those who might be vulnerable. Can't say if it was implemented or not.
I think the key thing rather to ask... are we personally doing what we can to care and protect others from neglect or needless harm ?
I think for about half of the Elders that it formly knew who had natural inborn love and compassion, this is buried or set aside because of
all the other requirements from GB (WT) . If there is blame I would tend to pass it alone a little higher up as the root cause .
Caliber
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/142719/1/A-Man-in-Spite-of-the-Organization-ISOCF
"What does it mean to "keep Jehovah's organization clean"?
[...] It means that those men will continue to apply with all due vigor whatever policy may be current and they will disfellowship anyone who does not adhere to that policy ... The main concern is to be obedient to Society policy. The feeling is created that 'if the organization tells us to do it we will not be held responsible by God if it is a mistake.' That same mentality has prevailed among men of many lands and in many periods who have excused themselves of guilt in serious injustice by the claim that "they were simply following orders from their superiors." Even the world's courts have rejected such an excuse. How much more should Christians reject it!
The binding, restricting effect that this concern for organizational submission can have on person's minds was illustrated to me by an experience related by Robert Lang, then the assistant Bethel Home Overseer at the international headquarters. He had been transferred to a different congregation in the New York city area and he said that at one of the first meetings he attended there the elders approached him for advice. It seems that a young woman, the sister of one of the ministerial servants, was disfellowshiped and was still attending meetings. She had a small baby and brought it with her to the Kingdom Hall in a baby carriage. The Hall itself was on the second story of a building and the stairs were long and steep. The young woman would back up the stairs, pulling the baby carriage - with the baby in it - up the stairs as she went. The question the elders asked was whether it would be proper for the disfellowshiped woman's brother to assist her in getting up the stairs! Some thought so, others said, no, being disfellowshiped she should be considered as if she were not even there. To his credit, Lang said, "I don't know what the rule is on this, I only know one thing: if I'm around when she starts pulling that carriage up the stairs, I'm going to help her! When I think of what could happen if she were to stumble and lose control of the carriage ....'
The most frightening thing about this is that adult men did not feel they could be guided by their own hearts and minds in a circumstance so obviously calling for human kindness. The pressing concern for them was - not the danger to the infant's life - but WHAT THE ORGANIZATION POLICY ALLOWED in such cases [emphasis: RF]. They gave evidence of having become emasculated men in matters of ethics, of right and wrong.
Franz concludes by stating that Robert Lang was for him "the kind of person he was, not because of the organization, but in spite of the organization."
IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM, Ray Franz, pp. 404, 405.
