by zeb 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
My wife (uber) mentioned today an elderly man who comes to the kh and he suffers from a sever stomach complaint which needs surgery and that there is a 'waiting list' at the local hospital.
So I says, "Why dont the elders put the $$ together to get his op done privately." (Ie out of the govt system and 'waiting lists')
Her answer was telling. "Oh well he is not baptized and..."..... realized she had perhaps gone too far.
Me.."Well they could do it as an act of charity surely".
silence.
I had elders tell me that charity is shown to brothers and sisters first...never saw that at a congregation level. Must not waste Jehovah's money.
The WT idea of charity is to "assist" the needy to seek out and make us of Ceasar's programs.
DESIROUS OF CHANGE:
That is correct. Also, the religion’s idea of charity is to very discreetly target responsible people in congregations to give money!
The problem is that some of these responsible people were criticized for their job/career! I would have no tolerance for their hypocrisy!
We were always taught that the most valuable charity was giving people "the truth". I remember that hurricane recovery volunteers had to spend a good chunk of their time witnessing instead of actually helping people. It was all about how it looked to news outlets (and future magazine covers/articles), but they were mostly just pushing "literature" on potential converts at a vulnerable point in their lives.
Excellent response, zeb.
We were always taught that charity of any sort was a waste of time. Teach people the "truth"! Even if they are starving today and die tomorrow, at least they had "the hope"!
Now I know it's just a game. If you do charitable works you end up sharing $$$$. Can't have any of that!
I wonder if the WT sent any "volunteers" to Puerto Rico, or more recently to North Carolina? Do they even pretend to send any help these days?
Great thread Zeb!
Many years back, there was a young teenager in the cong with a rare form of cancer. His family was doing it tough, and so I wanted to arrange a collection to help the family out towards all the expenses.
I asked why we couldnt make it an official Congregation activity to help them out.
What was the Elders response? I was also told "this is not what we do".
So I took up a private collection amongst any who felt inclined to help out. I was told "not to do it while at the KHall!"
Things like this make me so angry when the Society has "charitable tax-free status" in most countries, and yet they wouldnt know the meaning of the word "charity"!
Didn't that family with the sick daughter Felicity that appeared on a JWBorgcast use a gofundme for her trip to US for treatment and also her trip home again because HQ wouldn't cough up a penny?
ZEB:
Bottom line: in addition to the fact that the JW religion is not really a charitable organization, the people there are judgmental and mean-spirited.
You have people who are judgmental in not wanting to associate with those not on their ‘spiritual’ level 🙄. What makes anybody think they would be charitable to somebody like you mention in your post (you have a woman saying somebody is ‘not baptized’)?? Then it would be ..“well he/she is not that active so is not deserving..’.
You would have to revamp the WHOLE mentality of the Jehovah’s Witness religion and this is not going to happen! If anything, they are getting worse with the judgmentalism. You would have to undo decades of wrong attitudes plus teachings from the top down. The religion would ALSO have to do an about-face with their attitudes towards college, careers and responsible people in the workforce. People with no careers have no money in addition to being resentful.
Unless and until these things happen (which I doubt), it is FANTASY to talk about Witnesses doing real charitable work towards anybody. It’s not gonna happen and the most you’ll see is their hit and miss of certain people being targeted to put money in an envelope.
They don't mind taking charity from "worldly" people. Or accepting organs or blood fractions from "worldly" people when they need one. Hypocrites.
