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(Investigator 113, 2007 March) If people with
physical
disabilities can
preach and make converts how much more zealous the able-bodied should
be!
That's the implied message in biographies of physically handicapped converts in Jehovah's Witness (JW) magazines. The physically disabled may be restricted in mobility, social life and opportunities. Joining a sect may improve the situation. The sect, for example, may help them get to meetings, extend their social life and assist with shopping and house duties. When a physically handicapped JW discovers his religion has deceived him – that it's not the true religion "agreeing in all details with the Bible" but has flip-flopped in hundreds of doctrines and made numerous false predictions and then lied about them – what does he do? Like other JWs he's tempted to ignore the problem because if he criticises he'll be treated like other "apostates" – excommunicated, ostracised and any assistance stopped. The physically handicapped will find it harder than healthy individuals to "pick up the pieces" and live a satisfying life.
For a disabled
JW to force
the issue
knowing
the negative consequences therefore requires courage.
The story of JW convert José Martín Pérez appeared in Awake! 1988, November 8. Titled "Pride
Was My Worst
Handicap" the
story started:
I was born
with a severe
physical
impediment
that
prevents me
from
walking, standing up, or
even using my hands… I still remember the jealousy and frustration I
felt
as a child when I watched other children running and jumping. Sometimes
I visited a nearby church to beg God's help…
I was born in Granada, a beautiful city in southern Spain… As a young child, having a disability motivated me to develop other skills, and by the time I was seven, I was more advanced scholastically than others of my age… On one occasion
the local
newspaper
published
an article about me, together with photographs showing me writing with
my foot. This publicity resulted in my receiving numerous awards and
trips,
plus the admiration of others. All of this served to foster in me a
vain
and conceited spirit.
Pérez
described his
isolation, study
by correspondence, winning a scholarship, typewriting using a pen in
his
mouth, and becoming "morose because of loneliness and a feeling of
helplessness."
He prayed to God
to
demonstrate concern. In 1973 JWs showed up and taught him from their book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. After six months a travelling JW minister asked about Pérez's progress. Perez replied, "I'm doing great. I've already memorized 500 Bible texts." The minister deflated this "pride" by quoting, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." (1 Corinthians 8:1) In June 1975
Pérez
got baptized.
His
Awake! article continued:
I still had
not
conquered my pride… I
soon
accumulated a vast store of Scriptural knowledge, which I was eager to
demonstrate. Witnesses in the congregation…started to come to me with
their
Bible questions…this too caused my vanity to be flattered.
Pérez described the "real happiness" of preaching, converting ten people, and becoming an elder: "Getting to know the Creator has helped me to be realistic and face up to my impediments, including my pride... I have learned to seek Jehovah's glory, not my own."
"Pride" is often mentioned in JW publications and Pérez's emphasis on it is nothing unusual.
Accusing people
of pride
helps the JW
leadership
control them by making them feel inadequate. This heightens their need
for approval and makes them more likely to conform. A JW who questions
the authority of the leaders or studies excessively will likely be told
he's "giving in to pride" and trying to impress others. He'll be
reminded,
"Knowledge puffs up but love builds up."
JOSE
MARTIN
PEREZ – 2001 By 2001
José
Martín
Pérez
had left JWs. On the Internet he summed up his JW life as: "22 years serving a human project, believing that it was Divine" He says of his Awake!
magazine
article:
It's obvious
the main
reason for which
it appeared there was my physical state... Nevertheless, regrettably
the
society…and many religious and political groups…use…the disabled to
sell
their products, to promulgate their ideas…and to motivate a certain
action;
in sum, to say: "This person is not worth anything, but he does more
things
than you, why don't you imitate him?"
Pérez says his story "backfired" and was used to "rebuke" him when he left JWs: "Behind are being left 22 years of service, sacrifices, of economic contributions, etc. which according to them, they don't have any value in God's sight, and they have only been good to confirm my pride..." He continues: …a religious
organization, assuming the
role of God in this XX century, has taken captive my thoughts, my
beliefs,
and my individuality…
I ended up believing that the organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses, was the channel God was using to communicate his will to men…and that it was necessary to be…supporting such an organization in order to receive his favor. I didn't
realize that
these "children",
as soon as they accepted the "maternity" protection of the group they
began
to lose their individuality and to assume a collective and impersonal
one,
that at times would be powerful and intolerant against all those that
didn't
stay within the mother cover…
It has been very costly to reach these conclusions, because my physical and mental dependence on the organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses has always been very strong. They were the first ones that were interested in me, not only so that I could study the Bible, but by picking me up at my house and taking me to the meetings, conventions, etc. In addition, I was invited to social meetings, dinners, trips, etc. where they took care and assisted me. After eight years
as an elder
Pérez
resigned
from that position in 1995. But he and his wife continued attending
meetings
and going preaching – these activities being "the thermometers used by
the congregation to discern who is considered spiritual and who's not."
His doubts began
over
questions of
"progressive
truth":
JWs believe that
Christ
returned in 1914.
Until 1995 they believed that Jesus was judging and sorting people into
"sheep" and "goats" by their response to the JW preaching.
Says
Pérez:
The Watchtower
(May
15, 1986) claimed
the doctrine was first "properly understood" in 1923:
"Thus, in 1923 Jesus' great prophecy about the sheep and the goats was properly
understood, and it was discerned that the whole world was under
judgment". (p. 14)
The sheep/goat separation, however, could not have been "properly understood" in 1923 because in 1935 JWs began to teach that there were two groups of sheep and it was time to convert the second group. The first group called "remnant" and "chosen ones" were converted until 1935, the second group called "the great multitude" were converted from 1935 onwards: It was for 60 years
a
central,
often-repeated,
doctrine. (Investigator 47) Then in 1995 (The Watchtower, October
15)
this
"properly understood", "bright light" from "Jehovah" and the "holy
spirit"
was changed. The sheep and goats were not separated since 1935 after
all
but will be separated in the future "during the Millennium".
Another change
that
influenced
Pérez
was the prophecy that the generation that witnessed 1914 would live to
survive Armageddon.
That doctrine
too was
changed in 1995:
Pérez and
his wife
then obtained Crisis
of Conscience written by Raymond Franz, a former member of the JW
governing
body:
To a JW painter who came to withdraw his documents Pérez said: I support all
those
people that in
freedom,
opt to adore God without losing their individuality, their autonomy…
I don't consider myself better than anyone. In fact, I have gotten off the pedestal where the Witnesses had put me… God does respond
to those
who cry out to
him for help, but that answer doesn't necessarily have to come because
a gentleman calls at your door…
(BS)
More true biographies of JWs on this website: https://ed5015.tripod.com/ https://investigatormagazine.net Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses at: https://ed5015.tripod.com/jwdictionary/ |