Kingdom work....

Dog Piles, a post from Jamie the Very Worst Missionary.

This blog says it so much better than I could, but echoes something that frustrated me about the Witnesses for a long time.

"We don't donate to the charities of Christendom or of Babylon the Great. We donate to the Kingdom work." (paraphrase)

15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? (James 2:15-16, NIV)

I understand the moral objections to most charities. And I know that they do "on-site" work in disaster areas, helping the brothers and sisters. But I think holding back your charity until times of obvious great need makes your heart smaller, not larger. It ignores all of the other service opportunities you have set before you. It says that there is a "path" of service, that if you want to be of greater service to Jehovah there is a sequence of steps you follow. And since most of us aren't in the midst of a major disaster with any kind of regularity, it limits the activity of our charity to restrict it so.

Ray Franz told a story of an elder who was instructing a class (I can't remember if it was a Gillead thing or what, so I'm leaving details I'm not sure of out). They were discussing "sacred service"... the usual tasks came up: field service and other witnessing, Ministerial Servant, Elder, keeping the Hall clean, that sort of thing. Then he gave them a scenario: There's an elderly woman whose husband had passed away, and she wanted to attend meetings but could no longer drive. Would driving her to a meeting be sacred service? Or even just visiting her or bringing her food? There was discussion, and it was eventually decided that, while admirable, that would not technically be "sacred service"

Then the elder busted out James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. " (NIV and not NWT) Oh, thought the class. But that's not what we've been taught.

Exactly.

Incidentally, Commentary on James is a great Witness book, and you'll find it on CDs (or at least the 1997 and 1999 CDs that I have), but you won't find it used anymore since the elder who wrote it was disfellowshipped. When I was in my "read everything possible" phase after I was DF'd in 2004, that was one of the books I read and it was about the most useful book I'd read from them. But it was also very challenging and I can see how it easy it would be to allow it to fall into disfavor.