So we had our book study last night. We are nearing the end of the insane Revelation book. You know, the one that the Watchtower says is 100% symbolic except for that bit about the 144,000 chosen ones? Yeah, that one.
We got to the part where Jesus (here represented clearly as a sun deity) destroys all of the wicked and then he invites carrion birds to feast on the corpses of the people that he has just wasted. Our book study overseer (I hate that word; It makes me think I am a slave on a southern plantation in 1789) continues to go on about how children should be baptized at 12 or 13 because if they wait too long they will be "bird food." Yes, he actually said that. Of course, it was followed by a bunch of "Mmm-hmms" and so on from the other people in the study.
Someone commented and made the worst analogy I have ever heard in favor of pre-teen or early-teen baptism. She says that she heard a circuit overseer say that if they are old enough to choose what TV shows they watch, what kinds of clothes they wear, what kind of video games they want to play, then they are old enough to choose which god they are going to serve.
What the hell? Choosing which god to worship and agreeing to sign your life away forever to a human organization are two completely different things. How can you compare making a choice between Pokemon and Sonic the Hedgehog to dedicating your life to a religious group?
What is wrong with these people?
Furthermore, if Revelation is meant to be symbolic (except for those lucky 144,000), then one would also have to assume that the bird feast is also symbolic. The Revelation book doesn't shed any light on that bit, though. Mostly because it doesn't make any sense.
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