by Elsewhere 46 Replies latest jw friends
Has anyone ever seen a situation where the WTS disfellowhiped someone who is autistic, retarded or otherwise mentally challenged?
I wonder if the elders give them more leeway knowing that they are not always capable of making decisions as well as a normal person.
They have to allow them to get baptized in the first place. None that you described could honestly answer the baptismal questions without heavy coaching. I'm sure that there are a handful that are capable of understanding the primary doctrines to a point, but in general, most are not able to. Hell, it's hard enough for a genius to truly understand what the WTS teaches.
I think that they just don't recruit these people in the first place...
Jesus didn't die for them.....did he?
Never seeing or heard of a mentally challenged person ever getting baptized, much less disfellowshipped. Either act would be wrong, imo.
DY
In the three or so cases I know of, it was always the children of JW's that were born this way, they were never recruited. It also was understood in the congo that they were not ever going to be baptized. Their fate salvation rested with the "spirituality" of the parents.
Jesus didn't die for them.....did he?
lol... that reminds me of a South Park episode.
The kids were told that unless they confessed their sins they would go to hell, so they all went to church to confess. Eventually they realized Timmy could not confess his sins because all he can say is "Timmy!!!" and therefore was doomed to go to hell. They ended up spending the episode trying to find a way to prevent Timmy from going to hell.
No - we all left before they could catch us...
Yes I remember a case that involved a mentally ill person. The CO stated we would be dfing the sickness to keep the cong. clean. Somehow that made it all right.
HCM
there was a guy in my old cong that was definitely challenged. he wasn't retarded, he was brain damaged. (he had gotten into a fight at a bar in his 20s and some one smashed his head on the sidewalk)
he was baptised in his late 40s or early 50s. he would sit at the back of the hall just shaking and sobbing. i'm talkign about REAL sobbing during the meeting. he had real self esteem issues and would talk to the elders after every meeting he went to about some new "bad" thing he had done that he needed to confess. he would try to give my dad his diabetes supplies (they both have diabetes) because he "didn't deserve them". it was terribly sad. not only because he was in serious need of some therapy but also because he had been baptised only a few years before. granted, he could've become far more unstable AFTER the baptism, but technically he had major problems decades before.
he was never disfellowshipped or anything (at least not while i was there...i've been gone about 6 years) but i have no idea if that was because he was brain damaged or because he didn't do anything 'wrong'.
