uuuuuuuhhhhhmmmmm maybe because they are ALL mentally ill?
Why do Jehovahs Witnesses send their mentally ill door to door?
by life is to short 49 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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highdose
think about it, if you took the average cong...
Edit out the mentaly ill... the eldery... the young kids... the physicaly sick people... and be nice enough to say "ok they don't have to go D2D" then who dos that leave??
Answer: not many at all............! Which is why the GB won't let them off duty, plus they are hoping for a sympathy vote from the HH, its just more sales reps out there pushing units
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blondie
In this area, there were a few that were schizophrenic, mostly brothers. All but one took his meds and never had any problems at the meetings. They never went door to door alone and always with an elder. The one that did not take his meds was not allowed to go door to door, just write letters that were vetted by an elder before they were sent out. There is a good support system in the medical field in this area that has a large university and the elders are a little more savvy.
Mental illness is not one kind fits all even people that have been diagnosed by a doctor with the same category of illness.
Not everyone that is schizophrenic, bipolar, clinically depressed, etc., is "weird" or "eccentric" and many have good jobs, go to school, are published authors, families....just like you and me.
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life is to short
blondie
What you just described is truly what I thought would be the case in all congregations world wide. That the elders would always work with them door to door and if they did act strange, not take their meds then they would be allowed to do letter writing, or even telephone witnessing with others there not sent dtd. Basically I thought that they would be treated with kindness and accepted but also that they would not be expected to do more then they could handle so as to not stress them out to the point of breaking.
But where I have lived that is clearly not the case, and I have been in many halls. I also know too that many famous people have suffered with mental illness, the list of those who have had very successful lives is long and would surprise many of those who have suffered with mental problems. Abraham Lincoln comes to mind as a person who suffered with depression most of his life.
What I am talking about is a clear lack of love toward the mentally ill where I have lived. I have seen elders put mentally ill brothers alone with women who have small children to go door to door together. This one time it was totally not safe and the sister was a single mom so I went with the sister, the mentally ill brother spent the whole morning hitting on the sister and trying to touch the baby. When I approached the elder over his poor choice of putting the brother with this mom he said "what was I supposed to do I already had service plans made for myself." I told him "to be an elder first and change his plans." He got so angry at me.
After awhile I just tried to accept that it was just the way it was and that I needed to learn how to deal with the mentally ill being I was an elder's wife. My husband told me that the Watchtower and Awakes had so many good articles and that if the elders would just read them as well as myself we could learn so much. Reading an article just does not cut it in helping them in real life. If that was the case who do people who go into the field of mental illness to become counselors, pshyciatrists, etc go to so much school why don't they save their money and just read the Watchtower's and Awakes then?
Anyway it was not until the pedophiles moved it and I saw the elder again shove them off on single sisters. Now these sisters did not have children that the elders set the child molesters with but so what? The sisters were NOT ALLOWED to know that these brother had raped children. So these sisters would take these guys to their RV's with kids, etc.
So blondie
I know where you are coming from and I truly wish all halls would be like yours as it seems that they now how to deal with the problem in true love. But it just has not case unfortunately in any of the places that I have lived in. In fact if it had I would probably still be a JW now. Because the huge reason I woke up was seeing the child molesters going door to door like I did. That was when I found this sight because I was so hurt and sad at what I was seeing happen I started to look at the internet. Even the CO at the time sided with the elders in how they were sending the pedophiles out like they were.
So that is why I am here now.
LITS
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redhare67
Maybe it is the blind leading the blind!
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AwareBeing
"Great darkness' 'befalls' all "false prophets,"
given enough time; this happens to all of "Babylon the Great!"
The WT, though; does have allot of average to "aware' individuals.
But since they serve a GB that's concerned about numbers,
it mostly goes to drawing in those who don't think for themselves,
or people who love participating in aggressive cliques!
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OnTheWayOut
LITS, I know what you mean. I was at one KH that had a schizophrenic lady. She was tall and walked awkwardly and her hair was entirely gray and not really styled. I say that because, basically, between her looks and her straightforward authoritative way of speaking, she scared the hell out of people who might have thought she was the bride of Frankenstein.
She worked with anyone from the KH. (If you knew her, she wasn't a danger and you got used to her) I guarantee that she never ever started a study or got an interested person to the KH. People took mags from her to be kind to her. She typically auxillary pioneered and lived off of government benefits because she couldn't hold a job with her personality/conditions. When her case worker reviewed her case, he said if she could do all those hours of "field service," maybe she could hold a job. She dropped her hours below that amount. I think she went out just as much but counted only a little bit of it.
It was a passing thought to me that she shouldn't be doing this- aux. pioneering or even low-hour recruiting. I certainly had a problem with avoiding a regular job. I told her that if her case worker could find a job that would take her, she might consider it. She cringed and never asked me for advice after that. But I thought that Jehovah would bless her for her hard work when the end arrived in a week or two.
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Band on the Run
Doesn't knowing someone is a pedophile and sending them door to door raise liability issues for the elder and the locak KH? The issue is notice. It is one thing without knowing. Having advance notice and sending them where small children may be raises issues.
During a severe physical illness, I was hospitalized for depression in Manhattan. I met many very high-powered, affluent, competent patients. Celerbties in several fields. I also saw the mentally ill homeless on the streets. I don't think it is mental illness but the ability to function.
No one should be rejected b/c of any mental illness. Pedophiles can write letters to adults from home or a place where no children frequent. Pretending Jehovah will intervene in field service or with JW childlren is the height of ignorance. It places the pedophile in a bad situation. The other part is obvious.
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exwhyzee
There was this one Sister we knew who suffered from severe mental ilness and paranoid delusions. Her husband was an Elder and she was /is a regular Pioneer despite her alarming behavior. For example, she used to go in service with a off center wig and black electrical tape stretched across the top part of the lenses on her glasses. She was afraid of inadvertently looking directly into the householders eyes or having them look into hers. This kind of thing has gotten progressively worse over the years but the last I heard she is still a regular Pioneer. They were old school...relying on prayer and the nearness of the new system. They felt if Jehovah would cause the very stones to cry out to get the preaching work done, then mental illness was no reason not to do ones part.
I think in this case, having a talking stone show up on your doorstep would be preferable and less bizarre.