Recently I have fallen ill with a serious case of chickenpox (shingles). Three weeks down, high fevers, and the blisters attacked mostly my scalp and face, but then also my whole upper body. I looked horrid, truly like a mutant monster out of a nuclear disaster. Then, some other complications followed. While I'm recovering and back to work, I suspect my face won't be left without a significant amount of scars. So much for winning that beauty pageant...
As you know, after my JC I have become inactive, and I don't go to meetings anymore. Last one I attended was this years' memorial. Through my wife I keep getting messages to the effect that the brothers miss me a great deal, etc. But now, through my wife and Facebook, it was known in my congregation that I was ill. So, what did my loving brothers do?
NOTHING!
Apart from two sisters (one in another country) wishing a "get better" on Facebook, there wasn't a single phone call, email or text message. A couple of brothers / sisters, during phone calls with my wife would sometimes inquiry about my well-being, and asked my wife to relay their get well messages, that was it. They could have called if they wanted to, as they also have my number, but they never did. My CO holier-than-thou brother-in-law not once called or inquired about my well-being. My wife's sister only started asking about me when my wife questioned in her face after a long phone call to discuss other family matters "well, aren't you going to ask anything about my husband or wish for his recovery?", and she was caught by the comment because she wasn't even going to touch the subject.
No Elder from my former congregation or from my wife's new neighboring congregation bothered to ask anything or even offered to do a "shepherding call", or even bothered to call or text message or email or Facebook. They absolutely shun me as they would if I had been disfellowshipped. Which proves that they outright LIE when they write on their official website, under the FAQ - "Do Jehovah's Witnesses Shun Former Members?": "Those who were baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses but no longer preach to others, perhaps even drifting away from association with fellow believers, are not shunned. In fact, we reach out to them and try to rekindle their spiritual interest."
B.S. I say. I had "wordly" clients who, when they heard I was ill, picked up the phone, called me from overseas to know how I was and gave words of encouragement. One even took the initiative to send meds for me from overseas. These are truly compassionate people - not the plasticky, "feel-good-about-myself" fake friends, fake brethren from the congregation. Hurtful was to listen to my wife defend them, saying that I shouldn't expect any other treatment because I was the one who decided to leave the congregation. WTF, one cannot win against this mentality, can it?
I remember the irony of the words of Jesus in the parable of the lambs and goats: (Matthew 25) : "Then He will also say to those on the left, Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn't take Me in; I was naked and you didn't clothe Me, sick and in prison and you didn't take care of Me.' "Then they too will answer, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?' "Then He will answer them, I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.'
Funny how it never crosses her self-righteous minds that this fits them so well.
Eden