Convention badges worn at Wal-Mart

purplesofa

Last night I was at Wal-Mart with a friend of mine.

As we were going in .......I saw a group of people with convention badges on. They seemed out of place on a SAT evening, dressed in suits and Christian attire.

I could not help but think that they just had two days of their spiritual feeding and the superior feeling that comes over JW's at that time. The leaving of the convention out into the world.

Here I was, feeling "worldly" .......I felt a tinge of guilt go through me for not being at the convention. A wave of fear, panic and shame. The witnesses would say I have not been listening to my bible trained conscience.

My friend and I were only there to check out some cd's and look for cables for a computer ....killing time......enjoying time.

I find that because I have learned about love, and looking into a persons heart, what a person wears no longer influences my thoughts as to whether a person is good, or christian, bad or whatever.

These people stuck out like a sore thumb........the rest of us all in summer clothes......casual,

Anyway, I am over feeling badly.........but what is the point of wearing badges to Wal-Mart? I wear a badge for work and I take mine off when I am out publicly.......when i get off work the badge goes off.

purps

Effervescent

They revel in their seperateness...

It seems so many Witnesses love nothing better than to stand out in a crowd as if to say- "Look at me, I'm different, I'm better, I know something you don't know".

Personally, I hated standing out like that, and hated wearing the badges everywhere. I didn't feel superior... just weird.

Dismembered

Greetings Purps,

Just more of the same "Hey you bad bad world, look at me I'm a true worshiper" As well as the strutting peacock, and the "Tarzan" chest beaters attitude. No matter what they say it's all meant to be in your face. If only they realized how infantile they look.

I remember being at a seafood restaurant years ago with one of those example setting "elders" and his family. There he was eating lobster, wearing a suit & tie and of course donning his watchtower bragging badge, all in the hopes of "sowin' a seed". Like the waits-staff cares. What a twit.

Dismembered

DanTheMan

but what is the point of wearing badges to Wal-Mart?

Cuz the Society tells them to. One of the endless little tests to determine whether JW's are being truly submissive to the Slave.

I think that every JW, to a greater or lesser degree, has a KH face and a work/home/leisure face. Wearing a convention badge for 3 days straight forces them to keep their KH face on for said time span.

So I think that the main reason for the Reminders™ to wear their badges 24/3 that appear in the annual Behave at the Convention! Kingdom Ministry articles is that the WTS wants to keep JW's in KH-mode for 3 days straight, in order to augment the intense indoctrination, which is the whole point of the conventions.

... "In paragraph 5, we're given some instructions about our badges. Would anybody like to comment on this? Sister Smith?" "We should wear our convention badges at all times, including during travel to and from the convention site". "Ok, next paragraph." Ah, the memories....*gag*

sspo

I was always embarrassed to wear that badge excpecially outside the convention, always trying to comply and look spiritual even when it was not natural.

Wordly Andre

How stupid, they just wore them to stick out, because in their crazy minds they were thinking that they could count this as preaching to everyone at Walmart.

looking_glass

Cuz the Society tells them to.

That is absolutely right. My mother said that when she and her GFs all go to the assembly they are encouraged to put them on the minute they get dressed and keep them on until they go to bed.

The other thing that I thought was so interesting, is that the assemblies they are "discouraging" people from leaving the assembly hall during the lunch hour. According to my mother at one of the places she went to (she does not go to the one she is assigned because it is not the best for people with disabilities) there was a parking attendant that asked her why she was leaving during the lunch hour, when everyone had been "encouraged" during the assembly not to leave and come back because people arrive late and distract other people. Blah, blah, blah. My mother was not feeling well and needed to leave, so all she said to the guy was "are you preventing me from leaving?" and he said no, so she just left. Talk about Big Brother watching you.

Robdar

They wear the badges as a conversation piece so that "worldly people" will ask them about it. Imagine their joy and anticipation at getting a chance to randomly declare the good news. They probably count the time in Walmart as "incidental witnessing".

free2beme

I would feel like, and look like an idiot wearing those in Walmart.

Highlander

I never did wear a badge.

I was embarassed to be seen with those that did wear a badge, so there was no way I would ever put one on myself.

Convention badges worn at Wal-Mart

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