Watchtower "drama" last Sunday.

CornerStone

Hello All,

I originaily said to myself that I was not going to post anything about last Sundays "drama" at the DC because I did not want to stir up trouble. But after reading about the Watchtowers' less than charitable attitude toward their NYC neighbors I had a change of heart.

I sat there that morning with my wife and relatives, my eyes heavy from lack of sleep, children on either side of me already in dream land. The drama was an old favorite; Moses and Korah. Drama actors dressed in 3,500 year old styled garb with fake beards shook their fist in the air to show emotion while jumping and stomping to convey the depth of their message.

After a lot of hooting and hollering we got to the crowd pleasing part; Jehovahs' wrath on the rebellious Korah and his companions.
Suddenly, the ground begins to shake, (figuratively), and a ring of screams are heard as the rebels begin to fall to their deaths, (figuratively).

But that's not the best part! The next thing that happens should sicken me but I guess I'm just used to it. As a great chorus of cheers goes up from the audience at the flailing limbs and desparate screams of the actors, the last of the rebels, Korah, is balancing at the imaginary precipice on one leg, flailing his arms in large circles but, inevitably, as he falls to his death a GREAT CHEER goes up from the audience and quite a bit of LAUGHTER also. All of this happening while the flashes of camera bulbs dot the auditorium in a sparkling pattern. What a FINE lesson for the children, huh?

I just sat there with a blank look on my face. What could I say? Many of those people there, who call themselves Christians, were HAPPY at the notion of people loosing their lives!

Now I realize this was conducted as a theactrical performance along the lines of a good guy bad guy movie. You know, make the bad guy sooo bad that when he "kicks the bucket" you cheer. But the real difference here is that this performance was done in God's name. This was done to teach the people a lesson from God.

What was the REAL lesson here? You folks can fill in the blank. The lesson was CONTROL through FEAR. This was NOT a lesson from God, but from plain old men!

Watchtower, do you understand what you taught that day? Do you realize the "message from God" you gave was NOT what Jesus, whom you profess to serve, wanted people to hear? Are your conscienceses so seared you can no longer tell the difference between right and wrong?

I mean, honestly, would Jesus approve of hateing your enemy, of being glad over his distruction? Would he?

43“You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Love your neighbor’£ and hate your enemy. 44But I say, love your enemies!£ Pray for those who persecute you! 45In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. 46If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47If you are kind only to your friends, £ how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5: 43-48 NLT

Remember, the crowds were cheering and laughing out loud when the drama actors were falling to their deaths! How cruel and unloving you are making your flocks to be! Are there any among you, Watchtower, that can see the error of this type of teaching?

Could you honestly stand before Jesus Christ, whom you, Watchtower, profess to serve, and justify the gleeful satisfaction I saw on the faces of JW's at that convention? Could you?

If God and Jesus warned people NOT to be happy at the destruction of their enemies, where is the SCRIPTUAL justification for disobeying them? Where is it?

17Do not rejoice when your enemies fall into trouble. Don’t be happy when they stumble. 18For the LORD will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them.

Proverbs 24: 17,18 NLT

You think the greater good is to scare people into obeying you rather than teaching people to obey Jesus, whom you profess to serve.

Only you, Watchtower, can answer these questions and only you, Watchtower, can stop disobeying God and Jesus and do what the Bible says.

CornerStone

Moxy

perhaps you so distraught you missed the part afterward when korah's son said that his family was trying not to feel sad about his father.

emotionally detached from other peoples death and tragedy. a familiar theme.

mox

willy_think

amen

the ideas and opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily represent those of the WTB&TS inc. or any of it's subsidiary corporations.

dungbeetle

For what it's worth, here's what I got from the drama...

The account reads Numbers 16:32...And the earth proceeded to open its mouth and to swallow up them and their households and all humankind that belonged to Korah and all the goods.

Now in those days Korah would have been the head of his household, and the wives and little ones would have been generally obligated to do what he said. However, what Korah was doing was against the law as God had given it to them. The people that depended on Korah, that listened to him, lost their lives because of him. God made no accounting at that time for any choices his household may have had in the matter.

