Love thy neighbor, but only if they are of the same faith

free2beme

As a Witness, I can honestly say I did little to nothing to help people who were not Witnesses. If there was a disaster, I would look to see if the local Witnesses were okay and honestly cared nothing about the others. I donated to no charities, because they would be helping nonWitnesses. I remember once asking an elder, "If Jesus used examples in his stories of helping people that were not of the Jewish faith, as a way of showing that we should love our neighbors, why did we not show the same love to others in times of need.' The elder responded that we show that love when we warn these ones from door to door about the end, and teach the true Kingdom message. I know that others here, who were once Witnesses, will have little no memory of helping communities. I doubt you ever donated food to a disaster relief to help nonWitnesses, I doubt you ever helped build a youth community center or even went grocery shopping for an elderly person (unless they were a study or took the magazines). It was a strong conditional love, and let's face it, in the story of the "good samaritan" Witnesses would have been the ones passing by on the other side of the street and leaving the man to die. Wouldn't you agree?

ObservingTexan

I agree wholeheartly. JW's are blinded to the "truth". With the same deception they extend to others to suck them into the organization..... they too have been deceived by the greatest deceiver of all time... Satan himself.

luna2

For sure we were trained not to participate in mass charitable activities; nothing that was organized, that could be traced back to some church, the evil Red Cross, sellers of blood, or the government certainly.

Individual acts we could do and be lauded for it...in fact, you might find yourself used as an example if whatever you did was cool enough and people found out about it. So, I suppose stopping to help a person who got beat-up and robbed, had their car break down, or you discovered needed groceries or something would be okay with the Tower. Just as long as it wasn't something that you did too much of, took time and attention away from spreading the flatulence, or caused you to miss meetings....and there's the thing with dubs. It's easier not to help, even when such might be permissible, because many don't have an extra dime, first of all, and, secondly, because they are so stressed with all the other crap they have to do as JWs that its more than they want to take on, especially if the help would go to non-dubs.

jaded

The WTS loves to brag about all the hours spent in field service. What a waste. It's sad, really. Knocking on doors, aggravating the heck out of people. Think of all the real good that could have been done with those hours. If someone did lend a hand to a stranger you can be sure that the person they were helping got an earful about the Kingdom and a Watchtower publication handed to them.

looking_glass

I remember during the reading of the day's text right before going out and pounding on doors that there was a discussion about what "love thy neighbor" meant. The elder leading the group said that it only meant the door to door work because that was our form of love. He further went on to say that we would not donate time or money to other groups because we would not know how they used those resources and they may be bad. Later I asked the elder if he felt that was really what the scripture said. I stated that I would think it would be a better witness to be loving to our neighbors all the time and not conditional (only when they express an interest in studying). He told me that I had dangerous thoughts. That was the usual male response to a sensible female question. After I faded away, the first thing I did was sign up to work at a catholic charity for battered women and children. These people need our help regardless of their faith.

sammielee24

Your subject title says it all.

This is the same organization that has no use for government - won't vote, won't sing the anthem, hates the UN and home schools their kids as much as possible to avoid bad association with worldy kids. Yet interesting enough - they don't refuse government help when it comes in the form of a check - and I'm thinking of those who were not JW's at the time they may have served in the army, but who now are children of the WTS and who readily accept those pension checks as their due. I'm also thinking of all the parents who removed their kids from school to avoid worldy kids (they tell you its because of the quality of the education) but who turn around and work in the school system accepting their checks. They don't go out of their way to comfort those many lying in hospitals or nursing homes, they leave that to other organizations or religious groups, but when they are in the same position who do they think cares for them? sammieswife.

Honesty

When I was in the Lie of the WATCHTOWER my main concern was getting in enough hours so that I wouldn't be considered 'weak'.

Besides, if you help a 'worldling' they may live long enough to be destroyed at Armageddon. It's better for them to starve to death now because they'll get resurrected into Paradise.

Now I know everyone is resurrected.

The JW mindset is so twisted and torqued out of shape because they have been taught the lie that Christians believe in immortality of the soul.