We had one brother who became a witness after he contracted HIV, he was very subdued and very willing to learn and very into the "truth", I guess that can really have an effect on you. He was very nice, I did feel sorry for him. It is a very sad way to die, and a terrible way to life out your last days.
Any HIV experiences with witnesses ????
by run dont walk 10 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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ballistic
I did post on here once some of the horrifying statstics on HIV from around the world but no one on here really discussed it.
My point was that the African countries where the Watchtower is expanding are the same countries where HIV is at epedemic proportions.
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Raphael
Shockingly I remeber an article in an Awake or Wachtower that dealt with HIV/AIDS written sometime in the 90's - not sure exact dates ...
The article gave instructions that any infected with the virus and whom where contemplating baptism stand at the back of the que and wait till after everyone else was baptised - so as not to stumble or cause anyone uneccessary concern.
The article went on to indictate if I remeber correctly , that these people also sit towards the back of the KH so as not to offend anyone.
If anyone else remebers the articles and can scan the pages , that would be cool.
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Sparkplug
The article gave instructions that any infected with the virus and whom where contemplating baptism stand at the back of the que and wait till after everyone else was baptised - so as not to stumble or cause anyone uneccessary concern.
The article went on to indictate if I remeber correctly , that these people also sit towards the back of the KH so as not to offend anyone.
If anyone else remebers the articles and can scan the pages , that would be cool.
;
I remember that. I was so mad. So very mad. I don't have a copy though. Sorry
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james_woods
My ex-wife had an older brother who died of HIV/AIDS way back in about 1985-88. He had been married but was secretly gay during the time when nobody knew a thing about this disease. He came back from another city when his partner died and he had already been diagnosed.
The weird part of this was that this guy was not to my knowledge ever disfellowshipped for gay issues. The congregation just sort of put out a little undercover rumor mill on him and he pretty soon got sick enough that he could't come to meetings anyway. The only people who would have a thing to do with him were his own family who had already quit the congregation back in the 1980 fallout. The ex and I were already divorced when this happened but her brother told me all about it.
For what it is worth, I knew of several others who were "secretly" gay or lesbian and were just rumored upon but not actually DFed. I don't know but that the rumor mill was just as bad as an announcement from the platform. And, the sad thing is that these were really all pretty good people and a lot less judgemental than most of the good JWs.
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sir82
The article gave instructions that any infected with the virus and whom where contemplating baptism stand at the back of the que and wait till after everyone else was baptised - so as not to stumble or cause anyone uneccessary concern.
You're probably not going to believe this....
Then again, you probably will....
In the new "Organization" book, instead of a parenthetical or footnote question, it is now one of the primary questions for baptismal candidates: "Why would it be loving to infrom the PO if you have any communicable disease prior to baptism" (or words to that effect, don't have my book here with me). As I recall, it is also referred to as "loving" to wait until all others are baptized before entering the pool, if one has such a "communicable disease".
I.e., the GB still has the scientifically-disproven-for-at-least-the-last-15-years notion that you can catch AIDS by touching water that has been touched by an AIDS victim. And if you don't agree with them, you can't get baptized.
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stillajwexelder
yes I remember - they had to be baptized privately so pool would not be "contaminated"
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DigitalFokus
when being considered for dunking I was told that people with hiv/aids are told that they can not use the kh bathrooms and other ludacris/ignorant rules because they are unclean. I do not know why they brought this up since as far as i knew no one at that cong was infected. this was one of the first things that seemed very wrong about the dubs. I asked them if they had ever read about hiv/aids and if they knew how it was transmitted. without even answering they said people infected are unlclean just like the lepers of biblical times. ahh bullshit. i argued with them for a few minutes and then gave up and said ok whatever. I have a feeling we had a person infected wth hiv/aid at the kh and they were just warning me if i ever found out that their are rules for people living with that desiese. what a bunch of ignorant pricks. I have only known 1 person with the sickness (that i know of) and talked in length with him about it...AND this was just retarded. I still havn't figured out why they have such ignorant rules. I learned later that one of the elders who gave me that talk had his wife cheat on him....do do teee do.
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LDH
When I was 16, a brother in our congregation was dying of AIDS. He was a recovered heroin addict and got AIDS from infected needles. You could see the bruises on his neck or whatever.
He had married a sister that already had an 8 year old girl, but together they had a son. He got really sick, so sick to the point of being disabled, and losing the home they were renting. They had no vehicle. Jim and Mary Ann Seward opened their home to this whole family. Amazing, considering this was the late 80s! A lot in the congregation treated his family (and the Sewards by proxy) like lepers. Some were unwilling to give the wife and children a ride to the hall when he got too sick to go. Anyhow, I was not allowed to touch or hold the baby because babies drool, and you might get some of his spit on you, and no one knows whether he infected the rest of the family, blah blah blah. I remember the Sewards had a picnic at their house. We were lectured not to touch any food that we saw this family touch. I'll never forget, Mary Ann was holding the baby and she asked me to hold him (6 months old). I told her I was not able to, and when she asked why I told her.
She responded that it was not possible to contract AIDS like 'that' but I still didn't hold the baby because I didn't want to get in trouble.
Everyone thought the Sewards were crazy, but in retrospect they were just demonstrating the love that all of the other JWs just talked about.
Lisa
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jwfacts
A brother got d/f about five years ago in my cong for being gay. The rumour was that he has HIV, but I could never confirm if it was true or if it was just a congregation urban myth to support the 'he reaped what he sew and deserves to die' attitude.