by passwordprotected 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I once had to give an experience at an assembly of how I was persecuted at school for not saluting the flag. And how I stood up for my beliefs.
Man! That just brought back memories...I supressed. I remember two parts and one part being about not saluting the flag...the other about witinessing in school while being persecuted. None of that s*** really happened....I was just good in the hall at the time and they used me to say all of that crap!
I literally had dozens of these type parts at CA, SAD and DCs over 15-20 years or so.
A lot depended on the CO or DO you had. With some of these guys rehearsals could be VERY stressful - especially those who wanted everyone to give a positive spin on their experience. The "lets never hear a negative word" C&DOs were a pain in the ass.
But there was a golden era when, after I'd done enough to be completely trusted, I got away with keeping things real in all my parts and interviews. And guess what - the friends LOVED it! Trust me - a lot of JWs find the Pollyanna experiences hard to swallow. Many, many times friends have complained to me about wanting to gag at the hokey experiences!
During the golden era, we had a CO or two (Frank Hans in particular) who trusted this one other elder and I with doing most of his rehearsals for him. We worked well together, and we'd get into these rehearsals and hear these totally scripted, stiff interviews or experiences. We'd listen carefully, and then, after it was over and the participants had relaxed, we'd just ask them a few questions, and get these totally great, enthusiastic, honest answers and expressions.
"THAT'S what we want to hear on the platform!" we'd tell them. For a few years the quality of the assemblies really improved.
I also had a cool experience in one of my first CA parts. I had to interview a handful of people, and arranged most of the stuff over the phone. One person I interviewed was a VERY attractive young woman, late teens or early 20s (hell, I was in my early 20s when I had the part!). Well I was pretty nervous, and honestly didn't notice that the girl had quite a short skirt on. Somehow that skirt also made it through the elders who checked us out before going on stage.
Well, standing up there on the stage made the skirt seem even shorter, and it caused a bit of a stir. Afterwards I was talking with the CO about it, a cool guy. He told me, "Don't worry about it. Trust me, half the audience might have thought the skirt was too short, but the other half was going, 'Yeah! It's about time!'"
S4
i have a personal experiance to share on this topic. many years ago my in-laws were interviewed for some dc part - i'm sure as an example on raising kids. well, they have 5 kids, oldest being by husband. he and i were inactive at the time, but there at the convention. when asked how many children they had, they "forced" my mother-in law to say "we have 4 children at home". i think that was the last convention my husband attended.
I had that happen. I was told what to say, how to say it and my experience was totally distorted.
It happened to me at a District Convention. A script was provided to us and we rehearsed it as if it was our own experiences.
I felt a little weird about doing it. I expressed my thoughts with the elder in charge of the part. He told us just to think of ourselves as actors filling in for the ones who really had the experience.
He did reassure us that these things had really happened....Just not to us..
Once there was a sister in our KH that everyone envied. She had the biggest house, the nicest car, and a rich ubm. She pioneered. She was asked to get up and talk about how she can be faithful to Jehovah and still be a model wife, etc. Not too long after that, she discovered her rich ubm had been having an affair for five years with his assistant at work and he left her. She felt like a fool, because she'd had no idea and was standing up there as an example of a successful JW wife while her husband was off with a woman who actually had time for him.
Now she's remarried to a dirt-poor man who is PO and they live in a trailer. Her ex-ubm is a millionaire. How the mighty have fallen. I've always felt sorry for her.
Seems like they're shooting themselves in the foot wanting people to be dishonest. Don't they realize that a lot of the rank and file are sincere and that lying will be a big turnoff?
I had a nice one !
I was approached about giving an experience on how I have been coping with depression and anxiety. I was seen as someone encouraging and that it would be good to relate my experience as many struggle with this condition.
I said sure !
I wrote down on a peice of paper that I have visited many many Dr's and that it took a while before I found the right Dr and the right medication. Went through about 5 different types of antidepressants till I found the one that helped me the most. I also started therapy session with a proffesional psychologist that specializes in a treatment called (CBT) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. It had helped me control some of my negative and self-defeating thoughts and to think more realisticaly in terms of my condition which helped immensely ! I also wrote that changing my diet and excercising regularly elevated my mood and that I also needed to make sure I was getting quality sleep ! Another thing that helped was reading Depression based self-help books that explained a lot about the condition and ways in dealing with it.
When I met with the brother to go over my material there was a blank look on his face !
I think he wanted me to say something along the lines of prayer, study, attending the meetings, scriptures etc where what is supposed to help.
Well I was already "doing" all of this and it didn't help cope with my depression.
Seeking and accepting proffessional help is what was keeping me going....
Uuumm....yep....OK.....
It was priceless !!
When I was in high school I was interviewed for a part in a circuit assembly. I was supposed to say how rotten things were in school, etc. So I was talking about the little snots at my school and everything was fine, until we had to rehearse for the DO. He told us to try to make things more "Hard Copy" (His words. This was sort of the forerunner to the Maury Povich show at the time). I was like WTF, I go to a tiny country school. The vo-ag students track cow crap into the hall and it's a big deal. What do you want me to say? I ended up making up some story about how one of my teachers wanted to kill me for being a JW or something.
I had 2 of my family members give personal experiences at the conventions, trouble was no JW in charge wanted an negative matters mentioned in it and only a positive out come even if it wasn't positive. They weren't even allowed to tell the entire truth just as so many here have mentioned.
Ruth
This is a funny thread. I dreamed of having one of these parts and even lobbied for it with an elder (who never went out in service but gave the CO a lot of money, thus he was given a part), and he let me give an experience. I totally made it up, but now I can saw I've spoken in front of 2,000 people.
