Part 1 : http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/social/entertainment/178888/1/Armageddon-The-Aftermath-Chronicles-1
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The In-Gathering
I suppose you could say that since the economy was in total shambles and the flu wreaking havoc, the circumstances played right into their hands. There’s no way I would have sat home for 22 days if I had had work. But everything had gone sour; not just for us, but most of the nation was in the same predicament.
My grandfather had been a clockmaker and so was my father. As there wasn’t much demand for this in my generation, I started out in watch repair and later, jewelry repair also. I had steady work for 18 years with a reputable company. I also built grandfather clocks on the side, in my spare time.
Work started getting thin about two years ago. But the last eight months were the worst. There weren’t enough customers coming in to warrant the rent and expenses anymore and the company folded. I took a job with another dealer, but when I was asked to switch stones in the customer’s jewelry and to use gold plated when they were being charged for gold, I couldn’t do it. I used to think God would reward me for doing right. I don’t believe in God anymore, but I still have a strong sense of morals regardless of any reward. Just because I won’t cheat and lie to keep my job doesn’t mean that God will protect me from being thrown on the street when I can’t pay the bills.
When the brothers first came to advise us to quarantine ourselves, they mentioned that Jehovah had a plan for his people and that the Ferral Discreet Slave would be making some arrangements. They mentioned all the years and all the time cards my wife and I had turned in. Something just sort of clicked and by golly, I felt this fraud Jehovah did owe me for all that time I put in! Really, I did begin to feel that the organization that knowingly deceived me owed me some compensation. We were at a financial point where we needed help and I wasn’t going to say no if there was an offer on the table.
My strong sense of morals told me that I should get out even now; cut my losses and be done. It was a very difficult call; I rationalized and agonized over all of those thoughts. Having been mistaken for one of the faithful did give me an inner connection so I could alert my ex-JW friends as to what was really going on. Plus, my family was everything and they were still wound up in it. I could not ‘to my own self be true’ until I could free them as well. That was a moral responsibility, too. This was a compromise that made me sick.
Sly predators always seemed to get the upper hand when they caught people at a vulnerable time. It wasn’t anything I had against the elder’s personally. It was the way the organization worked. There was an evil psychology behind the way the elders had been taught to sway people. The witnesses fell into the hypnotism and spread it. They themselves may not have even realized it. Lou Belle and I got sucked in when we were going through the darkest days of our lives.
We had another child who died when he was 9. He was walking a canal pipe with his friends when he slipped and fell 30ft into the swap below. He was a very good swimmer, but there was a lot of tangling vegetation below the surface of the water. The thought of alligators probably never crossed his mind. His body was never recovered. A month later, while we were still in deep grief, the Witnesses knocked on our door. There was something comforting in the resurrection fantasy. We wanted to believe and so it took root. The more we leaned on those stories for solace, the more they became a reality to us. A rational mind would never accept some of the things that can be planted in the mind of a grieving soul.
I suppose we did not question other far fetched or impossible teachings because, should we find any mistakes, it might shatter the most precious one of resurrection and Paradise Earth. That was the only thing we hoped for with all our hearts. And for the most part, we believed their major teachings and knew they were right about the paganism in other religions.
Even when we heard things we did not agree with wholeheartedly, we tended to tailor them to our own beliefs. Like for instance, Armageddon and the destruction of the wicked. Yes, I could smile and be happy about that. My idea of the wicked were those people who were thugs and murderers, pedophiles, thieves, people whose only thrill in life was to torment or bully others. Hell yeah, I would be glad to see those kind of people gone. I wouldn’t miss them one bit. And yes, I would smile when Armageddon came and be very happy about it. Why would anyone not want to see the world rid of people like that?
But as the organization began to teach that anyone who was not baptized into their group would be killed at Armageddon, I just sort of let it go. I did not believe that and was sure that God would correct them later. You can imagine my surprise as they became more and more dogmatic about it, finally acknowledging that yes, there are many good people out there, but Jehovah will not save or approve them if they are not in His organization.
I tried to talk to Lou Belle about my concern over this. “Jehovah knows what he’s doing,” she said. “He is directing all of this and we just have to trust him.” She wasn’t the same girl I had married. She had lost her ability to rationalize or question. She had lost her spunk and independence. She had even lost her sense of humor.
