WT Failure To Engage In Charitable Works

by Joe Grundy 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  kaik

  WT and JWs almost never get engaged in charity work. I say almost. In 1989 the only charity work we did when Romania was in the mist of revolution and there was a call for helping other JWs so they not starve as the political situation was extremely difficult. We purchased a lot of flours, cooking oil, sugar, and other bulk items that were snet to Romania. That was the ONLY time I seen any charity. In 1997 and 2002 Czech Republic was devastated by widespread flooding. I know JWs who were totally flooded out and lost everything, yet nobody from HQ in Prague offered any help. While some individuals did help the other by donating some crap, there were JWs who lived in homeless shelter until flood water receded. The only help came from the government. Yeah, you are flooded, but only advice you got was doing more field work as did one crazy now deceased sister.
  

  My life after WT, I had engaged in various charities and seen so many others around me to do so. My father-in-law did AIDS ride. We did breast cancer walks as we have lost women friends to it, organized food banks at work, etc. Charity work is a distraction from a field service.
  
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  Vidiot

  Dyed-in-the-wool JWs wouldn't have a clue how to do real charity work even if they wanted to.
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  LisaRose

  In my last few years as a JW I couldn't shake the feeling that field service was completely futile and an inefficient waste of time. It hit me that I would have felt much better spending that time volunteering and doing something that would help people in a more immediate, concrete way.

  For all the emphasis put on the door to door work, the JWs aren't growing any more than any other religion, and not as much as some. Most JWs know this and are only engaging in it because it's required, they don't enjoy it and are not good at it. Most time supposedly spent in door to door work is wasted going to the meeting for field service, driving to and from the territory, driving around aimlessly going to return visits, and stopping for coffee.

  Just think what they could have done if those hours had been spent in actual, productive work of some sort. A church I visited did the following in one month:

  Organized an Easter egg hunt for low income children, along with some candy eggs the children found cans of tuna and other food for their families.

  Got together and made sandwiches, which they handed out along with protein bars to guys waiting to be hired for day labor.

  Took the money earmarked for Easter flowers for the church and contributed to the local food bank.

  Many church members play musical instruments, they all practice during the week so they can have good music at every service, which included a five piece band, a choir, and a hand bell group. Other church members volunteer to make food for fellowship after services.

  Any of those things are better use of time than field service. The Watchtower knows they this, but they don't care, because it keeps people too busy to think about any of this, and because no amount of time spend in field service is ever enough for "mother", it keeps them feeling guilty for not doing more and for not really liking it and not being good at it.