Do Jehovah witnesses exploit the most vulnerable in society?

Blind_Of_Lies

During my final few years being active with the JW’s I noticed that the vast majority of people who were studying or joining the group in general where those that the rest of society would consider disabled and/or severely mentally ill. Now by disabled I don’t mean “I lost my leg in nam” kind of disabled… In some cases these people were mentally retarded, had the minds of children, were severely abused as children or even as adults and as a result had personality disorders that put them on the edge of society…

And then we had the full on crazies… About 15 years ago one of the brothers who worked at the local welfare office somehow started a study with a person who was a paranoid schizophrenic. He met her because she was a client of the welfare office. She got handed off to a sister who studied with her, then started driving her to her doctors appointments, and to get grocery’s, and took her to congregation events. Effectively the sister who studied with her unwittingly became a care giver/family member/chief conductor of the crazy train. After a few months of this the woman decided she didn’t need her medications anymore and stopped taking them. She then turned on her study conductor and decided she was in fact… none other than Satan himself. By this time she was an unbaptized publisher and was well on the path to being baptized. So once she announced that she was going to kill her conductor the study was passed off to someone else, and then someone else, and eventually she became like a pet for the entire congregation. And by pet, I mean she became completely reliant on her “brothers and sisters” for everything… and I do mean everything. This is still ongoing, it’s been about 15 years and every few years she goes off her meds and decides everyone is the devil and must be slayed. Frankly I’m shocked she has not hurt anyone, we had to disarm her once in the KH when she brought a big knife to do the deed. That was fun. Not one time in all of these events did the elder body call the police, in fact they ran interference keeping people from doing so.

So… 15 years of this person… going out in service… going to meetings and what not… and best of all, informal “witnessing”. Who did she informally witness too?

The people at her support group for mental illness (the patients) and people in her fixed income/low income apartments. The result?

For the past 15 years she has cycled equally insane people through the congregation, the come, they sit, they comment, they get taken care of and then one day they start or stop taking their meds and all hell breaks loose.

I thought this was isolated to our congregation because of this one person… Then I moved and then I moved again and finally after a third major move in 5 years I settled down and in each of those congregations, something very similar was happening.

So I ask you this…

Has it been your experience or observation that in the past… say 10 years… the vast majority of people who “study” or even eventually get baptized are in some way “damaged”?

This could be people with mental issues

Mental illness

Physical disabilities

OR children/adults who came from or are currently in abusive homes

I mean no offence to these people, however this post will undoubtedly offend someone, if not everyone lol.

My point is, It appears to me that a high percentage of the people studying or associating with JW’s in recent years are either desperate, lonely, needy or frankly do not have the mental capacity to know what’s going on. They see someone coming to their door, they look nice they smile they say nice things and OMG they tell me all if have to do is love god and go to meetings and tell other people about it and BAM everyone else dies and I get to be perfect and live in paradise.

Ironically studies have been done on suicide bombers in the middle east… and they fit the above description as well. They are also promised paradise and virgins if only they walk into a crowd and push a button.

Are these people just easy targets for exploitation or is the WTBTS actually doing some sort of public service by taking these people in? I am betting on exploitation.

Knowsnothing

How is that paranoid schizo being exploited? From what I see, she is trying to be helped.

I think vulnerable people buy into religion in general.

Blind_Of_Lies

Without the schizo being there that congregation would have had nothing but negative growth in the past 10 years. In truth, she was/is exploiting the congregation, she did however make contributions of money and she added to the publisher numbers for that congregation.

I Want to Believe

We only had one such person in our hall, but I hadn't seen her for a few years. She would stand while giving her comments (yes, they called on her during meetings) and every comment always had some weird angle about eggs and ovaries or something. She'd raise her hands and wave them during song (and during a few talks) and always sat in the very front. She'd come for a few months, brothers would stop calling on her to answer, she'd be gone for a while, a new conductor would take over, she'd come back, etc.

dgp

It's interesting that Steven Hassan says that cults aren't interested in the damaged goods, but on people they can get "some juice" from. I would say that all cults exploit weaknesses, and being an outcast is certainly one.

baltar447

dgp, JWs will take ANYONE that they can lol!

Do they have a pulse? Baptize 'em.

Leeca

My father a fanatic jw, is mentally ill. His side of the family is mentally I'll, his mother, sister, nieces, cousins. So is my brother. My sister and I have "issues", but not mentally ill. ( Due to abusive up bringing, because of my dads mental illness).

I remember my father saying many years ago, that the jw's are mostly made up of mentally ill people, (that's what attracted him in the first place). He was so proud of that fact.

So was that WT,articles about mentally ill people coming into the "truth", frequently. Eventually the WT realized that maybe it wasn't something to boast about, as they were more or less confessing to a religion chock full of the mentally ill. (Not a good look). So they stopped putting these embarrassing articles in the WT.

smiddy

Over the years I`ve known a few with mental problems being adopted into the organization,mental disorders of varying degrees,one in particular being an elder for many years

smiddy

WTWizard

Of course they do. Any time you spend time in prisons and mental institutions recruiting victims, that is exploiting the most vulnerable. Other things they exploit are those living alone (and especially seniors living alone), those who had deaths in the family recently, and those who just lost their jobs.

blondie

JWs are not eager to get unstable mentally ill people, they are too needy and viewed as dangerous.

BUT they are taught to target people from door to door that

Have lost a friend or relative in death

They or a friend, family member have a serious illness

Are in financial difficulties

Have a bad relationship with a significant other or spouse

Problems with children

Problems with other family members

Job problems or unemployed

Crime in your neighborhood (wars)

They are not looking for people who are positive and uplooking. Instead they try to focus on some problem to use a publication with.

Do Jehovah witnesses exploit the most vulnerable in society?

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