Why Did JWs Ignore Prince’s Drug Addictions?

After Prince’s death, George Cook (an elder at the Kingdom Hall where Prince attended JW meetings) was reported to have said the church does not have a problem with Prince’s reported addiction to prescription drugs because “that’s a personal matter.” “Brother” Cook made this statement after Prince’s death in April, 2016 and before the  memorial at the Saint Louis Park JW Kingdom Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Many celebrities were in the audience, including some who were also Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Guardian (August 21, 2016) reported that many powerful synthetic drugs such as oxycodone, fentanyl, lidocaine and U-4770 (a synthetic drug that is eight times more powerful than morphine*) were found in Prince’s home. The presence and the amounts of those drugs strongly suggested that he was absolutely addicted to drugs.

*[LINK to The Guardian (UK) news article]

This leads us to ask if the JW elders at Prince’s Kingdom Hall suffer any remorse? They clearly sent a message that money and fame talks when they jumped on the publicity train (with the permission of Watchtower’s leaders in New York) by allowing their “Jehovah’s Witness church” to be “heavily involved in the star’s memorial service.” **

**[LINK to Daily Mail (UK) news article]

Please note that these same elders, seemingly without any reservation, participated in and managed Prince’s funeral and memorial, and yet some of them with decades of judicial hearings under their belts, have disfellowshipped many ordinary Jehovah’s Witnesses for using or being addicted to cigarettes or opiate drugs. Their actions have resulted in anguish and despair due to their strictly enforced and hard-hearted “shunning” of those addicted to drugs. Rather than “practice mercy” by offering support and encouragement to find treatment for an addiction, they would rather punish those addicted – ostensibly to keep the “organization (Jehovah’s Witnesses) clean.”

According to the Surgeon General of the United States, addiction is a “chronic disease of the brain” that has, for far too long, been treated as a “moral failure, a character flaw.” This is exactly how Jehovah’s Witnesses have shamefully handled these cases by simply ignoring the realities and “disfellowship” members who suffer from addictions.

These elders and their leaders should remember the words, “For the one who does not practice mercy will have his judgment without mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Those words are found at James 2:13, a scripture favored by Watchtower leaders when instructing elders to forgive pedophiles – actual criminals who express “repentance” and then go on to molest and rape more JW children.

All these appointed representatives of the Watchtower religious system are hypocrites. They are exactly like the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus described as those who “bind up heavy loads and put them on the shoulders of men.” He described their hypocrisy by saying, “All the works they do they do to be seen by men.” Jesus then told his audience to “not do according to their deeds, for they say but they do not practice what they say.”

We can not judge the musician and performer known as “Prince” because we do not know or understand the nature of his illness or addictions. He paid the ultimate price for using – perhaps overusing – legal (and possibly illegal) drugs. But we can express our opinions about those Jehovah’s Witness elders who may have been aware that he had health problems that led to his addictions. We can also point out that Prince “got a pass” from the elders that other rank and file Jehovah’s Witnesses would never have enjoyed – even when their circumstances clearly called for “mercy.”

[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”auto” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]On Sunday, August 21, 2016, The Associated Press in Minneapolis reported that counterfeit pills were found at Prince’s home. Some contained powerful opioid fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times stronger than heroin found in dozens of pills. These and other mislabeled drugs were found in luggage belonging to late music star.[/dropshadowbox]


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joy

joy

I’ll tell you why the JW’s didn’t care about Prince’s drug use. He gave bookoo money which is all they care about anyway. I could clearly see the people that were not giving lots of money would get treated with less respect.

RJ

RJ

bookoo? Stop reading at that point because of your obvious ignorance

roxy3

roxy3

I know a man who has been shunned by his Witness family and fake “friends” like victims of rape and pedophilia are. He has cancer and after years of struggling with experimental cancer drugs, radiation, and chemotherapy, he decided to quit Western Medicine’s cut, burn, and poison highly lucrative old school methods and switched to cannabis and a healthy diet. The result will put the pharmaceutical companies out of business one day because his use of cannabis oil has eradicated each and every cancer cell from his body! His doctors are baffled and finally taking a look at the benefits of cannabis a lot closer. Sadly, the doctors do not get a commission check from the dispensaries like they do monthly from the pharmaceutical companies so they are not all wanting to heal people in droves. Health is big business and so are churches. I like to say that Kingdom Halls are also men’s clubs and an awesome place to hide rapists and pedophiles.

roxy3

roxy3

…also Kingdom Halls are notorious for hiding prescription medicine junkies and alcoholics. That is if they have a penis attached to them. I know of one guy who admitted to using street drugs with his wife, and was even selling drugs that was NEVER disfellowshipped. They really wanted to kick her out instead of him because she told on him.

joy

joy

I would have to agree with you about KH’s being a men’s club. The men that are elders are especially treated better. I had noticed there were far more women than men and since they will not allow women to do much, I imagine that’s their way of keeping men happy so they stay there to take care of things. They sweep everything under the carpet when it comes to their elders. It was so corrupt and disgusting to me. After being treated rudely by an elder, I caught on real quick.

jbob

jbob

thanks for that info; this might explain the mysterious “murders” of some JW families or “murder-suicides”–secret drug dealers finally engulfed by their criminal actions.

even alkies without a penis get a “free ride” depending on how well they “smooze” the local leadership and hide from the visiting leaders.

