JWs insensitivity to human tragedies

by behemot 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  behemot

  Insensitivity to tragedy, especially when it interferes with their plans, seems to be the norm among JWs.

  The story about the Kansas City K.H. suicide, and the concern local JWs are showing, mainly toward the rebuilding of the Hall, reminded me of something that happened in Rome, Italy at the 2000 International Assembly at the Olympic Stadium. I was there as a delegate.

  On Saturday morning, just before the start of the program, a 27 y.o. Spanish Witness named Heloy Barrero Perez threw himself from the top of the stadium (25 meters). An ambulance took him but he died during the trip to the Hospital.

  the "brothers" thanked God that he didn't die on the spot, for that would have meant having to call the police and possibly (God forbids) having to discontinue the convention.

  The program started and went on just as planned, and for the entire day not a single word was said from the platform about the sad event, and most in the attendance (77.000) were unaware of it, although rumors started to spread. Only on Sunday (after the story made it to the press) a brief announcement was made to the effect that the brother who committed suicide was "mentally unstable" (seems a common alibi) and that was all.

  The Spanish witnesses, who happened to be next to the English language section of the stadium where I was, didn't seemed troubled at all by what had happened to their brother. They were as jolly as ever. The underlying idea seemed to be: "We came here to be happy and nothing is going to spoil this occasion!".

  At that time I was an active Witness already troubled by doubts; knowing I was going to attend that so special event (the International Convention) I had prayed God to use that occasion to show me a sign that would help me understand if that was really the truth. I took that disturbing, insensitive, selfish reaction to a human tragedy for an answer.

  Behemot.
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  amama2six

  Can't get much better than a sign like that...I would have seen it as a sign, too, even if I hadn't been looking for one.
  
  NEVER will the organization stop to recognize or admit they have hurt someone..."mental illness" is the quick explanation, instead. Funny how many mentally ill, incompetent, or evil people they have in the organization that either end up killing themselves, leaving of their own will, or being DFed for "wrongdoing". It's never the Society's fault...
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  stillajwexelder

  yes - callous bastards, not loving brothers is what I would call them
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  jakmarx

  Thats really sad:( ive heard of things like this a lot.
  
  The worst is when JW's get giddy when some natural disaster happens.. there always like ... did you hear 500,000 died. Its all so exciting.. etc..
  
  I wish i was lieing.. just stinks.
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  Tired of the Hypocrisy

  I have said it before and I will say it again....

  The more I hear about Jehovah's Witnesses, the more I am convinced that they do not have the Truth nor the Love Christ said His people would have among them. I really do hate how their teachings affect the way they treat others.
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  sacolton

  JWs, and I was one, are only interested in themselves. If you're not with us - you're against us.
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  WTWizard

  To the witlesses, anyone that is not one of them and dies or suffers severely is only getting what they deserve. After all, they were not wasting their time pushing wastes of paper instead of living their lives.
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  behemot

  JWs basic insensitivity toward the suffering of human beings in general is a matter of fact. It is a side-effect, i.m.o., of their belief that such sufferings are the unavoidable part of a process leading to the new world they are looking forward to.

  More puzzling is that they often display similar sentiments (or lack thereof) toward their own members, as in the case I related. Especially so when their brothers are involved in suicides or other actions that they view as spoiling the picture they have of the organization as made up by "the happiest people on earth". It seems they find it disturbing to acknowledge the existence of such problems among "God's people", let alone recognize that their beliefs and/or the way the organization deals with individuals may play a part in contributing to mental instability and its at times sad consequences.

  Thus they tend to downplay such episodes, to brush them away, as if cleaning up the spot where the poor young man splashed himself jumping off the stadium or rebuilding the KH blown off by the poor man in Kansas City could make the problem magically disappear.

  Behemot
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  justhuman

  They are indeed. When there is a big disaster like an earthquake, tzunami, they are "THRILLED" because is a "evidence"that the end is near. When there is bombings of innocent people, like the ones U.S does in Afganistan, Iraq, and in the past at Serbia, when we have terrorist attacks, with victims of innocent people, JW's are getting so exited!!!

  They are rejoicing for human pain in order to see YHWH bring Armageddon upon the 99,7% population of the world. Once we had a discussion about the big A. The elder claimed that God will make our hearts like stone, so we will NOT have any feelings watching all those people being killed by the hand of God!!!

  JW's are a banch of insesitive assholes, hoping to see the rest of the World die in front of their eyes
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  james_woods

  I think that decades of having the idea force fed that their God is going to kill almost every one of the 6 billion people on earth in a matter of a few years at the most has had a very corrosive effect on the moral compass of JW people in general. This notion is again and again put forth as more important than your family, your job, your basic well-being, the people who will die, everything else.

  Who cares if somebody immolates himself in a Kingdom Hall, takes a nosedive off an assembly balcony, blows his brains out in the parking lot, etc...???

  Chicken feed at the most, in light of the big kill-zone to come!