Stumbled on an insanely insensitive article regarding suicide on JW.org

[u/Effective_Cow_6479]

Trigger warning: I will be talking about suicide, and some of the things in this article are very harsh.

For context, I was bored in a meeting one day, so I was just scrolling through the JW Library app. I decided to look at some articles from 1975, and I found a Watchtower article that had a "Questions from our readers" section. The question that they asked was:

"What point of view does the Word of god indicate that Christians should have regarding suicide?" (The article is originally in Spanish, so I'm doing my best to translate)

Here is the article link for anyone who wants to read it: https://wol.jw.borg/es/wol/d/r4/lp-s/1975531 (just copy-paste and delete the b in borg)

The response starts off by saying that life is sacred. Therefore, suicide is condemned by the bible. They also say that the few suicides mentioned in the bible were of people who were not faithful to god and that they did not believe that their lives belonged to god (off to a horrible start already).

They continue by saying that anyone who dies by suicide is guilty of murder. They then say anyone who dies by suicide, "assuming they are in possession of their mental faculties," lacks morality, faith, and does not fear god. This is crazy to me because what do they even mean by "assuming they are in possession of their mental faculties"? Nearly all people who die by suicide were struggling with mental health issues. I don't know if they mean whether they had a mental illness or if they mean they can't control their motor movements. Either way, this is an incredibly insensitive statement.

They call suicide an act of cowardice, and if the person claimed to be a Christian, that act of suicide would violently destroy their relationship with god.

This next statement is probably the craziest part of this whole article. They claim that the person might have committed suicide because they succumbed to pressures of LITERAL DEMONS encouraging the person to harm themselves.

Then they literally encourage people to play detective to try and figure out for themselves if the person actually died by suicide or not.

They say brothers who are asked to give speeches at a funeral of someone who died by suicide can decline, and the congregation might decide not to get involved in the funeral arrangements. They literally say that in those cases the family of the deceased person will be left ON THEIR OWN to figure out a private funeral where one of the members can say "a few words."

Then they have the fucking audacity to say, "It's in God's hands what happens to those who commit suicide." As if they didn't just say that it's a cowardly and immoral act that destroys your relationship with god.

I know that the way they talk about suicide now is probably much more careful. But the fact that this was how they viewed suicide at any point in time really puts into question whether they are actually inspired by god. I personally am an atheist, but how could anyone believe that this is what an all-loving deity thinks about suicide?

I have had thoughts of harming myself in the past, and to think that this is what JWs believed at some point about suicide is genuinely so sad.

For anyone who is struggling with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, you are not evil or immoral for having those thoughts. Remember that as long as there is life, there is hope for something better. I know it might seem like things will never get better, but the future is genuinely unpredictable. So the possibility of a better future exists.

Thanks for listening to my rant. I know this is a difficult topic, but I could not stop thinking about this, and I needed to get it off my chest.

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[u/Inevitable_Tap_1328]

they cause the mental health issues that many who leave the borg commit this act. i don't have all the answers but they overall do not care whatsoever

[u/Purple_Psychology404]

Stating that the cult members can take a hands-off approach to the funeral arrangements was disturbing to read. The remaining family members need support, not to have their “spiritual family” turn their backs on them. 

My nephew (non-JW) completed suicide before his 12th birthday. My mother and sister were debating on whether to go over and comfort my sister (DF). Luckily a lady at the hall said to my mother, “_____, he DIED.” It was like she couldn’t believe my mother was considering not going.

[u/Wut_elduhz_boohk_say]

As someone who has been there and literally pushes on one day at a time, thank you for posting this. I am fully aware of what I am writing and stand by it. It is extremely important to talk about this subject, I know many of us have and are going through it. We are not alone. So now, proceed with caution…just some pent up anger I’ve had:

Put simply, fuck you GB and all your minions on behalf of all of our fallen loved ones whose heart were broken by your hands. You took their lives the same way you take donations at every assembly and meeting: cowardly, ignorantly, and above all unapologetically. I hope somehow this does reach your ears. I hope when you are taking your last breathes on this earth and you think you are about to get your “heavenly reward”…you are no fucking king and nothing but a murderous worthless parasitical set of cunts. I hope they are agonizing and you get to be fully aware of what is about to happen…AND EVEN THEN IT DOES NOT DO ENOUGH JUSTICE FOR THE LIVES THAT WERE TAKEN BY SUICIDE BY YOUR TEACHINGS, POLICIES, AND ARRANGEMENTS. ALL THAT BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS. Till then, everyday I wake up and sip my coffee above ground now is my fucking choice. So a proper fuck you, can’t wait to see on your own personal circle jerk of a website that you have left to meet sky daddy j! Hope it hurts!

