by zeb 4 Replies latest social current
It seems in some countries brothers subject to military call-up can accept non military service instead but in others as in Korea they regularly go to jail.
Are they offered alternative service in Korea ?
In the book "I wept by the rivers of babylon" by Terry Walstrom, the author gives clear insights into the ever changing wts opinions on this matter at least in the US.
Can anyone enlighten me.. please?
At one point (around 1984 I believe) the Watchtower Organisation accepted alternative service provided it was under a criminal conviction.
So if I am convicted as a criminal I can accept to do work with the aged the demented, clean up streets or whatever but i can not by their teaching and covert advice opt for that first? Curious. I recommend the book for any adult to read especially if they may be or know someone who is 'in' may be facing conscription.
WatchTower reasoning is a self-contradiction. They sometimes give reasons but they're not reasonable.
The organization is a kind of BRAND and the devotion of its members when it comes to persecution
is exploitation as advertising.
Now that I'm much older and the internet exists for purposes of research, I see my previous vulnerability.
Nobody in my congregation gave me proper advice or apprised me of my legal rights as such.
The Overseer and assistant (today it would be presiding Elders, I suppose) took me back into
the back room (library) and carefully cautioned me NOT to say to any law enforcement or legal authority
that I had been given ANY counsel at ALL by them. I was to emphasize I had reached my conclusion on my own. In other words, "Theocratic strategy" otherwise known as lying your ass off.
In 1967, unbeknownst to me, many provisions of the law were open whereby I could have been given alternate service without prosecution. I wrongly believed it was a cut and dried inevitability I would be sentenced to prison no matter what.
To refuse to comply is what makes the JW legally without foundation and open to prosecution.
Those Elders deliberately instructed me to refuse and that was definitely illegal. (Also, immoral.)
To spend two years working in a civilian hospital helping people should be a privilege and a natural Christian action in contrast to wasting away in prison. It makes little sense to appear so unreasonable before a Judge and bull-headed defiance only enrages authorities.
The fact of the matter is this: the law did not require Conscientious Objectors to even believe in God at all!
The C.O. only needed to have firmly held convictions to become exempt from prosecution AS LONG AS the C.O. complied by working in an ALTERNATE venue named by the Federal Authorities (which, I remind you, we are in "subjection" to according to Romans 13.)
From the G.B. point of view (the only POV which matters) it's much to be preferred that young JW boys make an example of themselves as extremely conscience driven and willing to be "martyrs" in a kind of spectacular proof that we have the only true religion.
Holier than Thou is the correct expression, I would declare.
I was only 20 years old and not legally an adult. I was sentenced as a Youth Offender. My sentence was one year longer than the adult sentence maximum. (Adult offenders: up to 5 years, Youth Offenders: up to 6 years.)
Judge Leo Brewster, District Judge, gave me an INDETERMINATE sentence of "from 6 months to 6 years" depending entirely on the prison parole board (which convened every 6 months.)
This is especially scary to a 20 year old!
Why?
The uncertainty!
Being at the mercy and whim of 4 strangers who may well be prejudiced against you is terrifying.
You can't kiss their ass or you are a pathetic sell-out.
I was stone cold when it came to that. Pissed off, really.
After 3 parole denials - I softened my demeanor without compromising. However, I made it clear that it made no sense at all to me to be punished for being conscientious!
Where is the logic of expecting me to REFORM when that reform would mean denying my deeply held beliefs?
I think I was finally able to get that one point across. I was sentenced in 1967 and began serving my indeterminate sentence. I was paroled in 1969. I spent my 20th, 21st, 22nd years in Federal prison.
I was sexually assaulted while praying for help to Jehovah. (**Spoiler Alert**) There was no help!
I never received a single letter or card from my congregation or members.
My best JW friend only visited me 2 times.
My mom and step-dad visited me regularly.
My JW girlfriend and I were engaged to be married and she began dating about six months after I went inside.
My "Brothers" outside pounced.
When I was finally paroled and attended my very first Kingdom Hall meeting in 3 years - not a single JW asked me how it was in prison! This amazed me.
Zero curiosity? Wow!
One Brother called my stint in prison "JW college." That hurt my feelings.
I wasn't inside the Kingdom Hall even 5 minutes before the presiding Elder came to me with a Full Time Pioneer application form -ALL FILLED OUT, and he handed me a pen to sign.
Another kind of coercion! His son was Pioneering and needed somebody to keep him company.
I felt used. Duh.
Anyway ...
All that is a long, long time ago.
I wasted some of the best years of my life. That's all I can see it comes down to being: LOSS.
Thanks for sharing you story, Terry. My father was a CO also. Watchtower, Inc was and continues to be run by a bunch of a-holes and their attorneys.
