Although the Society disavowed Puritans for their doctrines, sometimes I felt I read in the articles an undercurrent of admiration toward them. In many ways, the WTS strove in the same way toward a religion they felt as 'pure' as possible, and in doing so, stripped away all that was human and heartfelt. But as puritanical as the Concept was, there were always those in the various congregations that went the extra mile, either in word or deed.
Sometimes during the question-and-answer studies, individuals would voice really bizarre sentiments that went beyond official doctrine. Some comments really made me cringe sometimes, especially when I could only imagine what an outsider might think. Oftentimes it was because they misunderstood the own doctrine at hand. Case in point, one "sharp" lady said this in a comment: 'The holy spirit caused Judah to fornicate with his daughter-in-law.'
Once, after a series of off-the-wall comments, a conductor said, "Whew. There must be a full moon tonight." After which, a friend of mine started calling such expressions, 'Werewolf Comments'.
Of course, such comments aren't confined to microphones, but espoused in everyday speech, or in actions. Most believed themselves to be 'highly principled' persons and it has for the time, turned me off of those who espouse 'principles', at least where it seems to mean a personal rule to be carried to the extreme, without any sort of 'reasonableness clause'. Sometimes the 'principles' allowed bizarre contradictions. For instance, one such extreme elder refused to have any part in singing Puff the Magic Dragon, but had no problem at karaoke with singing the Elvis song 'Blue Christmas'.
Here are a few more lycanthropic incidents:
A lady that proclaimed the since microwaves were 'an unseen force in operation', they were 'of the Devil'.
A lady who, to the CO, decried the consciences of those who were buying plasma televisions, 'with all the blood and all'.
When a pioneer was asked if her and her husband planned on having children, her reply was, "We would not want to grieve the holy spirit."
Another lady said, "Having children only gives the Devil a stick to beat you with."
One person believed that basically the holy spirit flowed from Brooklyn, and that the further you go from it, the less spiritual a congregation was, because these congregations didn't adhered to the rules as closely. (Apparently I could only garner he believed that the holy spirit followed the inverse square law like gravity or electromagnetism.)
When I mentioned the Tetragrammaton, one person said they wanted "nothing to do with that". Apparently they confused the words Tetragrammaton and Pentagram.
While in service with an elder and a DO, the DO gleefully related a story about a prominent person in the Society who transferred from the UK Bethel. Upon asked to make a comparison with Brooklyn Bethel, he said that in the UK there was "less riffraff." I noticed the elder frowned at that.
One elder was very rulebound. In field service, he said that the brothers needed to obey the rules, because during the Tribulation many brothers wouldn’t and would lose their lives. (So much for a 'great crowd') He basically said either a person should follow Jehovah to the max or you should follow the world to the max. All very nice field service 'encouragement'--worthy of Job's Three Comforters.
In one congergation, a man was diagnosed with cancer and was given six months to live, but he beat the odds and lived for years (and hopefully still is among the living). However, instead of rejoicing, one lady in his congergation decried the fact that he wasn't pioneering in the remaining time he had left.
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Of course, I could go on, but I'm sure others here have much more than I to contribute!