Not doing good things for bad reasons

dissonance_resolved

So someone made a comment on one of my other posts that got me thinking- they said "the non-JW you is better than the the JW you." That made me think of all the good things I've never done for whacked-out JW reasons:

1) contributing to charity- United Way (religious origin), Red Cross (has the word cross in it so it must be wrong), Salvation Army (forget it), Greenpece (political), donating to food banks at the holidays (why help someone celebrate a pagan holiday?), etc.

2) not buying Girl Scout or Boy Scout cookies- they teach patriotism, right?

3)not volunteering for anything non-JW related

4) not wishing others well (no good lucks, happy birthdays, toasts, happy holidays, etc.)

5) not getting my kids swimming lessons because they were only offered on Saturday mornings at the YMCA (two strikes)

6) not giving gifts or cards to relatives and friends (we supposed to give gifts for other reasons but without the the prompt of a birthday or holiday, it doesn't really happen)

Wow, the JW me really sucked. I can't wait to starting spreading joy instead of doom and gloom.

punkofnice

7) Defending the organization(R) to the last in the face of compelling evidence against it.

blondie

United Way used to have a pot of money they gave to various organizations under their umbrella, including religious. For many years you can contribiute to United Way, specifying the organization you want your money to go to, filtering out the religious ones. jws are just cheapskates and don't even donate to their own organization with joy and willingness.

cobaltcupcake

Good point, DR. I hated the no-charitable-giving, no-volunteering thing. Especially when the annual United Way fund drive was underway and my company was dead set on 100% employee participation - talk about pressure. I finally found one charity under that umbrella that wasn't religiously connected - United Cerebral Palsy - and was able to participate.

Giordano

Good reasoning DR! Volunteering has brought me more joy then I ever would have believed. Mainly because of the truly wonderfull people who also volunteer.