Jahsdisciple

Jahsdisciple

If these “elders” were true spiritual shepherds,they would have stood up to “prince”. HE IS DEAD BECAUSE THEY BECAME SUPPORTERS and enablers of his addiction,when even going to the Police with what they knew,could have SAVED HIS LIFE. He would have gone before a court,and the judge would have ORDERED him to get help. Time in Jail would have stopped the addiction.

So those “elders” KILLED prince,by not acting on what they knew!

This is the same thing with regards to NOT reporting child abuse cases. The same people offended more than once…and the “elders” knew! If they were reported,the child abusers would have offended once,instead of multiple times. This would have saved tens of thousands of children from having their innocence taken from them…and them being scarred for life.

William V

William V

Perhaps, but Prince was also notoriously private. It is possible they didn’t know. On the other hand, he was close to Larry Graham (brought Prince into “the truth”)., so it is very possible he knew and kept it quiet. Personally, I do think the elders knew. Whatever the case is, this is another issue where elders have no business in conducting “judicial” hearings. Drug addiction is a long and complex road to recovery and praying to Jehovah and reading the publications does not help. Whether it’s Prince or not, drug addiction needs to be handled by trained professionals and not window washers.

Spunky Monkey

Spunky Monkey

Principal stated here applies to those who compromised and/or did not take their responsibility serious: Prov. 27:23

RJ

RJ

spoken like a true uninformed idiot

muldoon55

muldoon55

great comment thanks

la voce

la voce

The elder body looks the other way if you are rich and/or famous, and even more so if you have a penis.

RJ

RJ

wrong again wow

Anna

Anna

There is a big difference between being addicted to prescription drugs because of pain, and being addicted to drugs for recreational purposes, including smoking.

patricia

patricia

What seems to be missing from the article was the fact that Prince needed surgery for a hip problem to relieve the pain. Like all other surgeries, there was a chance he may have needed a blood transfusion. He could have gone with the surgery and not agreed to a transfusion. Apparently, the brothers in the congregation did not tell him about the option. Prince continued to take medication thinking he would be made to take the transfusion.

Betty Smith

Betty Smith

Asinine statement. You are assuming Prince to be an idiot. Of course he knew all of his medical options for surgery. A child in the Kingdom Hall would know. Prince was horribly addicted to multiple drugs maybe because of pain initially. But please don’t paint Prince as an imbecile. He was genius! He needed help because he was a drug addict. JWs org supports anything you do if you are sending the big checks.

hiway280z

hiway280z

Prince also did video’s and movies anyone with out his money would have been disfellow shipped for. The JW’s liked his money and to be able to use his name telling people he was a JW. They are a cult and hypocritics.

Roxy

Roxy

I know a woman who was self medicating because of a broken back that was disfellowshipped for it. I am assuming the reason they disfellowshipped her and not Prince was because she was broke and did not possess a penis.

Jill Struck Greenlee Jacobsen

Jill Struck Greenlee Jacobsen

The only thing I question is the phrase “The Church doesn’t have a problem” I was a 3rd generation Jehovah’s witness and unless things changed or there was “New Light” They would have never said the church. It would have been the organization.

Roxanne

Roxanne

I had a “friend” who had an issue with alcohol. Since her elder father sexually abused her as a child, she developed a habit of drinking in excess to erase her horrible childhood and the congregation that were not her advocate that pretty much turned their back on her as a victim of child sexual abuse. She was disfellowshipped for drinking because she was honest and admitted to it unlike her elder father, and at that time the organization did not encourage her to go to an AA meeting because that was considered another church…Babylon the Great. As a result of all this, her husband divorced her and married another woman at the courthouse since he was granted permission to do so by the elders. It helped his father was an elder too. It also helps to have a penis in the organization. If it had been her husband sodomized by his elder father, due to homophobia it would have been all about protecting the virgin sphincter of a male child. Never a female (chattel) child!

Joy

Joy

It’s quite simple really. Prince was padding their contribution box. After attending their meetings for a short time, it didn’t take me long to realize that it was all about how much you could give and do for them. It makes me sick to my stomach.