Do Jehovah’s Witnesses really protect their members in times of natural disaster? What is their priority before, during, and after such times?

In November of 2013, Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. To answer the question of how Jehovah’s Witnesses treat their congregants during such difficult times, consider a video posted on the official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses, JW.org, which can be found here. This video is a shameful example of how those in the religion “prepare” for such disasters and “help” their congregants.

What Preparation?

In that video above, the men of the organization look very busy, supposedly preparing for the oncoming disaster. However, the video later reveals that many of their followers were attending their weekly meeting at the Kingdom Hall when the police had ordered everyone to evacuate. Another group had run to another Kingdom Hall for shelter, perhaps thinking it would be more secure, but 22 of them died that night, including the entire family of one young woman, except for her younger brother.

One might rightly wonder, if those men were so busy preparing beforehand, why didn’t they have a better plan in place for protecting and evacuating their own people? What’s with all the maps and pushpins on the board in front of them, and worried looks? I can’t help but wonder if this was all for show.

A Gross Lack of Priorities

While many aspects of the JW video were disturbing, one part of it is particularly noteworthy. During the video, a young woman, in a home that can be politely described as made of dirt and sticks, opened the door to the family’s freezer to reveal stacks and stacks of Watchtower literature stowed inside. She relates how her father instructed them, with the typhoon on the way, to remove the food in order to preserve the literature.

No, really. Toss out the food and make room for the literature.

Let’s think this over for a moment; a typhoon is coming, in a country where many people already struggle to survive, and a father’s instructions are to toss out what little food they have, to use the storage space for their religious pamphlets and books. It may be weeks after the typhoon moves through before the family has a ready food supply, and yet, his priority are their religious books and pamphlets, which can be easily and readily replaced.

While an argument might be made by a religious person that it does no good to save yourself physically if you aren’t worried about your spirituality, I might respond by noting that you don’t need to read stacks and stacks of Watchtower literature every day to survive spiritually. However, you do need to eat every day to survive physically!

I might also mention that I did not see a bible in their stack of literature, but only Watchtower related books and magazines. As a matter of fact, the most prominently displayed item was the infamous “Listen, Obey and Be Blessed” video created by Jehovah’s Witnesses for children.

Toss out the food and make way for Watchtower literature.

If you’re a religious person that believes in the bible, you might see the immediate problem. Set aside the idea of religious material being more important than food during this time, and ask yourself why Watchtower literature suddenly became more important than the supposed word of god himself.

Do Jehovah’s Witnesses really think that the Watchtower, and its related pamphlets and magazines, are of greater value than a book written by god’s own hand? The words of imperfect men are somehow superior or more crucial than an actual letter from god?

Consider, too, that if they had kept a bible rather than Watchtower literature, they would have had room for food, medicine, and emergency supplies! A bible can be put in the corner of the freezer with plenty of space left over for other items, but the family used what little space they had for piece after piece of literature from the Watchtower Society.

Comparative Analysis

To really drive home the obscenity of this family’s example, let’s put it in another framework. Suppose the family were all part of a certain political party, and a typhoon was headed their way, so the father ordered the children to toss out the food from the freezer and replace it with political literature. Would anyone look at that decision and think positively of the family? Not only would they be derided and chastised, but some might even call for the removal of the children from the home, as it’s obvious the parents do not have their priorities straight when it comes to the family’s health and safety.

Jehovah’s Witness leaders often wedge themselves between their followers and god in many ways, saying that a person needs to be aligned with them in order to gain salvation, and bragging that they are the channel by which Jesus leads his followers.

This video is a prime example of how well they’ve accomplished the feat of making themselves and their writing of prime importance, more so than food and emergency provisions, and even the bible.

Teaching a doctrine that puts you between a group of people and the god they worship is one matter, but when you do so to the point of endangering their lives during a natural disaster, and when those at risk include children, this is inexcusable.

A family head that would choose personal, civic, political, or business material over lifesaving food and other supplies would no doubt need to answer for this decision, so I must ask why a man who would put religious literature over the same for his family should be any less culpable. The entire situation is shameful all around.

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