Lee Elder

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Posts by Lee Elder

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  19

  Hospice and JW

  by Terry Clees in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  i am a bereavement coordinator with a hospice company.

  i have noticed that most often jw patients decline chaplain care and also the family ends up declining bereavement care.

  where i work our chaplains do not proselytize at all...they merely walk with the patient in their faith at the end of life.

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  Lee Elder

  I believe you will find JWs more receptive to a "bereavement counselor" rather than a chaplain.
  
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  16

  Random Thoughts on Getting Older

  by Lee Elder in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the reality that all of us ultimately must face is that we get older and our bodies, and our minds eventually fail us.

  i have seen this first hand in my family, in the jw community, and in the ex-jw community.

  it is simply a sad part of the human condition, as is physical, emotional, and mental illness.

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  Lee Elder

  The reality that all of us ultimately must face is that we get older and our bodies, and our minds eventually fail us. I have seen this first hand in my family, in the JW community, and in the ex-JW community. It is simply a sad part of the human condition, as is physical, emotional, and mental illness. Some of the issues are easy to grasp. Others require some much dreaded experience.

  I have more than my share of the experience side, which deeply grieves my soul. If you lack this experience, I can only say that you have been thus far spared, and try to be compassionate, and not too critical with with regard to some recent postings. I sincerely love both JWs, and the community of ex-JWs. That is the singular motivation behind what I have done these past two decades.

  Much love to all of you.

  Lee
  
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  57

  Jehovah's Witness / ex-JW Suicide Rate?

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  it's no secret that both remaining a jw or leaving the wts can take a toll on mental health.

  some will suffer from depression and ultimately some will have thoughts of suicide and a few will succumb to those.. but i don't recall ever seeing any hard stats or studies on it though.

  i'm sure we all know of some people who have committed suicide but i don't know if, because you may have loose association with a much larger pool of people through the religion, that this only seems higher or maybe not be actually higher than the general population.. what i mean is, you go to a kh here there maybe 100-150 people, you attend circuit and district conventions with many tens of thousands - if any one person commits suicide then you likely hear about it and it becomes part of the anecdotal 'evidence' that is then put forward as a fact that there is a higher rate ... but is there?.

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  Lee Elder

  There was an ex JW counselor who wrote about this. Jerry Bergman perhaps. In any event, he thought the rates of mental illness were higher among JWs. I have known quite a few who ended their lives in one way or another. Here are some resources:
  

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1174772

  https://www.amazon.com/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Problem-Mental-Illness/dp/9993195286

  http://www.caic.org.au/jws/medical/mental.htm
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  42

  I feel really, really sorry for those born into the Jehovah's Witness religion

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some facts that make the difference between you and me:.

  1 - as a person raised by non jw family, my parents have never loved me based on conditions set out by a group of old men who they don't even know.

  how does it feel to know that you are in the unique situation where your parents brought you into the world and said 'i'll show love to you.

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  Lee Elder

  It not about sympathy imo. Its about understanding how much all of these kids miss out on, and the horrors that many are are subjected to. In some cases the religion flat out takes their life - they end up dead from refusing a necessary blood transfusion (I grew up with no less than three kids who died this way), and then there are the suicides from a host of WT related anxiety, depression, etc (I grew up with two more who took their lives). That is just my experience....tip of the iceberg. Even those who do reasonably well are missing out on so many "normal" things like good education, comfortable retirement, etc. Its really all very unfortunate and sad imo.
  
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  45

  Disassociation - shunning - can we all lobby Government that it is against freedom of religion?

  by stockholm_Syndrome in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if jws want to inflict shunning on members who want to remain -- knock yourselves out.

  but if someone wants to leave - dont believe in an evil almighty god, bible ...or just dont agree with the rules- they should be free to leave- even after being 'disfellowshipped'.

  i think it was pre 1980 that you could disassociate yourself without shunning repercussions.

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  Lee Elder

  We all have the right to decide who we will spend time with, so impossible to ban shunning I think. It is the "institution" shunning that needs to be addressed, and more specifically, "enforced shunning" as practiced by Jehovah's Witnesses. This is what destroys lives, and families. People are not stupid for the most part. If we don't go out of our way to protect a known pedophile, people who have children will decide on their own not to spend time with them. On the other hand, I think most folks really don't care if someone sleeps with their boyfriend, girlfriend, etc. Takes a puff of marijuana, etc. If they do, and don't care to spend time with that person - that is their choice.
  
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  9

  Norway: Hospitals Refuse To Accept JW Blood Card

  by darkspilver in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  been sent this - could be an interesting story - seems totally unrelated to recent events in canada, but see under the sub-heading 'debate after birth' - translation is via google, which is unfortunately not very good :(.

  from the thursday 8 december 2016 print editon of agderposten newspaper - a norwegian daily newspaper with a circulation of just under 20,000 (so admittedly a relatively small regionally based circulation newspaper).

  jehovas vitner har laget et blodkort for overføring i en akuttsituasjon.

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  Lee Elder

  This is the response AJWRB has been encouraging for almost twenty years. Good to see it is finally getting some traction. Many JW's ultimately accept blood in emergency situations voluntarily. This kind of policy is really the only way to address the Watchtower's coercive policy in these situations imo.
  
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  28

  Did you ever experience true kindness in the Org?

  by HereIgo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i remember when i was about 17, i started shunning an older brother because he was disfellowshipped.

  when i graduated high school, he pulled me aside and said " i know you are not supposed to talk to me, but i want you to have this" it was a gift that he had custom made for me.

  i was so blown away, we never even had a real conversation before.

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  Lee Elder

  Similar to what you find in the world. Some exceptionally kind people, some exceptionally unkind, most somewhere in the middle.
  
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  19

  UK 'blood' court case re:2yo

  by darkspilver in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  hi orphancrow.

  thought you might be interested in the following, brief, court case summary.

  high court family division - 18 november 2016an nhs foundation hospital v mr and mrs t. http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/ewhc/fam/2016/2980.html.

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  Lee Elder

  The Watchtower's HLC representatives helped craft a document for Toronto children's hospital that allows children to be transfused without the need for a court order.

  http://ajwrb.org/science/blood-transfusion-letter-of-understanding
  
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  20

  Elders/Ex-Elders: Question about Blood

  by JWdaughter in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  after many years of objecting to the wt teachings on many levels, blood being one of them, i recently started to wonder (ok, i am slow!

  ) : what exactly does the wt think that the early non jewish christians were abstaining from in the blood abstention bit.

  while i understand the context of the request that the apostle sent to the brothers, i do not understand what jws think they were abstaining from.. meat slaughtered improperly?.

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  Lee Elder

  Resources here: http://ajwrb.org/bible
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  16

  What if one of the GB members suddenly needed blood?

  by StarTrekAngel in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  there is not much to be analyzed.

  in a cult enviromment the leader will always look up for himself.

  he would never hesitate to break every rule to save his own skin.

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  Lee Elder

  At times past, we have reason to believe that there was significant support for disbanding or completely gutting the policy. Difficult to say where that stands at this time. True believers, including GB members if they fall into this category, are typically deluded as we saw with Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, etc. If so, I would expect them to support it. If they have favored reforming or gutting the policy completely (removing the shunning mechanism), I would not be surprised to see them accept blood if needed to live.