Excerpt from my novel: chapter on DRAFT BOARD review.

by Terry 25 Replies latest jw experiences

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  sooner7nc

  Good job Terry! I found it fascinating considering my fathers background. It kind of makes it easier to forgive his bad traits.
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  freydi

  I've often wondered what's worse from the standpoint of Caesar; not registering for the draft or refusing to be inducted if your number comes up? Anybody know? Can you imagine Jesus registering to be drafted into the Roman Army?
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  lalliv01

  Son, what if everybody believed the same way you did?" "There would be no wars; I can assure you of that. No wars; no Draft Board and we wouldn't be sitting here today." Dante relaxed suddenly, feeling he had finally scored a point. Yet, he was troubled by what had just been said by the attorney. Culpepper wasn't having in one-ups by this smart kid. "What I mean is...what if only Americans believed just as you do and the Communists knew that?" "Then, America would finally be the Christian nation it claims to be That thought made me chuckle. If all of the U.S. were JW's, then they'd be all over the communist, and fascist, world, knocking on their doors and driving those people crazy. If they got sent off to prison, or the gulag(s), so what, just more territory ripe for the preaching. I know Fidel can't stop them, in or out of prison. I felt Mathis came out a winner, at that stage of his life, in this particular episode. Was there no pinch of doubt in any of the board's members minds after that meeting? I suppose there really is no way for Mathis to have known that. You're doing good Terry. lalliv01
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  Terry

  Good job Terry! I found it fascinating considering my fathers background. It kind of makes it easier to forgive his bad traits.

  Which bad traits would these be? (Curiousity is killing my cat.)
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  Terry

  I've often wondered what's worse from the standpoint of Caesar; not registering for the draft or refusing to be inducted if your number comes up? Anybody know? Can you imagine Jesus registering to be drafted into the Roman Army?

  I've read alot about this very subject over the years.

  The Romans considered Jews to be a special case when it came to conscription. They were very thorny to deal with even in the best cases. They were pretty much left to themselves.

  But, early Christians DID often serve in the army! Some didn't. The interesting thing was this. There was never just one monolithic group called Christian. Like today, many different splinter groups called themselves Christian without agreeing about anything with other such groups.

  The fact which struck me the hardest was that there never was historically a CHRISTIANITY in the way Jehovah's Witnesses portray it. There was never a ruling body for Christians. There was never an ORGANIZATION for Christians. This is a myth of JW manufacture.

  People were people and also Christian to whatever extent their personal opinion made them.

  This is most evident by the time Constantine called a council together in 325 C.E. to get an orthodoxy.

  The men (bishops) who showed up were cantankerous, argumentative, wooly and opinionated wackos!

  So, Christianity is not what we like to think of it as. That skews things, don't you think?

  Here are some contemporary facts: In the 60's during the Viet Nam war 5,000 draft age men turned in their draft cards rather than be conscripted. These were protests. 200 thousand men were accused by the Federal Government of being Draft Offenders. Of those, 25,000 were indicted. Of the 25,000 8,750 were convicted. But, now get this---of the 8,750 were convicted ONLY 4,000 were put in prison!!
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  Terry

  I felt Mathis came out a winner, at that stage of his life, in this particular episode. Was there no pinch of doubt in any of the board's members minds after that meeting? I suppose there really is no way for Mathis to have known that. You're doing good Terry.

  My draft board conversation is practically word-for-word what I remember from my own Draft Board meeting. The little details, of course, have faded. That is another reason I had to make this a fiction novel. I just can't remember everything and I didn't want to resort to fictionalizing a "true" account.

  But, what you say is my own conclusion as well. Nobody has their mind changed by these encounters. Each side retreats into their own foxhole of conviction.

  Looking back on my "performance" before my own draft board I thought I had given a "good Witness" and shot myself in the foot at the same time. I should have merely presented myself as a mature, spiritually aware person trying to do the right thing. But, being a JW--I was more there to spar and land blows. How stupid I was!

  Thanks,

  t.