Sad. Very, very, sad.

by outcast 24 Replies latest jw friends

  • lisaBObeesa
    lisaBObeesa

    I will never forget that day, when I went out to mow my lawn and Armageddon started. That was quite a day!

    At first, I couldn’t believe it. But then when God started smiting people left and right, I knew this was it! I ran joyously into the house to gather up my children so we could start getting ready for the big Post Armageddon party that was going to be at the Kingdom Hall. I figured I might as well start getting them all ready, since it takes forever to get kids ready! How strange to realize that NOW I really would have forever!

    Once the kids were cleaned up and dressed like JWs, we went outside to begin the walk to the Kingdom Hall, and to the enjoy the sites of Armageddon that we had all been waiting so long to see! The kids were excited because we would finally get to see our next-door neighbors, the Mormons, dead. And I was excited because maybe they would have some good stuff in their house that we could use.

    When we passed their house, however, we could see, to our disappointment, that they were still alive. They were watching us from their window, and the father was motioning for us to come in out of Armageddon. HA! Doesn’t he realize WE are safe?

    Once we got to the Kingdom Hall, we were surprised to see no one else there and the Kingdom Hall burned to the ground. Amazingly, the charred remains of the Kingdom Hall had fallen in such a way to spell out the words, “YOU WERE WRONG!” Wow, I thought. That’s weird. I wonder where everyone else is?

  • nelly136
    nelly136

    had this one in my files for a while,

    DIARY OF AN ARMAGEDDON SURVIVOR-
    Michael Pendley [email protected] ..

    DAY 1
    Well, the Big A is over and I survived. I made my way down to the Kingdom
    Hall this morning. By the end of the day, most of the congregation had
    gathered at the Hall. Some brothers and sisters are still missing. Ed
    Thorn, our presiding overseer, told us that those who were missing should
    have spent more time in field service.

    DAY 2
    Brother Thorn called a special meeting this morning. He announced that he
    and the other elders would now be assuming full authority over our new
    community until contact was reestablished with headquarters. All decisions
    regarding community regulations, living arrangements, work assignments, and
    other matters would be at the sole discretion of the elders. Sam Greene
    objected to this dictatorial policy until Thorn pulled out a letter from the
    Society dated several months ago which stated that, after Armageddon, the
    local body of elders would be responsible for all decisions until otherwise
    directed by the Society. Sam voiced no further objections. The rest of us
    also accepted the new arrangement. The first new rule was not long in
    coming – all brothers and sisters were required to report to the Kingdom
    Hall at 8:00 every morning to receive work assignments and other
    instructions.

    DAY 3
    Brother Thorn has assigned me to the burial detail. It seems that most of
    us single brothers have been assigned this unpleasant duty. The dead bodies
    are already starting to get to me. It sickens me to watch the birds and
    other animals scavenge the corpses. I actually saw a raven pluck out an
    eyeball today. Disgusting! Rob Johnson got a bulldozer running and has
    begun to dig a large common grave. My job is to go around collecting bodies
    and load them into the back of a pickup truck.

    DAY 4
    We had our first judicial hearing today. Larry and Sue Winters had moved
    into the McRae mansion in what was once the exclusive Cypress Oaks
    subdivision. The problem was that Sister Thorn had already had her eye on
    the place and, as wife of the presiding overseer, she figured that she
    should have first choice. Brother Thorn told Brother and Sister Winter that
    they had no right to claim anything without approval of the elders. They
    were ordered to get out of the house by nightfall. The Winters were very
    disappointed but they agreed to move out.

    DAY 5
    At the morning meeting, the Thorns announced that they would be moving into
    the McRae place. The Winters were livid, but they didn’t say anything. It
    was also announced that the surrounding estate homes had been assigned to
    the other elders. Position has privilege, even in the New World. Some of
    the brothers have started calling the area “Elder Hill”. It was also
    announced that anyone wanting to appropriate a home must first file a
    request with the elders. I have decided to stay in my own house. It doesn’
    t seem right to move into someone else’s home, even if they were worldly.
    It makes me sad when I go into someone’s house and see the family pictures
    and personal belongings. Most of the others don’t feel this way, it doesn’t
    bother them to loot the dead.

    DAY 8
    The elders announced a new meeting schedule at the morning meeting. On
    Sunday, we will still have the public talk followed by a study of old
    Watchtower articles (until we get new magazines). On Tuesday night, we will
    have a congregational book study. The Service Meeting has been canceled (no
    need for it anymore) along with the Ministry School. They have been
    replaced by an instructional session to be held on Friday night. This new
    meeting will instruct us on how to conduct ourselves in the New World
    Society. The best thing, of course is no more field service!

    DAY 10
    This burial work is taking a heavy toll on me. I can’t help but feel
    saddened at the waste of so much human life. Why couldn't Jehovah have
    found a way to save more people? The children are the worst, I can’t stand
    to see their little bodies anymore. I don’t think I’ll report for work
    tomorrow.

    DAY 11
    I didn’t go to work today. Ed Thorn came by later in the morning and asked
    me why I wasn’t at work. I told him I didn’t feel well. He told me to get
    to work, that everyone feels well all the time in the New World. He also
    told me that depression and mental anxiety were things of the past. Of
    course, he doesn’t have to bury the bodies.

    DAY 14
    It’s been two weeks now. I really miss things like electricity and running
    water. I wonder if we’ll ever get those things working again. Rob Johnson
    and I borrowed a generator from the Hall last night and hooked it up to my
    television and VCR. We had a great time watching some “Star Trek” videos
    and a tape of last year’s Superbowl. I really miss television.

    DAY 20
    Still no word from the Society. We have spoken to representatives from
    surrounding congregations but the elders are not allowing any travel. Carol
    Woods wanted to visit her sister in the next county to see if she made it
    through okay, but Brother Thorn told her to stay put and be patient. After
    all, she would have plenty of time to see her sister later. I think that
    was a cruel thing to say.

    DAY 30
    We finally finished most of the burial work. I am so relieved. The
    scavenger birds are still hanging around. I have grown to hate the sight of
    the fat, disgusting creatures. One of the damn things attacked me today. I
    guess they have acquired a taste for human flesh.

    DAY 45
    Many of the brothers and sisters are getting sick of being bossed around by
    the elders. They run things like an old South plantation, we are the
    slaves, they are the overseers. I have been reassigned to work on the
    communal farm. It is hard work, but it beats the burial detail. Sam Greene
    is organizing a Committee to speak to the elders about some of the
    complaints that we all have.

    DAY 47
    The elders found out about Sam Greene’s attempted “rebellion”. At the
    morning meeting, he was publicly reprimanded and told to pray for a humble
    spirit. No one is to speak to him until he has shown proper repentance. I
    can’t believe that we are disfellowshipping people in the New World!

    DAY 51
    Today a messenger finally arrived from the Society. Wade Peters, a young
    Bethelite, arrived on horseback. He told us that the Society has moved all
    headquarters staff to Patterson after the destruction of New York City. We
    also received the first post-Armageddon Watchtower (now issued quarterly).
    Many of us had hoped that it would contain information allowing us more
    personal freedom but we were disappointed to read that we were to keep
    following the instruction of the local elders until further notice. He also
    gave the elders a copy of a new procedure manual (titled “ORGANIZATION FOR
    THE NEW WORLD”), but none of us were allowed to see it.
    DAY 69
    My best friend got married today in a shotgun wedding! Rob and Sally
    Kennedy were discovered together while engaged in a heavy kissing session.
    Sally’s blouse was unbuttoned and Rob had his hand on her exposed breast.
    After a judicial meeting, Brother Thorn announced that they were now
    married, without a ceremony or anything! Rob objected strenuously,
    explaining that he and Sally had not had sex. Brother Thorn, however,
    declared that the decision was in keeping with the new elder procedure
    manual. Sally seems happy enough but Rob is in a state of shock. I
    remember he once told me that he liked Sally’s body, but thought that she
    was as dumb as a box of rocks. Now he is married to her forever. I’ll have
    to remember to keep my hands in my pockets when I date any sisters.

    DAY 80
    The newlyweds are not getting along. There has been a lot of gossip about
    their horrible spats. Rob confided to me today that he went to the elders
    in an attempt to get the marriage annulled. They told him that according to
    the Society’s new procedure manual, no divorces or annulments would be
    allowed for any reason. In addition, all marriages now have to be approved
    by the local body of elders.

    DAY 81
    Sam Greene was reinstated today. He is still unhappy, but keeps his
    thoughts to himself now.

    DAY 89
    We are all in a state of shock! Rob committed suicide today. I guess the
    idea of spending eternity with Sally was not acceptable to him. The elders
    refused to let us hold a funeral service. I volunteered to bury my friend.
    Brother Thorn instructed me to bury him in the common grave where we had put
    the worldly persons. No one came to the graveside, not even his widow. I
    said a prayer for my friend. I will miss Rob greatly.

    DAY 100
    Life is becoming miserable for many of us. The elders keep placing new
    rules on us every day. We are told we must lead holy lives of service and
    submission. No dissent or discussion is allowed. It seems like we had more
    freedom before Armageddon. I never thought I would be nostalgic about the
    old world.

    DAY 111
    I can’t take it here anymore. I am going to travel to my brother’s place,
    about a hundred miles from here. Traveling on foot, I think I can make it
    in about five days. I wish I could get gasoline for my car. I’ll have to
    sneak out, since the leaders still aren’t giving anyone permission to
    travel. I have stored some food and plan to leave tonight after the curfew.
    I hope my brother is still alive, maybe he will know if Mom and Dad are
    okay.

    DAY 112
    I made it out of town today. I wonder if they miss me yet? The destruction
    in the countryside is incredible. How will we ever rebuild everything”? I’
    ve seen quite a few skeletons already. I guess there is still a lot of
    burial work to do before we build a paradise.

    DAY 113
    I ran into a group of brothers from Westview congregation. I was detained
    at gunpoint! Brother Thorn had gotten word to them to be on the outlook for
    me. I am furious! Why can’t I visit my brother?

    DAY 114
    Ed Thorn and two ministerial servants arrived today to escort me back “home”
    . They were all carrying guns.

    DAY 115
    After my attempted escape and several other disciplinary problems involving
    other brothers, the elders have now set up a gun-toting police force. I
    was, of course, disfellowshipped at the morning meeting. I have been
    assigned to latrine duty.

    DAY 116
    I was instructed to report to the Kingdom Hall after work for “additional
    instruction.” I saw Sam Greene and a couple of other “troublemakers” there.
    We were subjected to an hour of “reindoctrination,” mostly the usual crap
    about maintaining a servant’s spirit and not to think too much of ourselves.
    We were told to come back next week for more of the same.

    DAY 123
    I blew up today at the reindoctrination meeting. I told Ed Thorn that I was
    sick of him acting like a theocratic Hitler. I also told him that I was
    leaving the community and that he better not try to stop me. Big mistake.
    Thorn called his police force in and had me arrested. I am being detained
    under armed guard in a makeshift jail cell in the Kingdom Hall basement.

    DAY 124
    My judicial hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. Sam Greene came by to see
    me. When the guards were out of earshot, he told me that his efforts to
    contact the Society about the local elders had done no good. He had been
    told by the Society to keep quiet and obey the elders without question. Sam
    is very depressed about this and about my situation.

    DAY 125
    My judicial hearing was held today. Ed Thorn acted as lead prosecutor. I,
    of course, had no defense counsel and could call no witnesses. After the
    hearing, which was held in secret, I was judged guilty of being an
    unrepentant apostate. I was solemnly informed that according to the Society
    ’s instructions (as contained in “ORGANIZATION FOR THE NEW WORLD”), the
    punishment for apostasy is death by stoning. My execution is scheduled for
    tomorrow.

    DAY 126
    Well, this is the end. Later today, I will be led out for my execution by
    stoning. I would rather be shot in the back of the head, but the Society
    obviously feels that a stoning provides a better object lesson. If I get a
    chance, I will throw one of the rocks back at Ed Thorn! The funny thing is
    that I don’t really feel so bad about my impending demise. This New World
    Society is not my idea of a paradise and I don’t want to live with these
    people for all eternity. From paradise regained to paradise lost again.

  • LDH
    LDH

    ha ha ha I'm just wondering. Who set up the first aid tent if no one went to college?

    All those evil worldly doctors have been KILLED!!!!!

    Lisa

  • bboyneko
    bboyneko

    Hey anyone ever hear of the body farm? Check this out, it's an armageddon simulator :)

    The air smells sickeningly sweet, with honeysuckle and death. The Body Farm—the only place in the world where corpses rot in the open air to advance human knowledge—sits on a wooded hillside an easy three-minute stroll from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

    NOT EVERYONE COMES HERE voluntarily. The cadaver under the honeysuckle, for instance, had been shot in the chest and abdomen after a drug deal gone wrong 10 days earlier. No one knows what happened to his headless neighbor 20 feet away—a woman found floating last summer in the Tennessee River. William Bass III, 73, the Body Farm’s founder, doesn’t find the scene ghoulish. “I see this as a scientific challenge,” he says, as maggots work efficiently on 20 or so corpses decomposing in the early autumn sun. Then Bass uses a gloved hand to lift a rotting limb.

