No, this isn't about the Dean Koontz character Odd Thomas, but those books are a good read!
This is about another, different fictional character, albeit not quite so engaging as the one imagined by the very talented Mr. Koontz.
This Odd Thomas was described in yesterday's WT article, “Of Whom Shall I Be in Dread?”, July 15, 2012, p. 25 para. 12. Here is his story:
12 Or imagine how Thomas, an unbaptized publisher in Sierra Leone, must have felt. He started working as a teacher in a secondary school, but he could not receive his salary for nearly one year until the paperwork was final. What was the last requirement Thomas had to meet before receiving his salary and back pay? An interview with the school administrator—a priest. The priest explained that the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses were not compatible with those of the institute. He insisted that Thomas choose between his job and his Bible-based beliefs. Quitting that job and forfeiting nearly a year’s salary, Thomas found other work, repairing radios and mobile phones. As this and numerous similar examples show, fear of privation may be the object of other people’s dread, but it is no match for our well-founded trust in the Creator of all things and Protector of his people.
Now there are several problems I have with this particular "experience". First of all, it is clear that the WT Thomas is being set up as a good example of "trust in the Creator of all things" and therefore worthy of our imitation.
And yet he is described as a teacher in a secondary school. Now I've never been to Sierra Leone and so I don't know what the credentialing process is there (I am a credentialed High School teacher in the U.S.) but it's pretty clear that for someone to be qualified to teach at a "secondary school" that person would have to at least have a Post Secondary Education. This is what is commonly known as "Higher Education," a thing that is slammed regularly in WT literature. In fact, HE gets a dressing down only four paragraphs later in the same article! WTF? (There is an interesting analysis/commentary on THAT paragraph here.) People that pursue HE are not exemplary by current WT policy.
Can't these guys even get their own agenda straight?!?
Let's move on. Can anyone here explain to me why anyone would work for an entire year without getting paid? I mean seriously! Who would do that? Why would anyone do that? I can't think of a good reason. Anyone smart enough and educated enough to be a teacher certainly wouldn't. Anyone dumb enough to agree to such a thing wouldn't be qualified to teach a rock to stay put! And what kind of school would ever require a teacher (or any employee for the matter) to work for a year for free?
This whole "experience" is just ridiculous. Someone on the WT Writing Committee must've been smoking some mighty good shit before they wrote this nonsense. 1
Next, what's going on with WT Odd Thomas working at a school run by a priest? Doesn't he know he's not supposed to do that? Priest = Babylon the Great! Now I know Mr. OT is described as being just " an unbaptized publisher", but in my decades of experience as a JW any and all "unbaptized publishers" here in sunny SoCal would be vetted enough to know better than to take a job at a school run by priests. It's basic. You just don't do that! But then again, WT Odd Thomas was dumb enough to agree to work for a year for free so he's obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Which brings me to my final point parallel to the last, why is it that the priest needed to explain to WT Odd Thomas that "the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses were not compatible with those of the institute"? Really? Ya' think! Again, how could OT work their for a year and not know that? And why didn't any of the local elders point out this glaring conflict to our boy? Didn't any of them know where he worked, for a year? Anyone? Apparently not. Way to Shepherd the Flock of God guys!
I guess things are different in Sierra Leone. The priests know more about JW beliefs than the publishers and the local elders.
Seriously, this "experience" is just so incredibly ridiculous on so many levels it's hard to believe that anyone could have written it, let alone actually considered it for publication in the WT, the Official Journal of JWs. And yet there it is. How odd, how very odd.
Rather than Odd Thomas of the Watchtower, I think a more appropriate name would be Idiotic Thomas.
I'm just sayin' is all!
00DAD
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1 - Did you notice the sentence fragment in the middle of the paragraph?
An interview with the school administrator—a priest.
That wouldn't have gotten by even a Middle School English teacher. What's going on with these guys at WT HQ?