So today, we have God's law as given us through Jesus Christ. There were only two...Love your God with your whole heart,mind, and soul; and do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Simple enough. And if we disobey these commands, we are disobeying God himself. We each will be held accountable for the decisions WE make.

God may not hear us if we complain...my parents made me do it, or the elders or the CO or 10 (or 12, or 13) angry men, or whole committees of them. If we are called to account because we went to people (some who may have been very vulnerable) and told them: God says to refuse blood, God says not to do alternative service, God says to disfellowship and shun, God says harbor child molesters from the authorities---and the Bible says no such d--n thing, why shouldn't we be called to account just like Korah and his family? And especially if that person comes to harm.

This kind of reasoning was a big part of what led to my separating myself from many of the practices of Jehovah's Witnesses. I suggest more jehovah's Witnesses do the same. The life you save may be your own.

dungbeetle...cleaning up the crap.

closer2fine

Your post made me realize that I don't miss my JDub days at all. It was so hard to stay awake during the mind-numbing parts.

closer

Mean People Produce
Little Mean People - bumpersticker

outnfree

CornerStone,

Thank you for an excellent post! Why does the Society reach back to the Hebrew Scriptures to teach happenings under the Law which Christ nailed to the torture stake and specifically negated during his lifetime? As you said, "CONTROL through FEAR."

And dungbeetle,

Every time I read one of your posts I like you more and more! (and I liked you right off the bat because of your tag line! )

outnfree

Par dessus toutes choses, soyez bons. La bonte est ce qui ressemble le plus a Dieu et ce qui desarme le plus les hommes -- Lacordaire

Cygnus

: Many of those people there, who call themselves Christians, were HAPPY at the notion of people loosing their lives!

: The lesson was CONTROL through FEAR.

I hear this a lot. JESUS would never have said what the Watchtower says! The Watchtower is so inconsistent!

Well, actually, Jesus did say some unpleasantries, and had some inconsistent behavior. He said that if your eye makes you stumble (i.e., keep you from following me), rip it out, for it is better to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with one eye than to go into fiery Gehenna with both. Jesus said that cramped and narrow is the road to life, and few are finding it, but many go off into the broad and spacious road to destruction. Jesus said that no one could be his follower unless he picks up his own torture instrument and hates his own soul. Indeed, he must hate his brother and sister and father and mother before he could be a disciple. Jesus called one of his best friends a "satan." He said that he who is not for us is against us. He told his disciples to get a couple of swords, then when someone used one to defend his Master, Jesus got all upset. He treated Pilate as if he were some sort of complete idiot ("you yourself said it", mockingly).

Paul said and did some nasty things, too. In Acts 13 someone goes to engage Paul in a debate about Christianity and Paul, enraged, invokes the power of the Lord so as to blind the man. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul greedily and vengefully calls upon the fiery destruction of all who "do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."

Christianity has always been about Us vs. Them. Who lives and who dies. I'm not saying that that's wrong. I am saying that criticising the Watchtower while saying that JESUS was better than that is probably not accurate.

ozziepost

G'day CornerStone,

Seems to me..... they showed APPALLING timing with this drama.

What of the effect on the kids? Here in Oz our government has arranged for grief counselling in all schools. They recognise the trauma our kids have gone through by seeing the terrible events on TV. That's the world for you!

Yet what of the WTS leaders? If "the worldly leaders" can show compassion, you'd rightly expect much more from so-called "true Christian" leaders of the WTS.

Cheers,
Ozzie

"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous

Room 215

Hi all,
It makes me shudder to contemplate that these nuts in Brooklyn expect nothing less than to be the sole source of input to the flock.
They may be too crafty to put it in so many words, but it's more than alright with them if JWs never read a newspaper or a magazine; so much the better to imprint their narrow, warped worldview on their flock.
I know of several Circuit and District Overseers who boast of never reading the newspapers.

SixofNine

Hope you don't mind Cornerstone, but I used flash photography while reading your post. Deal with it.

Watchtower "drama" last Sunday.

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