Having endured three days of dashing attempts at further indoctrination, I feel the need to write up some of the stuff I left with. It is just good therapy.
Right away the change was noticeable in the air. The Assembly Hall in La Feria, TX still smells like new. It was only built a few years ago. On top of that you can deduct a whole year from its life, as it wasn't used AT ALL during the summer of 2014. I can relate the story on that and its implications but only by popular request. Despite its modern construction, I guess Jehovah's chariot is moving way too fast for the bro's to keep up with. The hall was built with technology in mind as it was retrofitted from the very beginning with two relatively large projector screens on the side of the stage. For this assembly, the two screens, roughly 8x4 ft in size, were covered by even larger, portable type of screen about 12x8 ft in size. Also, two much larger projectors were setup to light up the screens. Since this seems to have been made as a last minute addition, they were not hanging from the ceiling. Rather they were setup on foot stand, between some of the seats and 3 rows of seats around the projectors were blocked off, so that people would not seat nearby the block off the light. This had "we are going to video indoctrinate you just as we planned for our website" written all over it. Videos, off course, were not the only thing. Even the program schedule has been fancied up with color and pictures.
The above was one of the hallmarks of the assembly. No matter how deep you are into JW land, you could not fail to notice the change. Most saw it as a good thing, off course. There were videos of all sorts being played every 30 to 45 minutes. Simple bible verses like "you are the salt of the earth" were played on video after a few remarks from the elder giving the talk. Salt being collected, salt being cleaned, someone salting food...salt, salt, salt, salt everywhere. As if people did not get it before. It was almost humorous to see them even play a static photo of Jesus showing the Jews the coin with Caesars picture on it. Look at his attitude and how he directed them to look at the coin, said the orator.
After the first lunch break, on Friday, we got to see a music video showing brothers recording the music in NY. It was funny to hear the talk right after on how this people have to pay for their own trips twice a year to record. How hypocritical of them. The local CO can not cut the two little patches of grass he's got. Brothers have to do it for him as well as cleaning the place inside.
Friday afternoon they interviewed a sister from my hall who has a son that left the JW six years ago. She proclaims to be of the anointed. She suffers from depression and has attempted suicide twice. From where I was seating, I could see her backstage as she was either wiping tears (before starting) or actually irritating her eyes to make it more believable. Long story short, she was interviewed as an example of someone who was suffering and found strength in prayer. She was not interviewed as an example of how someone returns because of the shunning. Her kid has not returned. But I know her and I know she does not fully shun the kid so I kinda lost any respect I had for her. Her husband is an elder and is the rule making, legalistic to the bone type.
The worst vomiting inducing talks were on Saturday, especially in the morning. They spent quite a bit of time talking about the Pharisees and their rule making. I could have replaced "Pharisees" with "Governing Body" every time and the talk would have fit them. I am sure I had a spike in blood pressure that day. This is where the first part of the most important video of this assembly was played. It was titled "God made him lord and Christ". Here is where I have to insert a pause in my writing and tell you that overall, the tone of the assembly was directed at crushing doubters and further driving those that may have been mechanically following the basic ideas but have made no effort to further their own indoctrination. The video plays a character who pretends to have been an eye witness to the angels announcing the birth of Jesus and also witness to his entire life. He goes on to explain how one may think it would have been easier to believe everything since they had heard the angel's announcement. He goes on to explain how even in front of so much evidence, his faith had to be re evaluated from time to time. From the perspective of this character, no matter how convinced we are that Jesus was the messiah, we can not take it for granted. The most cultish part of this whole video, was the subtle introduction of one question that had nothing to do with the theme of the video. No one noticed off course, but the the train of questions were like "How do we know that Jesus was the one? How do we know he had the truth? How do we know Jehovah's Witnesses has the truth? How do we tell at what point he became the messiah?... and so on and so fort.. but you can see how subtly THE ONE question was introduced. The funny thing is that a bunch of other questions were asked during the video, but the one question was only asked once at the beginning and once at the end when all the questions were answered. I believe this video was crucial and, while unfortunately I was not able to record it, we as a community need to find it and pick it apart because it the biggest piece of doubt crushing and brain washing media ever produced with adults in mind. It also portrayed Jesus as a regular man who did not know he was the special until he was actually baptized, making it seem like it would be normal for anyone to doubt him. It also portrays a bit of him as just another "dude" who you could probably hang out with and have fun. During one of the parts, where Jesus takes the word and begins to explain something, it was probably considered too long and it almost seems like they speeded up the playback, kind of like certain you tube videos are accelerated to save time for the viewer. It made it look cold and robotic.
Sunday we saw the last half of the above video and the other highlight was a talk by a Bethel heavy who used the story of Peter walking on water as another way to question doubters. Peter was doing fine until he decided to look around and the storm made him doubt... doubts, doubts, doubts and doubters are bad... for the convenience of the GB that is.
Another last thing to highlight was the irony displayed close to noon, when the public talk was given. It was openly admitted by the speaker, that such public talk was directed exclusively to guests that were not JW. Inviting curious bystanders to study the bible with JWs is tradition during special and public talks at assemblies but doing so along with a talk directed at newcomers is news to me. They concentrated on making sure that everyone understood that JW do believe in Jesus. The question was put fort after asserting that some people think that JW don't believe in Jesus. The ironic part was that right after the public talk, we did the watchtower summary and different brothers took to the stage to make comments. You know which WT study I am referring to. "Trust Jehovah". When someone leave Jehovah, a wall is raised between that person and his family, commented a sister. What would those that attended the public talk would have said now?
All and all, I think the tone of the whole assembly was... doubters, you are bad. Doubts will kill you, you have so much evidence that you are in the truth.
Newcomers, we are cool and hip. We got cool videos and movies and unlike what you've been told, we do believe in your Jesus. We don't worship him, as you may have seen in the video (the Jesus in the video was very quick and swift to lift up anyone that kneeled to him) but we do believe in him. I think that overall this is the reaction of a religion that is on the downside and fears the worst. Never have I've seen such an attempt to be attractive from the part of this religion in my years of being in.