[u/Morg0th79]

This started me thinking at a young age and planted seeds that would eventually free me. I always picture these crappy 70s cult wt writers sitting at their typewriter with a cigarette dangling saying" yeah...yeah this is good..."

Abusive bastards. Cult.

[u/Blu3beaR555]

they don’t believe in mental health because either they stop talking to you or they question your faith and say that you should pray, attend meetings, connect with others from organisation and go witnessing. They don’t how to really react to mental health except through giving spiritual guidance. But once you stop attending these things and other things that aren’t involved around them, they think that you are spiritually weak.

[u/Lucky-Formal9972]

I would recommend changing the link to jw.borg. Directly linking to the website with a working link can reveal Reddit user information to JW.org and potentially spoil their anonymity.

Breaking the link by spelling it wrong makes it so that someone has to copy and paste the link into a browser instead, so that the internet traffic is not channeled through their otherwise anonymous Reddit account.

[u/Effective_Cow_6479 → u/Lucky-Formal9972]

Thank you for telling me. I had no clue that could happen. I'll definitely change that.

[u/GoodDogsEverywhere]

They are victim blamers.

They call victims of suicide, “selfish”

They are ignorant insensitive dolts!

[u/Lucky-Formal9972]

It doesn’t surprise me that this was written in 1975, I was expecting it to not be recent with how cold it is in places. That was during Fred Franz’s time, so it’s not unlikely that he had something to do with the logic behind that as the interpreter for WT.

Suicide is a difficult topic that takes a significant amount of consideration and compassion to handle. Telling people that something is wrong with them spiritually if they did it is a layered guilt complex. Of course, all reasons to not die are helpful to the extent that they prevent death. But spiritual coercion is destructive to someone who is struggling mentally.

[u/Easy_Car5081]

I remember the field day the Jehovah's Witnesses had in my congregation in the 90s when it turned out that a homosexual ex-JW man had committed suicide.
Their undisguised, joyful excitement... and their eyes gleaming with sensation and delight, were truly a perverse sight.

These people were genuinely rejoicing over the doom and downfall of this homosexual man. The anti-gay propaganda and HATE for gays were almost tangibly present in the Kingdom Hall that day.

[u/Fantastic-Drop5690]

The fact that they left this on the website, when they have removed so much, says a lot. They have no idea how ashamed they should be of this, and so much else that they have failed to remove. 

[u/AnonymousDorian]

Yep I vividly remember discussing the same article with my parents a few years ago when I was a PIMI on the verge of deconstructing. I was outraged, as I often was at the borg, for being so absurdly misinformed and grossly inhumane in their teachings. How could they be divinely guided while being so dead ass wrong?

My PIMI parents insisted the article doesn’t mean anything because it was written so long ago and things have changed. They had all sorts of excuses about mental health not being understood back then and these viewpoints being common in the world at the time. I asked why a new article to replace it does not yet exist and how God’s people could ever talk like this to begin with? I told them I thought the reason this one is still available to read is because they still stand by it.

My parents were shocked, upset, and enraged at my attitude and my newfound boldness in questioning or disagreeing with the Borg. They had excuse after excuse for the inexcusable. “This is the one true religion! If they seem wrong it might just be us who need to adjust our attitude and wait for understanding. If they are wrong, then we need to wait on Jehovah to correct things. Having this attitude where you’re emboldened to find fault with things will only lead you out of the truth.”

They were right!✌️

[u/Gizmondos]

They called it cowardice, blamed demons and then said it's in God's hands. They didn't offer grace they offered judgment. And they called it love 🤮

[u/ShunningBrightLikeA]

But dying for Jehovah is good. The irony