Watchtower and Community Service

hillbilly

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=40647&page=2&site=3#560224

If in fact, the recent donation of blood therapy equipment(refrenced in the link above) is a new chapter in Watchtower community service I will be the first to applaud them. However, I will reserve a negative attitude about accepting this action as a genuine act of altruism on the part fo the Society.

How many of us, during our JW days participated in something as simple as a "Walk-A-Thon"? Or voluntered at the local soup kitchen? How many of you asked your local Elders about the suitablity of such activities, and in replie were told that charitable works were stopgap measures at best, ,our time would be better spent in service

The Watchtower publications often cited the good intentions of such community service; then implied that "true Christians" would be too busy in the "preaching work". The not-so-veiled implication was any time away from one's "ministry"

Of course the other burr under my saddle pad is that when the Watchtower does do something "positve" in a community it is parlayed into a public relations juggernaught of epic porportions.

I was in Miami after the 92 hurricane, the Local witnesses fed a few "worldly" folks during clean up activites in the greater Miami area and the actions were "spun" to make one think they were "inviting" the neigborhood to be helped. Meanwhile, up in West Palm the local brothers avoided the relief staging area: that processed millions of ton of material and supplies for the Dade restoration efforts.

The lack of Community service(and the rationalizations for why I should not participate in them) I saw as a Jehovah's Witness is tha number 2 reason why I do not attend anymore.

How about you all? Did these issues bother you while you were active? What positive things do you do for your community now?

Francois

The WT claiming that their donation of blood therapy equipment was an humanitarian gesture would be humorous if it were not so cynical. I'm reminded of the insurance companies donating radar equipment to small police departments "in the interest of public saftey." Now if that's not the height of transparent cynicism, I don't know what is. Obviously the insurance companies want more people to be caught speeding so their insurance premiums can be raised.

Since leaving the JWs, I have worked as a hospice patient volunteer, served as a cult deprogrammer, written about the reality of JWs for various alternative newspapers, volunteered as business manager and general bottle-washer for Richard Hickman's LOVE Ministries and helped get him on various radio and TV talk programs, and in general have been a thorn in the WT's side. It's been very fulfilling.

But as a JW, with all that money available at headquarters with which so much good could have been done, we did nothing as you know. I am reminded of the scripture warning Christians about behaving like the Pharisees who, when they were about to bestow alms upon some poor beggar, would blow a trumpet in order to get the attention of passers-by to witness their act of "charity." The JWs making a big deal out of the miniscule things they did after Andrew and the WTC sounds exactly like the behavior Christians were warned against, doesn't it?

I've said it before - I'd hate to have the GB's karma and have to explain my actions to the real and living God, wouldn't you?

Perry

There is no better community service than the community service of helping sheep-like ones to gain everlasting life by learning obedience to God under the direction of His appointed Faithful & Discreet Slave. True, people may be poor, starving and dying, but has not the human race always suffered as a result of rebellion against Jehovah God?

For this very reason, since 1914 and even more diligently since 1919, Jehovah's Witnesses have not generally engaged in the charity relief efforts that many so-called Christians have promoted. Through the guidance of God's annointed, we have avoided such "charity" works that are at best of limited value in this wicked old system of things, and at worst simply line the pockets of crooked self-serving directors of these causes. Instead, we have wisely fulfilled our great commission to preach the good news in all the inhabited earth and promoted the acquiring of treasures in heaven "where theives do not steal and moth and rust do not consume".

While there may at times not be anything scripturally wrong with donating to certain non-religious causes, Jehovah's Witnesses primarily keep their eyes fixed firmly on the prize of gaining everlasting life in God's righteous new system of things where diasters, hunger, and homelessness will be a thing of the past.

To the everlasting glory of Jehovah God and his Faithful and Discreet Slave, we march onward as Witnessees of the Great Community Server, Jehovah God, who will soon bring an end to the pain and suffering caused by those who reject His offer of life everlasting in a paradise new earth. Let us rejoice that we are not fooled into investing in the temporary solutions of this dying system, but rather use our "unrighteous riches" for the furtherance of the Kingdom preaching work that "is of great value in the eyes of the LORD".

Edited by - Perry on 17 November 2002 10:25:14

JT

Since leaving the JWs, I have worked as a hospice patient volunteer, served as a cult deprogrammer, written about the reality of JWs for various alternative newspapers, volunteered as business manager and general bottle-washer for Richard Hickman's LOVE Ministries and helped get him on various radio and TV talk programs,

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while i don't agree with all your post, this is excellent like i tell my wife all the time former jw are moving on with thier lives and doing things with them

it is not sad that you and i wasted so much time selling what has turned out to be useless books of very little value at all

keep of the great work

JT

perry

great post - o how i recall saying those words when asked why we support nothing in the community unless it is wt related,

i recall when i was about 15/16 working with an elder one day and we were walking past some firemen trying to raise money for a new fire truck and the elder gave him a very similar reply and the old guy asked the elder

IF YOu have a fire don't you want us to come to your house and the elder said yes i pay taxes and the old fireman was trying to reason with the elder that the taxes didn't provide enough so they were trying to make up the rest with contributions from passing cars and folks on the street

and then i recall the elder didn't change his views or offer money ,but offered the lastest mags and the old guy turned them down

as we were walking away he comment about the new system or something

and i look back i see that we truly were in a cult

Perry

Hi JT,

Yes, I know most JW's are nice people. It never even occured to me that I was being manipulated to serve only the WT. I also look back and see how I turned a blind eye to those in real need just to sell books and mags.

The WT, through their slimy rhetoric turn Christianity, which is clearly very BIG on charity into a money making scam, and turned us into unfeeling selfish drones.

Puke!

Kenneson

Perry,

One should not be so busy preaching that he overlook the needs of others.

Matt. 25:41-46: "Then he {Jesus} will say, in turn, to those on his left, 'Be on YOUR way from me, YOU who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I became hungry, but YOU gave me nothing to eat, and I got thirsty, but YOU gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, but YOU did not receive me hospitaly; naked, but YOU did not clothe me; sick and in prison, but YOU did not look after me.' Then they also will answer with the words, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them with the words, 'Truly I say to YOU, To the extent that YOU did not do it to one of these least ones, YOU did not do it to me.' And these will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life."

Read also Luke 10:29-37 on who is your neighbor and the Good Samaritan.

Finally, James 2:15-17: "If a brother or a sister is in a naked state and lacking the food sufficient for the day, yet a certain one of YOU says to them: 'Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,' but YOU do not give them the necesities for [their] body, of what benefit is it? Thus, too, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself."