by moomanchu 32 Replies latest jw friends
Keep trying to get to your meetings remember the sister who walked 2 hours one way to feast at the spiritual banquet , or the bro who crossed crocodile infested waters to get to his meeting.
Anyone remember any other guilt trip inducing illustrations?
I remember hearing lots of stuff like that, like brothers walking through "bandit country" in places like Colombia every Sunday just to make the meetings, despite neing threatened by drug runners and the like. They always seemed to be followed by a reminder of how blessed we were to live in a country where such dangers didn't exist. Then came the exhortation to make it our goal to be at all the meetings, unless we were on our death bed.
As you said, illustrations specifically designed to induce guilt.
How about the one where a brother decided to skip the meeting, and went out for a walk. In the course of his walk, he got caught up in a mob.
The police came during the riot, and they grabbed the brother. He protested to the police "but I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses!" and they told him if he really was, he would have been at the meeting and not out with this mob, because they knew there was a meeting that night.
That was in a 1980's yearbook, but I don't remember which one.
The reason I remember the story, is because I used it during "Announcements" to open the service meeting one time.
Warlock
"if elder brother fullofhimself, who requires a wheelchair and two attendants to get him to the platform can be here to berate you, there is no excuse for you not being here to be berated".
ok, this isn't a quote, but it is an interpretation of an actual statement about an actual person who is actually full of himself.
Alligator infested waterways always seemed to feature prominently in these tales of super human effort to attend meetings. Its got to be kind of a let down to go through all that trouble, risk your very life to be present at Jehootie's dinner table, and then get served up the same old watery gruel.
Wasn't there some experience about an African woman with children who had to brave alligators crossing a river and then had to paddle her canoe through the ocean for two days to reach a DC? Or did we make that up here? LMAO! I can't remember any more.
How about the one where the Witnesses are in some country somewhere that is torn by sectarian violence, and they are stopped at a checkpoint. The guys with guns ask the Witnesses who they are. They say "Witnesses dude!" And so he's all like "fine, what was the daily text this morning?" And they're all "oh noes, we didn't read it yet" and so they get shot on the spot.
That one is great! It's "attend meetings" PLUS "read the daily text."
OHHH i have a good one!! This was told at a circuit assembly.
A brother with a large family, was tired from work, long summer day and was just too tired to go, so he let his little girl continue to ride her bike since it was still light.
A car ran over the child, killing her. The father had guilt so bad , thinking if only he would have made the extra effort and just gone to the meeting instead of " taking it easy", his precious little girl would be alive today.
When I heard that , I cried and felt sick to my stomach and was literally afraid to miss a meeting for fear that would happen to our family. Looking back I can not see how they could USE that family's tragedy to brainwash and control people, that is just sick.
nothing like the banquet of well oiled dishes and wine kept on the dregs (Umm,dregs.)
Great comments, made me laugh, but I still remember sitting there hearing this BS and feeling
This is what really cracks me up. Living in a cold climate the elders cancel the meeting if there is 2 inches of snow on the ground, don't want to get a fender bender in the beamer you know. That sister in Africa if she loses a leg to the crocs she still got another one, riiiiiiiiiight.
I never truly bought into those stories. After a while, I would openly say I didn't believe them at all. Nobody else did, either.
