I am about 2 days late and at least $2 short to the party, but here is my story.
Who forced me to go?
Well, I forced myself…Why? The “keep your enemies closer” thingy…
First off, a brief background. Mrs. is a successful fader – her last KH attendance was the 2010 Memorial. Thing is, she is a fader moreso for convenience, than for any other reason. She doesn’t like the time commitment, having to get dressed up, drag the kids, etc. On the other hand, both of her parents (father Elder and a mother reg. pioneer) and her grandmother, to which she was very close, have passed away and I can see how it’s difficult letting go of the hope that she will see them one day. So wifey is a fader, but an unstable one…
Fast forward to Sat. morning. Her phone rings and, I guess no caller ID or whatever, the elder’s wife she “studied” with gets a hold of her. After the pleasantries, elderette asks the usual BS: “Where you have been, we’ve missed you, people are asking for you” blah, blah…Mrs. Says: “I’ve been busy with kids and life, etc.” OK please come to the memorial. Now Mrs. has to go. I don’t have to – never been a JW and knowing what I know, I don’t want to go.
But….
There is NO WAY in hell, I am sending Mrs. in for an indoctrination session, without being there to try and keep up with the mind control tactics.
Here are a few points of interest from the “experience”:
1) There are 5 elders in the congo, each one of them more than capable of doing the service, and I have seen them do pretty god job – not on contents, of course, on delivery – articulate, engaging, etc. The speaker this year was from Wallkill. Here is the kicker – he shows up wearing a bow tie. A FREAKING BOW TIE!! I have attended about 10 memorials over the last 15 yrs, few DCs, few CAs, bunch of meetings, read some watchtowers, flipper through Awakes – never did I see even ONCE an exemplary brother with a bow tie….to top it off, the joker was not the most literate speaker I’ve heard – transposed letters a bunch of times (as in “aks”, stumble, forgot the name of the congo, etc.).
My take - it was arrogance. He was different, he was from Wallkill an he made it known throughout the sales pitch.
2) We all know the time allotted for Jesus, vs. the time for Jehovah and the 2 class system. Blame Adam, praise Jehovah (for sending Jesus) and DO NOT PARTAKE. A total of no less than 15 mins was spent explaining why we should not partake. Speaker used a really cheesy “proof” that we are all meant for earthly life, just because we can imagine very well what it would be to live in Paradise Earth. Since the earthly utopia paints a better picture in our minds than heavenly life, earthly hope must be what we are meant for. WTF? Moron, of course we can imagine Earth better, this is the only place we’ve ever lived….
Also, the number of partakers was used to make a point: Last year 18 million attended, only 11,000 partook. See, such a small fraction. At the same time I want to interrupt and ask aloud: "Trend it for us brother, say for the last 4-5 years and explain why is the line going NE, instead of SE". Of course, I can't do that, not with Mrs. and kids by my side.
3) There were numerous comparisons with the anniversary of the Lord’s evening meal to marriage – how special it is that even celebrating once a year it still shows the significance of the event. Later, though, when comparing “exercising faith” (only showing up to the memorial once a year is not exercising faith, according to him), to marriage again, now we are supposed to do it daily, just like one would appreciate their mate daily, not just once a year. OK, you just told me the opposite of what you said 5 mins ago.
And all that marriage talk – the “brother" didn’t even have a wedding ring…I guess he is an expert in marital relations…
4) Salvation by works – his words: “Jehovah REQUIRES us to attend Christian meetings twice a week"!?! Ummm, hello! Scripture, please
5) Joining in will require us to make “adjustments” but the payoff is that Jehovah will erase our sins like “the teacher erases the wrong answer from the black board”. Again, scripture for having to stop celebrating B-days, New Years, join sports clubs, forego College, avoid your unbelieving family and friends, pound the pavement in pairs on your own time and dime, etc, etc, etc.. SCRIPTURES, PLEASE!!
There is more, I don’t want to bore you to death.
On the way out, the elder who was my “study” conductor chases after us and asks how things are, etc. are and I told him “Great! Never been better!” He: ”Oh good” (puzzled look, fake smile, whatever). Then he turns to Mrs. and says almost sternly: “We will be in touch with you later” WTF?! I know what it means, but I really wanted to clock him right there for talking to my wife like that, I wish it happened at a bar..I would have been downtown posting bail…
So, I guess Mrs. Has opened herself for an “encouragement” session – I don’t like it, but I may be able to somehow use it against them. It is for me to figure out. I love her so much to let her get sucked back into the cancer.
I may be asking specific related questions at a later time.
I know you are technically reading, but thanks for hearing out my ramble.
-Yan