playing the part

by aoxo 10 Replies latest jw friends

  • aoxo
    aoxo

    anyone ever give a demonstration at the assembly's? like a life experiance or something. i did a couple of times, something stupid like how i placed mags at school or something like that. anyway, at the rehersal the CO was there and showed us how to stand and look at the audience and stuff, but the realy stupid part about it was that he wanted be to elaborate or exaggerate certain events in my experiance so it went along with the talk that was going to be presented with the demonstrations. i forget what exactly i was talking about but remember looking at him and saying, "but it didn't realy happen that way." the elder that picked me out of the cong. to give an experiance just put his head down in embarassment as the CO diligently tried to explain to me how it did and that i should use that for the part. but of course it was up to me to do so (hint hint). i eventualy gave in and said what he wanted to me say. i wonder how true anyone's part at the assembly's were or in the awake mags for that matter. an example would be the countless stories of little witness children heroicly witnessing to teachers and other students- turning a good majority into bible studies. i just don't buy it...

  • ninja
    ninja

    hey mate reading your name puts me in the mood for a beefy drink... not bovril....the other one

  • greendawn
    greendawn

    This org thrives on lying and manipulation and is well capable of inventing stories to promote its agenda it's all so much like a marketing tactic to push their products more efficiently.

  • AlmostAtheist
    AlmostAtheist

    A CO bragged to me and several others at dinner once, about this very thing. He had a pioneer sister giving her story; her car died, she couldn't afford another one, so she was going to stop pioneering. Then she decided to try to get rides from others in the congregation instead, and thus continue pioneering. "And you're still pioneering today, isn't that right?" "That's right, Brother Whatever." That's where the experience as delivered from the stage ended.

    The REST of the story goes that shortly after she told him of her plan (which she never tried to actually implement) someone GAVE her a car. SHE wanted to tell the assembly about it, but HE told her that it was a better "more upbuilding" experience without the gift. So he had her leave it out.

    Thus, every poor bastard sitting in the audience thinking, "My car died! At last, I have an excuse to quit pioneering!" had the rug yanked out from under him because sister twenty-something was able to pioneer (apparently) without a car.

    I can still recall the smug look on his face as he recounted this lie. So very proud of himself.

    Dave

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney

    Good topic, aoxo. I think I was about 17 years old when I gave my first experience at an assembly. It was a distortion of what really happened. I said that I had turned down opportunities for scholarships to go to college because I didn't want to be "corrupted" by worldly philosophies. What really happened is that one of my former teachers really insisted that I go to the local community college and talk to a counselor. The advisor I talked to saw my high school test scores and said that learning a trade wasn't for me. He suggested certain organizations that could help me find scholarships to help me pay for college. The people in the audience were left with the impression that I had courageously passed up on a scholarship to go to college in order to pursue the kingdom interests. The reality was that I was never offered such a scholarship. We rehearsed in front of the District Overseer and he loved it. He didn't try to figure out whether we were being completely honest or not. In fact, like you, I noticed that the encouragement was to "fib" a little to make it more interesting.

    Not long after that, a Bethel speaker at an assembly went around the brothers to ask for any who might have had extraordinary experiences. Someone led him to this crazy guy that was an MS in our congregation. The guy gave the Bethel speaker a hell of a tall tale regarding his past. During the Bethel speaker's afternoon talk, he brought up that brother specifically by name and shared his experience with the entire crowd at the assembly. Those of us that knew the guy really well knew that he was full of it. This got me thinking that if this particular outlandish experience was at best an exaggeration, perhaps not all of the other experiences I had read and heard about were true. I could go on and on about "exemplary" brothers or "exemplary" families that were chosen to give their experiences that in reality were far from exemplary, but I don't want to highjack your post.

  • aoxo
    aoxo

    go ahead i love hearing this stuff...

  • aoxo
    aoxo

    oh hay i got another one. my mother is a little korean lady that still to this day doesn't know enough english to write her own talk. she gave a part (many parts) where she demonstrated how someone with her lack of english can pioneer and still have bible studies. little do they know that my sister writes her talks because mommy is just not smart enough to do it on her own. and the only reason she has so many bible studies is because its fun to have a little oriental lady come over your house to talk to you about the bible in broken english. till this day not one of her bible studies has taken to the truth.

  • juni
    juni

    Good evening fellow cheese head! LOL

    I've heard of this from others too - embellishing parts for the assemblies.

    It's sooo hypocritical..... one of the reasons I left. A lie is a lie.

    Juni

  • penny2
    penny2

    I also told my experience at a CA about pioneering without a car. I said if I had a car, I wouldn't be able to pioneer. In my case, it was all genuine - I really thought the Big A was coming within the next couple of years and nothing was more important than pioneering. I was dirt poor.

    Eventually the need for clothing and transport took over. I got a fulltime job, my licence and a car.

  • Bumble Bee
    Bumble Bee

    I think there is only a tiny "nugget" of truth in those "experiences"! The rest is all propaganda.

    BB

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