    Bass realized then just how squeamishness and religious beliefs about the body had impeded hard-eyed study of the process of human decay. He still regards it as preposterous that 90 percent of people studying to be law-enforcement agents have never seen a corpse, or that, until the Body Farm, entomologists knew far too little about the remarkable parade of insects after death: from blowfly to maggot to,carpet beetle. So Bass went to his dean with a matter-of-fact plan: “I said I wanted some land to put some dead bodies on,” he said. “The dean didn’t blink an eye.” A few months later the first corpse arrived.

    Over the years, more than 300 people have decayed on this leafy Tennessee hillside—some in car trunks, others under water, some under earth, some hung from scaffolds. Corpses of criminals whose relatives won’t pay to bury them sometimes end up here. But more than 100 people, many of them academics and professionals, have signed up on their own for afterlife on the farm. “I’m an outdoors person, and it seems like the perfect place to go,” says Roy Crawford, 49, an engineer who manages a mineral holding company in Kentucky. “The idea of being loaded full of chemicals and preserved for no good reason makes no sense to me.” UT tries to keep a generally low profile for the shady glade behind the hospital. Chain link and fencing topped with razor wire surround the two-acre site, partly to keep fraternity brothers—or Halloween cultists—from their midnight rounds.

    Just some of the article, the full thing can be found here:

    .. http://eroosevelths.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~horn/Down%20on%20the%20Body%20Farm.htm

    -Dan

  • conflicted
    conflicted

    OH MY GAWD!!!

    I can't belive I used to look forwad to this. Now I'm depressed - what a way to start Monday morning.

    "They looked like witnesses..." Je... Chri.., what does that mean, they were dressed in 1970's polyester with a blank look on their faces, like they are mentally challenged.

    I never really thought about putting the world back together again afer the "Great War", I just thought Jehovah would take care of it. Typical JW thought process I guess.

    Can you picture it though? Standing around a bonfire singing kingdom songs... How can you be sure they aren't really in hell?

    Hey, it's looking brighter already!

  • Englishman
    Englishman

    This was the bit that I liked:

    "When eyes of blind ones see again and ears of deaf ones hear again,
    When deserts blossom as the rose and from parched ground fresh water flows
    When lame one leap just like the hart and loved ones never have to part
    Such blessed times you'll realise when you keep your eyes on the prize "

    Lovely tune. Straight from Disneys "Snow White", "Some day my prince will come".

    What do you think Mr Music? (Thats Farkel BTW)

    Englishman.

    ..... fanaticism masquerading beneath a cloak of reasoned logic.

  • Stacey
    Stacey

    Ok this story was sick enough. Did you read the replies that a few people wrote in response to the story???????!!!!!!! Someone says:

    That was very intersting, I passed along to several people, it's good to stimulate our hope for the future!
    THE IMPORTANT THING IS . . . MAKE SURE YOU ARE A SURVIVOR!

    Another says:

    LOVED THIS STORY!!!
    It made me think though.

    I am at work and was looking around at my co-workers and suddenly realized that I have to witness more to them or it will be their bodies I find dead.

    A good reminder for us all!

    And yet another says:

    Thank you for this story. I feel so encouraged! less sad and blue...

    WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE WHO FIND THIS STORY HAPPY AND ENCOURAGING????? YUCK!

  • reagan_oconnor
    reagan_oconnor

    Straight out of Stephen King's "The Stand."

    Reagan

    I am the master of my fate/I am the captain of my soul.

  • joelbear
    joelbear

    This is a very interesting thread. Both of the post-Armageddon stories show how different things look when you take an ideal and try to put it into a real day to day context.

    In both cases, the outcome didn't look so pretty.

    Its one thing to beam and cheer about people being destroyed. Its quite another to walk over their rotting stench filled bodies. I always felt this way when watching the Egyptians being destroyed while the Israelites watched. How would it feel to watch thousands of people dying in front of you?

    Reality is never as pretty as the story.

    hugs

    Joel

  • Amazing
    Amazing

    Hi Out: I recall similar stories and discussions when I was a JW. We were so wrapped up in our own survival into the New System that we did not think about the horrible tradegy that billions of people would face who were not JWs.

    During the time I was leaving the organization, I took a business trip, and a side trip to visit with Ray and Cynthia Franz. When I got into my seat on the plane, I started looking around as I normally do. As a JW I would look at all these people and fell pity for them. But, on this trip, I recall suddenly seeing people in a different way. Mom's with children, dad's helping, business men and women, and older retired couples on vacation. They all now seemed like good people, normal people, and poeple I had no business ever judging or pitying. I felt like I was finally back on planet earth, just arrived from some distant and strange planet. It felt good to be human again. - Amazing

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