I heard on the news that the funeral at Forest Lawn was to be in line with Katherine Jacksons strong religious beliefs as a "Jehovah"s Witness". I can't help but think that every elder in the L.A area (secretly) wanted that gig!!! I agree---it's great publicity for them. I wonder if Brother Prince and Sister Serena&Venus Williams will attend?
Why doesn't the WT just make a statement of MJ's standing with them?
by purplesofa 19 Replies latest jw friends
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insearchoftruth
Good idea mrsjones!!! This is one time I am glad to be at work (and I stay late on Tuesdays, my wife is making her son do a bible study on Tuesday afternoons....yippee.......)
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OUTLAW
Purps..The WBT$ is run by the legal department on matters like this..The WBT$ will probably enjoy the Publicty and say Nothing..
They won`t offend the JW`s that did`nt like MJ.....And.....Any advertising is good advertising..
A Win-Win situation for the WBT$
............................OUTLAW
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Waffles
Why don't they make a statement and put to rest any of the public's confusion on his JW ties?
Because it makes too much sense. Come on now, we're talking about the people who believe they are woshiping an invisible dude in the sky by giving away magazines.
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insearchoftruth
From the Washington Post - an article by David Waters
Michael Jackson's Sabbath Rest
He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, he married a Scientologist, and his brother wanted him to convert to Islam. Whatever sort of religious adherent Michael Jackson was in life, or whichever faith's customs follow him to his grave today, it's clear he never found what he was looking for -- although he did see glimpses.
"What I wanted more than anything was to be ordinary," Jackson wrote in 2000 in a fascinating personal essay for Beliefnet. "So, in my world, the Sabbath was the day I was able to step away from my unique life and glimpse the everyday."
Those glimpses must have haunted Jackson for the rest of his anything but everyday ordinary life. There are indications that Jackson "disassociated" himself from the Witnesses in 1987. In its report on Jackson's death last week, the official web site of the Jehovah's Witnesses , referred to him as an "Ex-Jehovah Witness." But the church of his childhood never left him.
"When I was young, my whole family attended church together in Indiana . . . When circumstances made it increasingly complex for me to attend, I was comforted by the belief that God exists in my heart, and in music and in beauty, not only in a building. But I still miss the sense of community that I felt there -- I miss the friends and the people who treated me like I was simply one of them. Simply human. Sharing a day with God."
Maybe that's what attracted Jackson to the Jehovah's Witnesses and, later in his life, to Islam. As distinctive as those two faith traditions are, there is one interesting similarity. Witnesses and Muslims reject the traditional Christian doctrine of the Trinity -- the belief in a triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) -- as a form of polytheism.
In our polytheistic culture that worships mere mortals, in many cases because of their God-given abilities and talents, a man who is treated as a god and lives as a god deep down must know there's only one true God -- and it's not him.
Whether Michael Jackson will be buried today as a Muslim, a Jehovah's Witness or simply as a child of God, may he rest in Sabbath peace.
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POSTSCRIPT: "Sundays were sacred for two other reasons as I was growing up," Jackson wrote in 2000. "They were both the day that I attended church and the day that I spent rehearsing my hardest. This may seem against the idea of 'rest on the Sabbath,' but it was the most sacred way I could spend my time: developing the talents that God gave me. The best way I can imagine to show my thanks is to make the very most of the gift that God gave me."
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besty
like on child abuse settlements, silence will be their best friend - most people (not JW's - the other 99.9% of the planet) don'tt know he has any connection with JW's and the WTS would rather not feed the media circus with more fuel - there is nothing in it for them to draw attention to the fact that an extremely weird former member has died.
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JeffT
The WTBS doessn't like drawing attention to individuals in any circumstances. Even a funeral is about the Borg, not whoever they're burying. I've been out for a long time, but I don't recall seeing anything that my be considered a public statement from them about Prince or the Williams sisters.
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conoroberst
Why would the WT make a statement on an x-member (albeit hi-profile) who publicly left the organisation 20 years ago? Can you imagine Presbytarians, or 7th day adventists, saying Mr x just died, 20 years ago he used to be of our faith, but he left 20 yers ago? I dont think so, thats even if you ignore the privacy that is supposed to exist between clergy and congregation..
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purplesofa
Of course, conorberst, point taken.
purps
BUT, we are not talking about other religions, are we?
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betterdaze
Those glimpses must have haunted Jackson for the rest of his anything but everyday ordinary life. There are indications that Jackson "disassociated" himself from the Witnesses in 1987.
In its report on Jackson's death last week, the official web site of the Jehovah's Witnesses, referred to him as an "Ex-Jehovah Witness." But the church of his childhood never left him.
That "official site" the article links to is none other than... apostate Rado Vleugel's The Watchtower Information Service! Mwa ha ha ha ha! You'd think the Washington Post would have better fact-checkers.
But it now appears someone else picked up on it. The paragraph has since been edited to read:Those glimpses must have haunted Jackson for the rest of his anything but everyday ordinary life. It's not clear if Jackson ever "disassociated" himself from the Witnesses, but church of his childhood memories never left him.
Too funny!
~Sue
