Sunday, April 29, 2007

Will there one day be a shooter....?

Watching the coverage for the past two weeks on the VA Tech massacre, I keep wondering if one day religious cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses will be confronted with a similar sad situation. Perhaps this keeps coming to mind because Mr. Cho reminds me of a young man I worked with in the JWs. He to is mentally ill. I had studied the Bible with him and was endeavoring to be his friend. But he was becoming more and more violent, particularly toward his family. Fortunately in his case, I successfully encouraged his family to get medical and psychiatric treatment for him. He was in and out of mental institutions several times before finally being permanently committed. I really felt satisfied that I had probably helped to avert a disaster for him, his family and perhaps many others. But in recommending help for him I went against not only the advice of my colleagues in the church but also against explicit written direction given by HQ to elders. Now with the excessive workload, guilt and disciplinary procedures that are administered by WT administrators and by the culture of that religion in general how long will it be before someone snaps? It has already been noted by professionals that this religion tends to have a higher incidence of mental instability than the population at large. One thing is certain: While such an incident at a Kingdom Hall (church) will bring media attention to this religion's many problems, it will be tragic and a needless waste of human life that is preventable if the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses would be less concerned about their status in the eyes of JWs as "God's Channel" and more concerned with the well being of their followers.

Isaac

2 comments:

Janet said...

You know, the more I think about this subject, the more dots I connect.

Back when I was 7 or 8, around 1980-81 or so, we had a young man in our congregation shoot (and kill) his brother, his step mom and his step-sister, and tried to kill his dad (but failed) because he wasn't allowed to play basketball. He was very tall, and all the coaches and teachers really pressured him (according to my dad, anyway) to play.

I think it's happened more than we know, just on a smaller scale.

Isaac Carmignani said...

When I was around 10-11, a young brother in my Hall, stabbed his pregnant JW wife multiple times, left her for dead, and came to the last part of the Service Meeting. I was young but still used on the sound and I was doing double duty carrying a microphone. When he came in he relieved me. Just like that, no qualms at all. Fortunately his wife was able to reach a phone and call for an ambulance. And the sordid WT secrets go on and on....