They like to make it sound like such a big deal and priviledge allowing the infirm to have the phone link . I remember a brother giving my disabled sister this big speech about the phone link being temporary and she Should be making all efforts to return to the hall .
Elders Contempt for the Old & Disabled
by LittleSister 21 Replies latest jw experiences
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restrangled
Little sister, one more funny for you. Because the phone line has 2 way sound....many an evening, snoring can be heard over various speakers voices.
I am not kidding~
My mom only has to use it when her back goes out, but normally she is in bed very early and has to fight to get herself to night meetings. The phone line is really useless. People are in bed, tired, and the yammering on the line puts insomniacs out for the night.
My mom was very relieved when the book study was discontinued...she counted down the weeks for 6 months.
r.
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LucyA
In my mothers cong the local elders made the decision to have two Tuesday meetings one in the morning at ten AM and then one at the normal time. The elders (most of whom are retired too) pick up those who can't make it themselves. The funny thing is I went and visited my Parents a few months ago she forgot some book she needed as I walked into the late meeting there were only about 10 people their in a hall that can seat 100 that looks really sad!
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lancelink
TroubledMind :
I hear you, and really understand where your coming from, I'm sorry about your experiences
My Dad is going thru the same thing, Mom died 1 1/2 year ago, and the witnesses are interested in just two things.
Get to the meetings, and record your time.
B*****ds !!
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LittleSister
My mum just found out that they have changed the Sunday meeting times to mornings shame no one thought to tell her.
Also that means the sister cong is now having afternoons so either way the phone service should have been available.
Restrangled I hope our network doesn't have two way sound with some of the comments I have made in passing (oops).
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logic
They definitly treat the older ones like crap. My wife visits many of the older ones. As far as the tapes and the
phone, they are a big joke. My wife used them for a while and it was like pulling teeth to get them.
The relatives of the big shots would get them first and most of the time would never bring them back.
They would tape over the wrong tapes. Lose the tapes. And the things sounded like crap.
It was bad enough to listen in real life, but listinening to the tapes was pure torture magnified by 10.
In this hall there was always a kid screaming right next to the camera. I mentioned that they
could hook the sound up directly to the sound system but in several years it never happened.
My wife has to constantly remind the elders to remind people to visit the older ones. The witnesses
prove themselves to be nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.
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Deceived
I also experienced that the Old and disabled are ignored or cast aside. I was raised a JW but have been out for 25 years. My Mom was a devoted by the book JW for over 50 years until she died Oct 2006. She truely believed in practicing what she preached and she always helped the old, disabled, discouraged etc and visited them, phoned them. Then her turn came, she got brain cancer in 2005 and it quickly disabled her. She couldn't walk or drive or leave the house without 2 people helping her. That was 4 years ago. I had not been near a JW other than my Mom for over 20 years, I was shocked when I noticed my Mom was NOT getting any help from them. Her mind was going and she thought they would help her but they didn't. She did have the telephone thing for the meetings. She would have preferred to go to the meetings but NO one would take her. I asked the one lady who was her so called friend why they couldn't take her. She said it was to hard to get the wheelchair in the car, also my Mom needed help going to the bathroom and no one wanted to deal with that. WHAT!!!
My Mom got worse quickly and NO one wanted to help, all her so called Brothers and Sisters disappeared. No phone calls no visits. Well the pioneer couple visited once a month to get their hours in. I helped her of course but I wasn't about to go to meetings so she just didn't get to go. I had been out of the "truth" for 25 years and still thought it might be the truth but after that experience I started to realize that maybe it wasn't the truth. She died 3 years ago and after the fiasco of the funeral etc I went online and discovered groups like this one. What a eye opener.
They only hurt themselves (the JW's) by being the way they are now. People like my Mom don't notice it and always make excuses but their relatives, and outsiders who know them and that are not JW's will notice.
By their fruits you will know them. My Mom was so proud to quote that to me and she lived it. Unfortunately JW's are not into helping others anymore.
Deceived
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WTWizard
I have seen people at my former Kingdumb Hell that were not all that well make all the boasting sessions regardless. These problems include severe difficulty walking, heart conditions, and major arthritis. I have also seen them with severe back aches, sitting in the Kingdumb Hell chairs. Always being there at all the boasting sessions. Always donating $20 bills into the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund. And always being held up as examples for those with things like migraines to follow.
Trouble is, it costs these people a lot to make it to the boasting sessions. Even before they donate a penny or pay a penny in gas money, they pay with their health. Some of those conditions require staying home--taking it easy might prevent a little arthritis from becoming a big arthritis. Bad backs become even worse backs when they are forced to sit down in those chairs for two hours--I have had episodic back aches, which would invariably get worse when I had to sit down at the Kingdumb Hell (incidentally, I could lift heavy loads with my back during these episodes, without making them worse and sometimes even improving them, so long as I am careful during these episodes not to lift from below my knees). But, for me, going to a boasting session or out in field circus while my back is aching like that would be the equivalent of many people lifting heavy loads with their backs--it makes what would have been a temporary problem more permanent. (Good thing I started blowing off the boasting sessions when that happened.)
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nugget
It's all about being seen to be there, I think the telephone link numbers can be counted so it is a way of getting meeting attendance for non attenders.
Ringing on and off is a pain but it is a way of not getting charged. Calls up to 1 hour are free after that time they are charged at an increased rate. Your Mum's price plan probably works in a similar way. If she were to stay on the line and not re ring it would cost an arm and a leg for each meeting. This should have been explained to her properly and she should have been told to redial.
The fact that the brothers are casual about re setting up the link is appalling and shows that they really aren't taking it as seriously as they should.
In our hall we were told that if our telephone had a secrecy function we had to use it, as this is the case and I have no such button it has been pointless me phoning in as the kids make so much background noise it would disturb others. That being said I can think of much better things to do with my time than sit with a phone to my ear being bored brainless.
It is like all things they can say they do something but in reality they only pay lip service to it. No one ever follows through on these things properly. If they really cared the hall in Salisbury would be accessible to the disabled. Don't we have laws about that?
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LittleSister
Thanks for all your comments.
Deceived I am so sorry to hear about what happened to your Mom it must have been a very hard time for you both. You are right by their fruits we most definitely know them.
Nugget the hall in Salisbury is accessible well kind of if you have someone fit and strong to put out the temporary ramps or a heavily pregnant wife (you know who I mean). Plus if you are happy to sit separate from the rest of the congregation at the top of the stairs your all set.
As for the chairs WTwizard you covered it well, personally I think they are a form of penance torture. Certainly neither mum nor I could ever sit in them for more than 5 mins without being in severe discomfort growing increasingly to major pain as the meeting progressed. No wonder Logic that poor kid was screaming.