Thinking back

by purplesofa 14 Replies latest jw friends

  • purplesofa
    purplesofa

    My bookstudy was at an elders house that lived a bit out of the city. A small road with only his house and another. The other house was the first you passed.....unsightly....trashed cars.......broken down bicycles............not trashy, but not like the bit of paradise at the elder house.

    I remember the elder telling us how the man had become ill and lost his job working for the waterworks department, a city job, with little wages. Eventually, he got his electricity turned off and was still living in the home. There were children living there I remember. and what looked like a Grandmother.

    I remember passing by when the children were outside at a picnic table doing what appeared to be homework, with an elderly women. They were orderly kids, not unruly.

    They lived there quit some time without electricity. It was getting to be colder weather and I remember inquiring if they got power. I can't remember now ----the reply. but I remember seeing plastic over the windows.

    But for the life of me...........how did all us witnesses pass by there week after week knowing they were without power and not take up a collection to help them?

    It really sickens me as I think of it today.

  • Whiskeyjack
    Whiskeyjack

    Strange huh?

    Deeds speak a lot more loudly than words (I thought that was one of Jesus' maim themes?).

  • JamesThomas
    JamesThomas

    As Jehovah's humble Witnesses we do little for others who we believe will soon be killed by our god, for it would not far well for us at armageddon if we were to show greater love and compassion towards others than god. I mean, we certainly don't want to expose our god for the total moron that he is.....now do we.

  • Big Dog
    Big Dog

    That was always something that really bugged me, even from the time I was just a kid. I remember asking my mom why we didn't have any charities or anything and getting some lame answer about how saving their soul was more important and that doing good works in this old system would come to no good end. I remember someone making the comment that if you gave some poor starving son of a B a sandwich he might be more apt to listen to your pitch than if he was rolling around on the ground from hunger pangs. Sort of made sense to me.

  • AK - Jeff
    AK - Jeff

    purplesofa-

    I remember one CO telling me that the organization was not big on 'sentimentality'. What he meant was it was not big on Charity, compassion, human understanding, fellow feeling.

    And when I look back on it I cannot recall a single mention of charity among those people in over 4 decades. We considered that we were providing the greatest charity of all - selling them little magazines that proclaimed our little old men at the helm in Brooklyn as those who lead them all to life in paradise.

    So sad to think about the goodness that could have been done with all that 'volunteer' effort -wasted in service to a corporate publishing house.

    Jeff

  • Bas
    Bas

    Lol @ James Thomas, yeah God's still working on the new system of things but he doesn't seem to be able to make it work, maybe he should outsource the project to Microsoft, have a windowsbased version of heaven.

  • Honesty
    Honesty

    They just don't get it....

    "By their fruits you will recognise them" - Jesus

  • Carmel
    Carmel

    bigdog, didn't know they believed in "souls"....

    carmel

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    Yes, it is sad that they have no real provisions for those of us who fall through the cracks. Even the Amish will get together to build a new barn for one whose barn burns down. But, seriously, the JWs do help SOME secretly and selectively. I have heard of pioneers being given money and things by certain ones on the q.t. But, no, there is no organized effort to generally help the poor among them. It all boils down to who you know and how well-regarded you are. LHG

  • JAVA
    JAVA

    Purplesofa -- you raise a good point about the Towertower's history of helping others in need. When I think about it, Jehovah's Witnesses do VERY LITTLE for members of their own congregation that fall on hard times, so the idea of helping non-Witnesses is beyond the scope of this sect. If Jesus was driving by the family that's in your post, I'm sure he would have helped in some way. I don't consider myself a Christian, but the biblical Jesus is an example of a way of life that the Tower makes no effort to emulate. Indeed, it "sickens" many!

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