Lanalonger,
Regardless of any argument over the what the actual scope of "neighbour" is, the article reflects the age old position of the WTS that passes off the ministry as the only charitable works with any real worth.
I know that there are many cases of individuals helping out their literal neighbours and strangers in practical ways. I know the WTS sends relief packages and personnel into disaster zones. I would even concede that for some, implementing the moral values in the Bible may help them become better citizens than they have been in the past.
What cannot be denied however is that very few Witnesses give up any time regularly in practical charitable works or in regular fund raising. The WTS itself does not operate any ongoing aid and support missions in war torn or poverty stricken areas. Their aid is concerned with believers first and foremost. There are well documented cases of them applying pressure to those they have helped to contribute insurance payments to the organisation.
If left to the WTS there would be no doctors and nurses looking after victims of war in Syria, no ongoing programmes in Africa to provide clean water supplies, no initiatives to improve sanitation in poverty stricken areas around the world, no homes for battered women and children, no soup kitchens for the homeless in cities across the world and so on.
I spent years agreeing with the WT position on this, justifying and defending the view that all of the above is just sticking plaster. As I woke up to the lies the WTS have been peddling for generations then I was also forced to examine my attitude to charity and working for the benefit of others. The more and more I considered it then the more I have come to have nothing but utter contempt for the attitude of the WTS.
Articles like Sunday's are nothing but hypocritical and disingenuous. The WTS refuse to engage with the wider charitable community. The WTS refuse to promote even some middle ground of a ministry coupled with unilateral charitable works. The WTS only acknowledge hours peddling literature as works worthy of a Christian. Simple works of humanity are not given anywhere near the same import nor are members encouraged to spend time engaged in them.
You can argue semantics about the meaning of neighbour in the magazine from Sunday but don't even start to tell me that the drones I see regularly standing for hours in central London holding out WT & Awake magazines in front of impotent carts to ZERO response are somehow doing the most important charitable work in the whole fecking universe.
