"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts "
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There is a marvelous Greek word for what an actor does in a play as he assumes an identity other than his own
and proceeds to affect behaviors which convince an audience every word and deed performed is the gods' honest truth.
Do you know the word?
THE word is ὑποκρίτης (hypokritēs) from which we get HYPOCRISY.
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We can quickly see there has been some damage done to the reputation of Actors over the millennia!
Should an audience begrudge Sean Connery for convincing them James Bond is a spy to be reckoned with?
Hardly!
Audiences are grateful for the gravitas a fine actor brings to their own suspension of disbelief.
But--while we're on the subject of DISBELIEF and HYPOCRISY . . . let us attend to the Topic Subject, shall we?
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There is a religious denomination which is only 1 of about 41,000 Christian denominations.
I speak of Jehovah's Witnesses.
What sets these people apart is largely the history of their ὑποκρίτης as exemplified by their personal integrity.
What do I mean?
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REMEMBER THIS SENTENCE:
A PERSON willing to suffer for a belief has more credibility automatically by virtue of his deeds.
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The logic of this is readily demonstrable.
Would an actor playing the role of Joan of Arc allow herself to actually be burned at the stake?
Certainly not!
If an actor did this (on purpose) we would not be convinced of their acting so much as convinced of their mental instability!
We expect an actor TO PRETEND.
Sane persons draw a boundary line between pretending and real life.
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DO NOT.
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Joseph Rutherford (President and governing body leader)was trained as a lawyer and served as a stand-in Judge. Rutherford knew a court case often required the testimony of WITNESSES.
The Greek word for WITNESS is:
μάρτυρες, MARTYR
Rutherford sought to create Witnesses by making his religious followers Jehovah's martyrs.
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If the members of the religion he himself named (Jehovahs' Witnesses) were willing to suffer and die
the hypocrisy would be convincing (the actor would become the role) and the religion "proved" true.
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Were these "actors" witting or unwitting witnesses?
They spoke not their own words.
They assumed the role scripted for them by the writing committee of the Watchtower Society.
By naively and ignorantly embracing the script and the role they traded their personal INTEGRITY for martyrdom.
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Parents stood over dying children and refused blood transfusions convinced this was the role of a lifetime.
This stand was taken on pretext of FAITH. In reality, it was hypocrisy.
Why?
It came from a script to be acted.
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The natural love a parent has for their own child was squelched. How was that possible?
The affectations of integrity meant approval by their community of fellow believers. The "audience" from whom
they sought applause.
Without that applause, their role was over and the play would close.
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There were brothers and sisters from 1917 forward who faced being tarred and feathered, going to prison, concentration camps, execution and many other forms of public scorn as martyrs (witnesses).
Their script was in the Watchtower and the books published by the WTS.
All they suffered was seen as INTEGRITY and that INTEGRITY rubbed off on Rutherford's religious invention the way a celebrity spokesperson rubs off on a product.
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When I was 20 years old, I was given my script.
The part was a role I didn't quite understand. I only knew it required I play the role to the best of my ability.
I traded my integrity for applause and got a nasty surprise!
Giving up my physical safety and two years of my young life (age 20 to 22) instead of claiming my legal
alternative to the Draft (Vietnam War) I unnecessarily endangered myself to become a martyr.
Why?
I was given my script. It was the role of a lifetime.
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How many unwitting witnesses (martyrs) embrace the role of INTEGRITY and martyrdom by
assuming affectations of integrity and other steaming piles of Poo--to be accepted by
their religous community and leaders?
The delusion quickly wears off.
Why?
No credit is given.
You aren't a hero. You get no Brownie points.
There are no parades or celebrations and no awards.
You soon discover you have traded integrity for a GREAT BIG NOTHING but feeling like a fool.
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Sooner or later you lose what you sought to gain and nobody is there to give it back to you.
That is the real role of hypocrisy in the end.
You are treated as a hypocrite, but you are called an APOSTATE instead.
THE IRONY IS COMPLETE!
By refusing to live as an actor you become labeled as one.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts . .
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