Agreed. It would depend on the witness. The simple answer is Yes. The explanation follows When one is disfellowshipped they are no longer part of the organization and members of the congregation are instructed to treat their former brother "just as a man of the nations" or worldly. As a disciplinary action the congregation is also told to disassociate themselves from the "wrongdoer". With those principles in play it is perfectly acceptable for a witness to give emergency aid to anyone who needs it. The level of interaction and participation would be effected by whether or not the person was a practicing witness, your garden variety worldly person, or a person who was disfellowshipped. A level headed witness would take care of business and make sure the situation was handled and stable before excusing himself of anymore responsibility. The more emotionally wounded, less stable, more biased witness would probably allow prejudice and hurt feelings to get in the way of practical thinking. It's all hypothetical until it actually happens though so there is really no right answer.
Someone please help me out on this one. Are JW's allowed to help....
by jetery 18 Replies latest jw experiences
-
-
james_woods
Quote:
I would think JWs are allowed to help disfellowshipped person bleeding to death.... They will not get in trouble with that, that would be gifts of mercy. ______ I guess they could put on a tourniquet and hope for the best (if they felt particularly generous that day) - but giving whole blood might still be a sin, even if the poor guy was already DFd?
-
eby
W 74 8/1 Maintaining a Balanced Viewpoint Toward Disfellowshiped Ones PP. 467-468 pars. 5-7
5 Congregational elders, as well as individual members of a congregation, therefore, ought to guard against developing an attitude approaching that which some Jewish rabbinical writers fomented toward Gentiles in viewing them as virtual enemies. It is right to hate the wrong committed by the disfellowshiped one, but it is not right to hate the person nor is it right to treat such ones in an inhumane way. As noted earlier, some rabbinical writings held that, even if in peril of death, no assistance should be extended to Gentiles. Suppose, then, a member of a Christian congregation boating on a lake were to see another boat containing a disfellowshiped person capsize, throwing the disfellowshiped one into the water where he struggled to stay afloat. Could the Christian ignore that one’s peril, row away and feel free from guilt before God—inasmuch as the one in danger of drowning was disfellowshiped, viewed as "a man of the nations"? Certainly not. That would be cruel and inhumane. We cannot imagine Christ Jesus doing so; nor would any other Jew of the first century who had a balanced viewpoint have reacted that way toward a Gentile or a tax collector in such a plight.
6 But consider a less extreme situation. What if a woman who had been disfellowshiped were to attend a congregational meeting and upon leaving the hall found that her car, parked nearby, had developed a flat tire? Should the male members of the congregation, seeing her plight, refuse to aid her, perhaps leaving it up to some worldly person to come along and do so? This too would be needlessly unkind and inhumane. Yet situations just like this have developed, perhaps in all good conscience, yet due to a lack of balance in viewpoint.
7 If we imitate our heavenly Father we will remember that he even showed certain considerateness toward the first human pair after their disfellowshiping in Eden, providing them with clothing. (Gen. 3:21) This was an undeserved kindness toward them. As Jesus reminded his disciples, Jehovah God "makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous." (Matt. 5:45) The apostle Paul showed that, despite the independent course the Gentile nations took contrary to God’s way, Jehovah "did not leave himself without witness in that he did good, giving [them] rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling [their] hearts to the full with food and good cheer." (Acts 14:16, 17) So, not "mixing in company" with a person, or treating such one as "a man of the nations," does not prevent us from being decent, courteous, considerate and humane.
-
AudeSapere
About 20 years ago I was a semi-active witness but had just moved out of my cong territory.
One Sunday morning I went for a bike ride and had an accident. My face was pretty cut up and my knee was bleeding and swollen. There were farm workers who saw me sitting on the ground and came to see I needed help. They spoke little english and I know that if they left their fields they would not be paid for that missed work. But 3 of them offered assistance.
I declined. Got back on my bike and started riding the 5 miles to my home (slightly uphill).
About 1/2 mile into my return trip with bloody knee and face, I was at the little side street where the local Kingdom Hall was. I counted more than 20 cars that were clearly witnesses that just passed me by. Kids in the back of their cars stared. A few people made eye contact and then quickly looked away.
I was a witness who was afraid of worldly people but the witnesses did not have time or inclination to assist. And I was one of them at the time~~!!
I think the official position is to allow compassion in helping to get medical care. Family members may be an exception. But I think most JW's (and maybe people in general) pretend to not see someone in need and then just go about their own business.
-Aude.
-
Open mind
Should the male members of the congregation, seeing her plight, refuse to aid her...?
Ah yes. The poor, incompetent, DFed female.
Good thing males are around just for such occasions.
Thanks, eby, for that hilarious walk down chauvinist memory lane.
OM
-
Open mind
AudeSapere:
But I think most JW's (and maybe people in general) pretend to not see someone in need and then just go about their own business.
I don't agree with this. But I can't prove or disprove it beyond my own gut feeling and anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I think there are plenty of JWs who will offer help to strangers or DFed people out of genuine human kindness. Sorry to hear about your personal experience, BTW.
I remember a public talk outline that specifically mentioned that "acts of human kindness" could help draw people to the truth. The argument could be made that perhaps a higher percentage of dubbies would help since some of them would only be doing it with a JW sales pitch in mind. There was a guy around here who used to make a big deal about having car repair supplies in his trunk and then he'd always "close the deal" with a litterature offer.
om
-
WTWizard
They are so vague about this that they make active witlesses afraid to do anything at all. Once there might be a talk where it is acceptable to help a disfellowshipped person change a flat tire, but the next there will be a hounder that hasn't heard of such and will not allow it. This is so common in many doctrines, and it is impossible to trace any of it to the source.
-
reniaa
I hate this sort of topic, It serves no useful purpose accept to give a wrong impression, It incites subjective anedotal opinions at best. The most factual was the WTs poster that made it clear policy is to help those in need.
This is just a human situation that can only tell you about individual persons humanity concerned not an organisation if it's policy is to help in these situations, thats your answer.
-
candela
this is one thing that made me respect my dad, even though he was fanatical about following the WTS rules to an extreme. However, he would always help anybody that needed it whether they were active, inactive or DF'd. He would always say "you don't deny someone help if you can give it-being DF'd has nothing to do with that".
He taught us, by example, that you should stop and offer help if you see them stranded on the road, that you would buy them a meal if they need it, help with their little ones, or even listen to them if they come to you upset for some problem they have. In fact, I remember many times DF people who had been friends of the family would show up at our house late at night because they had some big problem and needed help and my dad would always ask them to come in and tried to help in whatever way he could. After the crisis was over, it was back to the DF treatment, but never to a person in need.
So I guess it really depends on the heart of the individual.