We had sold ourselves into slavery for a fantasy.
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The brothers drove us to the local hall where we were rushed inside. Many of the Friends were already there. One elder checked our names off of the list and another escorted us to our seats. Everything seemed gently coerced, I mean, there was no freedom to walk around to speak to folks or seat ourselves at leisure. We were led everywhere and in polite terms told, without using words, where we would sit. Why had we always gone along with this? Why had we never gotten up and moved elsewhere after being seated? Why had we not ever refused the lead ...the touch on the elbow, or the blocking body language? It had all been so subtle and no doubt each one had had “special elder’s training” in these controlling moves.
No sooner were we seated than the last of the arrivals could be heard in the foyer. The PO took the podium.
“Thank you for waiting patiently, brothers and sisters. You know, we could have sung a few of the Kingdom Melodies while we waited, but we don’t want anyone to miss a single opportunity to be a part of praising Jehovah. Just like Jesus we will look for the last sheep till we find him. You sisters don’t serve dinner until your husbands and children are at the table. And likewise, we don’t eat from Jehovah’s table until all the sheep are safely inside.”
I could feel a Maalox moment coming on even before this fine food was to be served. I just wanted to leave right now. Just grab the wife and kids and say ‘let’s go.’ That was a fantasy, too. My entire mind had been given over to fantasies and it had all started with one!
I was drifting in and out of my own thoughts, and catching bits and pieces of what the PO was saying. I still had not heard why we had packed our suitcases nor where we were going. The closest explanation we were going to get was something about “provisions courtesy of Jehovah and being gathered under one roof.”
Our PO, Elder AGBM, was such an alarmist. He must have watched every newscast till his eyes were bloodshot. Now he was talking about the flu killing everyone. He spoke with excited exclamation, getting so worked up he would be almost out of breath with gleefulness over the disastrous news.
“One thouuuuuuuuu sand, two hunnnnnndred, and sixxxx-teee four reports of flu this week! Just in this state alone!” With a few lessons in toe rolling, he could have made a good television evangelist. This man just seemed to thrive on bad news. Sick puppy, but you had to admit he was entertaining in a macabre sort of way.
Some of the people were from other congregations; I didn’t know them all. I looked around for familiar faces. Sister Cognac and her husband wasn’t here. None of the Sisters with infants or very young children had been included. Sister Mouthy was missing. All of the older ones were missing, as a matter of fact. What could it mean? All the adults in attendance were between 20 and maybe 45 years old. My daughter Clarise was probably the youngest child in the room.
Had we been cherry picked? Had they split up the various congregations to include people we did not know in order to create a diversion?
Brother AGBM was becoming animated again. His eyes grew wide, bigger and bigger. His voice took on a spooky tone like he was telling campfire ghost stories.
“Jehovah’s angels are encamped all around us,” he said as looked over his shoulder; first to the left, then to the right. You could be certain he would tell a tale next week of how he had seen one of Jehovah’s angels with a flaming sword. What’s worse, these people believed every word of it. They were under a spell. The god-spell.
Amidst frowns, I left my seat and went to the back of the hall. Two elders guarded the exit. I walked over and they blocked the door.
“Something wrong, Brother Cam?” they asked.
“I just need some air,” I said as I pushed past them to open the door. As I took a few steps out, I saw a small U-Haul van leave the parking lot. There were two elders closing the trunks of a couple of cars.
One of the door guards came out and stood beside me. A white bus pulled into the parking lot. It was as big as a school bus, but fancier. It was custom. And across the side, painted in gold letters, “Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses”. A church bus! My mouth fell open, and the brother beside me smiled. “Shhh. Don’t spoil the surprise!”
Fact is, the real surprise was that all the suitcases had been taken away in the u-haul. No-one had been asked nor had permission been given. We still had not been told where we were going. There was no opportunity to agree or disagree. Once more there was diversion and coercion. All of our clothes and important personal belongings were in those suitcases. No one really had a choice of changing their minds. It was apparent that no rides would be given back home and no way to get your belongings back. But people would be so overwhelmed and preoccupied with the new bus that it would never register what had just been forced upon them, ever so subtly.
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end chapter 2
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