Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Poor

If you have ever read any literature published by Jehovah’s Witnesses, you pick up real quick that they love themselves. You know what I mean. They spend endless amounts of time in their writings expounding the virtues and accomplishments of the organization. Never will you find a critical thought or question in the write-in sections. It is all praise and wonder for Jehovah’s visible organization.

Interestingly enough, they also expounded their generosity to the poor in last years May 1, 2006 Watchtower article entitled “Who Will Help the Poor.” It really is a wonderful article that talks about how Jehovah’s Witnesses have helped the poor around the world, unless you know the truth, or are discerning enough to read through the flowery B. S. in the text. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that none of the poor helped are non-witnesses. What? Surely not you say.

It’s true, and it is borne out on the back cover of the September 1, 2003 edition of the Watchtower in a short called “Real Help for the Poor.” Conspicuously absent is any “real help” at all. The only “help” is a Jehovah’s Witness on your doorstep telling you how it will be in the recreated earth. That’s right, no food, no financial assistance, only worthless words about a future paradise. Now I certainly do believe in future paradise, but we are called to care for the poor and weak here and now.

The New World Translation translates Psalm 72:13 to say that God “feels sorry” for the weak and needy whereas the ESV says, “He has pity.” See the difference? Having pity leads to action, whereas feeling sorry leads to nothing. What good is someone who just feels sorry and yet does nothing? True Jesus Freaks actually do stuff, not just to proselytize people to try to get them to join their religion, but we help people regardless of their religious background because Christ fed thousands, many of whom were not believers at all, and some likely were only there to criticize him.

Nowhere in the Bible that I know of does God say that only the needy or poor believers should be cared for, but all people. Jehovah’s Witnesses love to talk about all the homes they rebuilt after hurricane Katrina, but they neglect to tell you that they didn’t rebuild anybody’s house that was not a “brother.”

A recent study found that Jehovah's Witnesses were the poorest of major religious groups. Their never ending disdain toward education is a primary cause of this. Secondary education is even lower on their list. They discourage education in favor of pioneering, leading to lives unfulfilled, performing menial labor and endless door to door evangelism. They want to tell us they help the poor when they are the poor.

Jehovah’s Witnesses love to tell you about how true religion shows true love. But, are they the only religious organization with love? They seem to think so. The problem that I have with this is the following. What love do they show any one who is not one of them? Showing up at your door to tell you their “good news” doesn’t count because unless you become one of them, they really don’t care. Jesus told us to love our enemy, how much more should we love the harmless and unfortunate?

Poverty is not a family value.
WiredForStereo

Truth is Over There!!!

I was pondering Jehovah’s Witnesses again the other day, and just going over their modes of thinking to try to understand just how they work. And something came to me. I remember growing up as a Seventh Day Adventist, and I really didn’t know what the world was all about. The vast majority of the Seventh-Day Adventists I know (and am related to) are what I’d call religious but not spiritual. The truth is, the Spirit is what draws a person, religion draws people who want to be right. That is what religion really is after all, it is a system wherein you learn the truth handed down in the form of rules. Thus, if you follow the rules, you are right, end of story.

Spirituality and true Jesus Freakiness is about a relationship. Jesus fulfilled the law and all the rules, so they are no longer in a list for us to follow, but they are written on our hearts. We don’t need to do something or not do something because the Bible says so, we do or don’t because it is the way we have become. We live as Christ lives in us. This was the kind of thing I didn’t understand as an SDA. When I wanted to reach out to a neighbor girl (I was like 8, as was she) all I could do was to invite her to church. I did this because I didn’t know Jesus, the best I could do was to point her to someone who did, I thought.

I find this same philosophy or mentality with JW’s. All they have is what they have been told, what they read. There is nothing written on their hearts. They are not Jehovah’s Witnesses, they haven’t witnessed anything, they just heard about it, that makes them Jehovah’s Gossips. How does that play out? They leave Watchtowers and Awake!s around at bus stops and park benches and hospital lobbies where I find them and take them home to add to my collection. What they are saying is "Look at this, surely this will convince you because I'm shooting blanks spiritually speaking." Some SDA's can tend to do the same thing with Ellen White.

Perusing the internet, I found a website called something like Six Screens of the Watchtower. This guy had been disfellowshipped and actually taped the meeting by sticking a recorder in a cut out in one of the books he had brought to the meeting. After he had pled his case and offered his arguments, he was temporarily dismissed for a closed door meeting. And then………….virtual silence. What was going on? All to be heard was rustling of pages. No speaking, and as far as I could tell, no critical or individual thinking. They were looking up verses and passages in their books, there was not a thought among them. That is what separates a religious person from a spiritual person. Spirituality in the correct context draws all power from the Holy Spirit. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in the Holy Spirit per se, therefore, they can’t really come up with much creative content.

What impresses me is when someone can witness without a Bible in his or her hand, because you know it is in his or her heart, and they do not need to get the words right because the Spirit is working directly through them. This is what the essence of a true believer is. We don’t all need to be missionaries to other countries, but we do all need to be missionaries here where we do live. We can’t all be preachers or pastors, but we can all disciple others.

And for any Jehovah’s Witnesses, before you complain about being insulted, why not actually read what is written and ask yourself if it is true.

If it is not, then complain.

WiredForStereo