Do you have any shocking experiences of JW prejudice against non-JWs? I have one report to share.

by Island Man 10 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Island Man

  A non-JW friend of mine told me of her experience at a just concluded regional convention that she went to. She said that during some announcements after a song, there was an announcement advising the audience to be mindful of the need to safeguard their belongings because not all persons present at the convention are delegates.

  She said she was shocked to hear this rather prejudiced announcement that clearly insinuated all non-delegates are untrustworthy and only delegates are honest. She said she was even more shocked by the fact that the audience didn't react in any way to indicate that they recognized something inappropriate was said.

  Do you have any experiences of shocking prejudice against "worldly" persons by JWs?
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  freddo

  Not that shocking. Everyone there with an intent to listen to the program is a "delegate" aren't they? Now if they'd said "non jehovah's witnesses" I'd agree.
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  Tallon

  Here's my experience and I hope it fits in with this discussion thread;

  This incident occurred at a district convention about 1981 or 1982. I was standing with my mother and sister. A bethelite walked up to us and shook hands with my sister and congratulated her on getting baptised. I didn't know him that well so I held out my hand to greet him. He backed away slightly and then said to me that he doesn't shake hands with unbaptised brothers. I was momentarily taken aback by this and wanted to throw the curry & rice that I held in my hand into his face (they still sold food at the conventions back then). My mother saw what I was intending to do and gave me one of her looks so I backed down. Needless to say, my mother wasn't impressed with this so called bethelite and let him have it with both barrels.

  A couple of years later, that jerk got kicked out of bethel for stealing money and was disfellowshipped.
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  rebelfighter

  After 5 years of multiple daily phone calls from the "Elder" one of his statements that just blew me away was "I can no longer talk to you because we worship different Gods".
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  sir82

  I dunno, I wouldn't necessarily find such an announcement "shocking".

  I've attended conventions in urban areas where there were lots of idlers hanging about outside. Once they figure out that the arena is completely open, has air conditioning, and there are people who tend to leave stuff on their seats unattended for hours at a time....seems like word would spread amongst themselves that there is a lot of "potential" there.
  
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  Island Man

  freddo: Everyone there with an intent to listen to the program is a "delegate" aren't they?

  No. Here's the Google provided definition of the word:

  a person sent or authorized to represent others, in particular an elected representative sent to a conference.

  synonyms:

  representative, envoy, emissary, commissioner, agent, deputy, commissary;

  It is clear from the definition of the word that it must refer to baptized JWs in good standing. The delegates are those in attendance who wear the ID badges stating their name and congregation. The term definitely does not refer to non-JW visitors at the congregation.

  So a statement warning persons to secure their belongings because non-delegates are present is very prejudicial and offensive. Imagine you were a black man and you visited a function where the majority present were white and at some point in the function there is an announcement telling people to secure their belongings because non-whites are present. How would you feel?
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  Island Man

  sir82: I dunno, I wouldn't necessarily find such an announcement "shocking".
  I've attended conventions in urban areas where there were lots of idlers hanging about outside. Once they figure out that the arena is completely open, has air conditioning, and there are people who tend to leave stuff on their seats unattended for hours at a time....seems like word would spread amongst themselves that there is a lot of "potential" there.

  I don't think she had an issue with advising the audience to secure their belongings because of the possibility of theft. I think the problem was the blanket insinuation that persons who are not delegates are automatically untrustworthy while the delegates were all above suspicion. That's an unfair and offensive prejudice. Most people are not thieves. A minority of JWs are thieves and a minority of non-JWs are thieves. Maybe the percentage of non-JWs who are thieves is higher than the percentage of JWs that are. But in both cases I'm willing to bet that it's a small percentage - a small minority - who are thieves. So it's highly improper to negatively label an entire group of people because of the bad actions of a few individuals among them.
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  Chook

  The most common action of humans is to eat. I've heard at convention not to eat with WORLDLY people . Pius bastards
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  darkspilver

  Hi freddo!

  Not that shocking. Everyone there with an intent to listen to the program is a "delegate" aren't they? Now if they'd said "non jehovah's witnesses" I'd agree.

  Yep, agreed, and especially now with some of the venues being used which effectively have shared common areas.
  

  And what's interestng, is that it is WAY MORE important nowadays because....

  Think about it - in olden days you might get a few bibles, songbooks and notebooks in bags left on seats, maybe some makeup and food...
  

  But now, with the use of electronic tablet devices.... just think what's being left unattended on seats....
  
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  Nevuela

  rebelfighter You ought to have said "What? When did you stop worshipping Jehovah?"