There have been countless testimonies of people surviving narcissistic abuse to being in dangerous situations with sociopaths & psychopaths. I've read several opinions about dealing with them & some lean towards being inclusive yet cautious, while others say to not even have them in the building. Considering 2nd Timothy chapter 3, all the traits seem to lean towards these mental attributes. What caught my eye was this part:
It seems that such ones shouldn't even be within our midst & have dealings with us. What do you guys think?
The mental health problems you raise are products of our society. Condemn them, and you condemn victims. This is a problem with cause and effect and each case needs to be treated as they present. These are behaviours anyway, not a mental illness in the majority of situations and psychopaths are a whole different subject matter anyway concerning developmental issues.
If you wish an answer to your question, you must first discover the root cause of the behaviour. Within this process you will have to bridge the gap that society makes in definition. For example. At age sixteen in Britain, an abused child that learns the values of his/her abuser through abuse, normalising those behaviours in an effort to cope with the madness they cause, become the perpetrator not the victim, upon the stroke of midnight on their sixteenth birthday. They then have to deal with dismantling their entire psyche. It cannot be done satisfactorily. It murders the soul.
This also forms part of the current debate of “stay or go” within watchtower in that people are unable to see clearly because their psyche is formed by behaviours that are not necessarily their own, but have to be absorbed in order for the conscience to function. This is why clarity will not be available in that thread. No matter - so long as it’s recognised. And that is the issue.
The solution with behavioural disabilities is in understanding, broadness or mind, humility on one’s own account and love and appreciation for the other. If one does not have insight into cause and effect and shuns, then we have simply repeated the harshness of society (and watchtower). Shunning achieves nothing in real terms other than force another to examine their values. If they have the insight to do that,
for the better then they may change, but if they require the mental tools with which to do so, who will equip them with those tools? Value the person, not their presentation. Come to understand.
The world is full of such outcasts - products of our society in which everyone judges the outcome but is blind to the causal root. There is no point at all in being ‘inclusive’ if one submits to the behaviour. And the considerations to inclusivity require insight on our behalf to effect change. It is recumbent then upon others to respond appropriately and with insight, understanding and with insightful tolerance. Otherwise we simply become part of the problem. This behaviour of shunning forms one of the many euphemisms used to describe “love” and why so many see it as shallow and simply being “kind” to shun a person when in fact it is ignoring the value of such a one, their worth and potential. Love encompasses justice, perseverance, tolerance, long-suffering and patience, as well as shunning. That is why it forms the basis of all the attributes of Jehovah including the consideration of our responses to others.
