Help DF'd person in difficulty

by besty 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  besty

  Can anyone recall the Question From Readers saying it was OK to help a DF person in difficulty?

  Least I think it was a QFR - it cited examples like helping someone change a tyre at the roadside, or giving a single DF lady a lift home from the meeting in the evening, or somesuch....

  any takers?
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  dozy

  Franz mentions it in one of his books , when he wrote a WT article moderating the WTS stance (before elders were unsure whether they were allowed to help mothers with their buggies up stairs and sisters used to drive past DF people in the pouring rain etc). ISOCF mentions Aug 1 1974 WT. It was hardened up again after he left. Don't know what the current situation is.
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  Finally-Free

  I think the watchtower said it was fine to give humanitarian aid, but I've never actually heard of it being done.

  W
• 

  besty

  seems to be that 1974 WT - thanks Dozy:

  "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. … We may note, too, that at 1 Corinthians 5:11 the apostle warns against mixing in company with one who "is" a fornicator or practicer of some other kind of serious wrongdoing. What, however, of the one who has been disfellowshiped for being that kind of person but who thereafter, either at an early point or at a later point in time, gives consistent evidence of discontinuing such wrong practice, stopping it? Can it be said that he or she still "is" a fornicator or whatever type of wrongdoer such a one was that caused him or her to be as "leaven" toward the congregation? For example, a young person disfellowshiped for fornication may thereafter marry, raise a family and live a respectable life. Or one who was disfellowshiped for drunkenness may abandon such practice and, if drinking at all, may do so in moderation only. By such changes these individuals may now regain the respect of the community. Such ones may not yet have come and formally sought reinstatement by the congregation. Is there, however, not an evident difference between these and others who continue right on in the wrongdoing that brought their disfellowshiping? Those giving up the wrong practice may still manifest some appreciation for Christian truth, perhaps even defending the true Christian congregation when someone speaks evil against it. Should not such circumstances be given due weight and have an effect on our attitude as a congregation toward such ones? Surely if the prodigal son of the parable had returned home in a drunken state, perhaps dragging along one of his harlot companions, the father's reaction would not have been the same. But the father had reason to believe that the son was approaching with a right motive and, rather than suspect the worst, the father hoped the best and went out to meet his errant son." Watchtower 1974 Aug 1 pp.467-469

  I'm sure there was something quoting examples of situations where help could be offered though..... SIDEPOINT: check the results on www.watchtower.org if you search for 'help mothers up stairs' LOL and then do the same again at Google...
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  Bonnie_Clyde

  I wonder if that 1974 WT article may have been written by Raymond Franz while he was still at headquarters. As far I know, the WT tightened up since then (after 1980).
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  Bubblie

  I can remember an elder asking my ex and I to pick up an df'd woman and her handicapped child and take her to meeting. We did this for quite awhile. She would always try to make conversation with us and I felt weird about it (cause you aren't supposed to talk with them, right?) She came back in but has since died. I am sure that was in the early 90's.

  Kit
• 

  KAYTEE

  besty,

  There was a discussion item many years ago, went something like this;

  If you were rowing across a lake in your dingy and you saw someone drowning,

  Would you leave him to drown even if he was disfellowshiped.

  There answer was then…………… NO YOU DON’T.

  KT
• 

  asilentone

  I do know one df'd person that had flat tire on the Kingdom Hall Parking lot, she could not change it herself, so one of the elders changed the tire for her, that happened about 15 years ago, she never got reinstated as far as I know.