I happened to read the Awake of November 22nd. There is a blatent trumpet blowing article regarding their efforts in relief measures in Houston in June 2001
It is telling when they proudly say the elders compiled a report of the "Brothers and sisters" in need and a squad was assembled to repair the homes of 700 witnesses. It ends with a tribute to "The loving brotherhood"
I knew that they would be blowing their own horns about the help they gave each other as a witness that they are SOOOOO unified. I figured that they would try to get as much mileage as they could out of this.
I think I'll share some of the behind the scenes backbiting that went on with this.
One of my witness relatives was the receipient of this "free" help and although they basically got their house rebuilt for free, they were bitching the whole time about how long it was taking. They only donated back to their so-called "friends" a tiny fraction of what it actually took to rebuild even though their insurance cut them a HUGE check for the damages. They took their insurance money and bought big ticket items they otherwise would've never been able to afford.
Although I HEARD of the "reports" of brothers signing all their government aid and insurance checks over to the society, this relative and most other JWs I know of were upset that they were being presented with bills totaling the cost of the supplies and then being pressured to make their donation in that amount. The Soceity was justifying their attitude by saying " well, jehovah even takes care of the sparrows" and the ole "honoring Jehovah with your valuable things". The individual JWs were justifying their attitude by saying "How do we know that this is actually how much these supplies cost?", basically looking for any wiggle room possible that will allow them to be the cheapskates they are, even at their "brothers" expense. So much for their so-called unity and speaking with one voice.
The society took what could've been a golden opportunity for them actually perform some real community service and turned it into a selfish free for all limited to those they perceived in "good standing" at the local kingdum halls and especially for those who had insurance as they got to have their cake and eat it too. This was nothing more than another one of their propaganda and profiteering schemes. They used their tax exempt religious status to get free and heavily reduced price supplies, free storage of said supplies, rebuilt the homes of only their members, and then attempted to reap huge financial rewards by charging back to the members the retail cost of the supplies. They then resorted to using strongarm, coercive, and guilt tripping tactics to get them to pay up by disguising subsequent elder visits as "shepherding calls".
I'll bet that they didn't present that side in their Asleep magazine.
