Classic Excuses: "We don't have the whole ...

by dedalus 1 Replies latest jw friends

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  dedalus

  Patio34's post got me thinking ... sooner or later as Witnesses, we all face[d] a situation in which we became aware of some kind of judicial corruption -- someone reproved who shouldn't have been, someone harassed by elders, or worse, instances of violence and abuse that have been deliberately ignored and concealed.

  My question for this thread is, what's the lamest excuse you've ever heard (or given) to justify the injustice in your hall? The one that occurred to me was, "We don't have the whole story," as if there could possibly be a good reason for ruining an innocent's life. My future father-in-law was deleted as an elder, for example, after accepting charity money raised for his deaf, blind, and mentally handicapped son. It wasn't right, and everyone knew it wasn't right, but the infamous tagline was always, "But we don't have the whole story." (My future brother-in-law, though deaf, blind, etc., is effectually shunned by his congregation -- when he has seizures and goes to the hospital, no announcement is made at his Kingdom Hall.)

  Another excuse I heard came when I was asking my best friend about logical and doctrinal inconsistencies in the Organization's literature. He said: "We have to believe this is the truth, even if we don't believe it." To this day my friend is still a "faithful Witness," and as such, refuses to speak with me.

  So I was Just wondering if there were any other JW lines designed to excuse deliberate ignorance and passivity, perhaps some I haven't heard before.

  Dedalus
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  philo

  Dedalus,

  So I was Just wondering if there were any other JW lines designed to excuse deliberate ignorance and passivity, perhaps some I haven't heard before.
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  The car was quiet on the way home, stifling. She dare not say anything about what had happened at the meeting, it might make a bad situation worse. Was he also thinking how unjust the disfellowshipping was, or was he just sad. As a tissue is to a flu infection, she reached into that spiritual pocket in her handbag for a homily: "I suppose it's not what the elders decide that matters, its how we deal with the decision afterwards."

  "Oh, you mean with Brother... I mean with Tom?" - he was miles away. At the lights he squeezed her knee, "It could be a test for him…and for us", he said, and made a mental note to stop calling him Tom.
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  Next day. "Uh?" said Brother Pioneer, mid-sandwich, "It very sad, but it's all dusted Barbara," firm eye contact, and still chewing, "leave it to Jehovah to sort out."
  "If that's…"
  "Holy spirit", he interrupted, "doesn't always decide what's right from the human view point, there's more at stake"
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  Tom had fielded a volley of calls in the following week. At some point he realised, with a flicker of irony, that he still thought of most of them as 'weaker ones'. He had been victimised, they said, scapegoated, the CO should intervene, take them to court, splash it all over The Echo. Though warmed by these unguarded, untheocratic expressions of support, he had steadfastly stated his position. "As Job says, what Jehovah has given he can also take away: everything, privileges, work, health, children…anything."
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  philo (pulp faction class)