The week of 9/11 I fell out with JW's who insisted that JW's working in the towers didnt go in that day as they were all ill from catching the same illness.
whilst in bethel a little comic was going around taking the pee out of these stories, it said that a missionary was sent to Australia, to reach the farmers that live out in the bush. Whilst on a train, he was discussing the 'truth' with a train passenger and gave them a tract. The passenger took it but threw it out a window.... It landed in the pocket of a kangaroo's pouch. The kangaroo was killed by the local tribe of aborigines, who found the tract and all became special pioneers.
We had our little giggle. About 6 months later, a slightly altered version was being said in talks as a real story. The bethel sent out a letter about not repeating stories that are not first hand accounts or verified or verifiable.
Regarding the 'sister Paine' comment..... We had a sister 'Pratt'....... an elder known for his fluff brained comments and ideas, though super nice, pointed at her and said "yes sister...P..P.....P...Prick" he knew it was a dodgy name beginning with P and we all saw his brain ticking. We laughed obviously.
I heard the diamond thief/house burglar/rapist story many times, with him hiding under her bed, listening from her wardrobe whilst she, read from her bible/ had a bible study/ performed a family study.... Etc etc etc... I heard it first as a child in Twickenham District Assembly 1991.
Iheard the one about the sister who was at the bus stop/ answered her door to the serial killer/ rapist/ escaped prisoner....but he made an excuse and left. When he was later caught after killing her neighbours, he was asked why he had not killed the JW.... Because of the men stood behind her...
I was a child and my parents fed me this crap, it scared the crap out of me. It breaks all rules of nature, rape and murder is bad enough but now there are spirit creatures in the picture,, stood over your shoulder.... Yikes.
i think the world has changed a lot since then. Even films back then look silly and childish, these stories would sound ridiculous now. The world is growing up. Instead of this nonsense, the WT now claim to be the first in disaster zones. Or the nonsense claim that David Attenborough in his latest wildlife documentary said he could not deny life had to be designed by a creator (though he is an ardent atheist). That one annoyed me because I own the box set.
I was present at the start of another story that circulated a little. I helped refurbish an assembly hall in the UK. In one wall I was there when we found an old theatre program that was covered in pictures of devils etc. It was advertising a film or a play that had once been performed in the venue. Iwas actually there when it was found, it was incidental, it was insignificant and it was binned. A few weeks later people were saying demonic images were hidden in the wall and that is probably why Jehovah had the refurbishment done. I remember thinking "its JUST ink on paper, it means nothing." We also found old page 3 images in our KH roof repair, a smutty joke no doubt, that took place when a 'worldly' roofer came and fixed our roof in the 80's. Again, the damage to the roof was doubtless due to Jehovah wanting those images off his roof. This befuddled me, all those years, there were pictures of naked women in our Kingdom Hall roof, that god didnt do anything about, but apparantly he made the universe and was pretty strict on this kind of thing.
Not all of the world has grown up it seems...
snare x
PS. the biggest eye opener is meeting so many different religious people at university and hearing these EXACT stories from them too. I kid you not.
