When I was in BeFFel, I was asked to stock check their collection of magazines, going back to their first uk prints. They wanted room and so asked me to throw out all but 2 copies of every magazine. The irony was, this was the loft space, it was huge and empty and they didnt need the room. Either way I sat there and did it, bored to hell. (I think back now as a trainee doctor and the face palming is a real stinger)
Anyway, I had a laugh at the odd articles I saw and read, as I went through the last 100 years, I saw how their attitudes changed and altered. In the 90's were topical issues and are you ready for the end bullcrap, 80's everything was bad and evil, the 70's were boring and very doctrinal (i.e. biblical prophecy etc) in the crappy looking 60's magazines discos with big afro'd black women dancing in them (pictures were all one colour-green or orange) were evil and dance music was from Africa, satans tribal beats were nothing less than a means to make people have sex. there were plenty of articles on music and discos etc in that period, then as I went back the articles and magazines became more sparse. The older ones I paid not much attention to as they just seemed odd, i remember rading about vaccines being evil etc in one magazine.
By far the most confusing and bewildering were a bunch of articles on...... the EVIL OF ALUMINIUM. I know right.... ? Hmmmm... This actually had a huge impact on my belief, because I imagined myself back in that time period as a JW, swallowing the crap. They said it caused cancer, that it was evil that it was satanic all this weird crap. I sat there in the new millenium, in a building full of alluminium, in a world full of alluminium thinking WTF ? How did this come from God?
I would love to see those articles again. Anyone have any idea when, where they were? In my minds eye it was a really really old magazine, possibly Zions WT etc.
They are so out of touch it is unreal, it has not been pruned away either. It only takes a quick glance at literature from a few years ago to see articles denouncing the internet as Satans new web (reference to a scripture about satan catching people in nets---- nets are simiar to webs )
I remember being warned by an elder for having the internet as a public talk had said 99% of the internet is porn... its actually 4 %. But facts dont matter and the fact that elder has internet now is irrelevant, or that he uses the internet to send the congs stats to bethel every month. Satans web.... how very useful (despite the porn).
I remember showing a sister from the hall the watchtower web site, she refused to believe me that is wasnt apostate as the internet had clearly been labeled as evil. I showed her the front of the WT mag, inside cover, where they had the address in tiny small print.
But none of that matters..... ( I have family that still refuse to have the internet).
Anyways, thats my daily grumble. Aluminium.... my shiny metal ass.
Snare x
