JWs and the Mentally Challenged

almostbitten

I know three women from the local KH (one is a distant relative of mine) who call on my uncle for Bible study. Problem is, he has Alzheimer's Disease--and they were told about this!!! Still, they've been doing studies with him until my aunt (his wife) told them to stop coming by.

Another situation deals with a friend of mine who was also receiving a study from JWs from a congregation in the next town over from mine. He has a 12 y/o son with autism and has limited speech, a short attention span and he's often hyper. My friend was cool with them coming by until they started inquiring about having his son join them in the study. He tried to explain his son's limitations in communication and apprehension, but did that phase them? Nope!! Soon, they were bombarding the man with children's books and pressing him to bring the child to the KH. My friend and his son have been to my home church in the past, but would leave in the middle of service because his son would become restless and made loud noises (he couldn't help it). Fed up, my friend asked them politely not to come back.

I guess my question is: is this normal protocal for JWs to try to convert mentally challenged people? I mean, that makes no sense to me and makes the Org look desperate for members--even ones who truly have no idea what's being told/taught to them. I personally find it distasteful. Comments?

SirNose586

I haven't personally witnessed any recruiting of the mentally challenged, but I can tell you that they prefer people who find it a challenge to use the mind.

almostbitten

booby

My experience has been that most are totally clueless when it comes to dealing with persons with those type of challenges unless they have a family member. I think that it is the rationale that you are dealing with numbers more than people.

StAnn

Shawn, are you being serious here? I'm sorry but that seems so low, I can't believe you would really do that.

StAnn

still-fading

It has been my experience that the "Organization" attracts 2 types of people. One is the status seeking male that starts to realize that being a good speaker and able to put in hours will get you far. And the other is the clinically depressed that are reaching for anything. Let’s face it, on the surface it sounds great, who doesn't want to live in a "paradise" when you have or think you have nothing else? I personally know allot of "friends" that have some deep rooted mental problems from depression all the way to being bi-polar and beyond. Here is a link for some good and interesting reading: http://www.seanet.com/~raines/mental.html

dogon

I went to the Arcadia hall in Florida.

There was an older retarded woman there named Mary Carol. The dubbers used to bring her in and she was a trip. She used to wear yellow dresses and go around the hall saying "wear yellow catch a fellow" and have a safety pin on her collar and say it will "keep me safe" She would chase guys around the hall and try talking to them. It was kind of funny, she did not hurt anything but I was never sure she belonged at a hall. The dubbers said that "every one needed Jehovah" I felt she did not have the mental capacity to make a decision about religion. I guess they would fill seats how ever they could. I never understood how she could put in service time.

She could not give talks either. Has anyone ever seen the type of person who would sit in the back of the hall, never quite make it to MS not to mention elder, and give several answers thought the meetings, They would strive to be something in the hall but never quit make it. I had little category's to put people in, It was so boring in the hall I had to do something. You know the types, the cliques, the people who had the club you did not belong to. The outsiders who would all stand in the back of the hall with hands in pockets never quit fitting in. The girl who would dress like she was trying to pick up a john. The woman or man who would give a stupid answer every time and you would wait for it to pass the time. We had a sister in Vanderbilt Michigan who answered when the question was what can you do to help now that the food service is suspended? She said "we can all just go without eating for a day. "

I miss the dysfunction of the idiots. Wait no I don't. LOL

wha happened?

JW's would study with a corpse if they could count the time.

Any experience outside of family in dealing with Mental illness or anyone who was mentally challenged was through the WT. So in other wards, they have no clue

IP_SEC

In all seriousness. We all had to have been 'mentally challenged' at the time to be JWs anyway.

Mysterious

We had a mentally challenge guy in our hall but he was someone's grown kid don't know if that makes it different or not. He used to give talks they wrote for him but no one could really understand a word of it. He stopped going when I was in my teens even though his parents still did -- never knew why. For all I know he died or something.

JWs and the Mentally Challenged

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