Jehovah's Witnesses don't take rain check

expatbrit

From the Chicago Sun Times:

-100 baptized = 0.7% of attendance.
- interesting comment on those in attendance being largely African-Americans; presumably in Chicago those deprived of education and opportunity are from non-white groupings (?).

Expatbrit

Jehovah's Witnesses don't take rain check
May 27, 2001
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH STAFF REPORTER
If the 14,000 faithful at Comiskey Park on Saturday had been of another religion, the minister preparing to baptize 100 people in a water tank could have joked that the sudden rainstorm meant everyone would join in the baptism.
But Jehovah's Witnesses believe anything less than full immersion in water does not count as a baptism.
"This is not a sprinkling," Brother Keith Kelle emphasized to those about to be baptized. "Jesus did not go into the middle of the Jordan River to get sprinkled." The Witnesses' message is resonating, especially in minority communities. African Americans appeared to be a slight majority of the diverse crowd Saturday. All of the males, including the toddler boys, wore suits and ties. The women were clothed modestly.
The Witnesses claim 6 million adherents worldwide, with 300,000 new members getting baptized every year. The 14,000 at Comiskey on Saturday--more than attend some White Sox games--came from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. Most were from Chicago.
Part of being a Jehovah's Witness is "witnessing" to others. That means ringing doorbells to bring the faith to sometimes unwelcoming door-answerers.
"I spend about 12 hours a month going door-to-door," said Niera Smith, 21, a student at Malcolm X College studying to be a paramedic. Soaking wet, with a towel wrapped over her shoulders, she said the rain and 54-degree temperatures did not detract from her baptism.
"It was the most beautiful experience of my life," she said. "Jehovah has given me so much, and I just want to show my appreciation to him."
Many attendees carried well-worn Bibles and consulted them often. They take seriously Jesus' exhortations to his disciples to spread his word. Those who can try to spend 70 hours a month spreading the word. They cite a passage urging people to "abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood" to justify their controversial refusal to accept blood transfusions. They call God by what they say is his given name: Jehovah.
Saturday's convention is the first of three planned for Chicago this spring and summer. One will be in Spanish. Organizers expect a total of 51,000 attendees among the three. Another 186 conventions will be held in other cities around the United States this year.

mommy

Expat,
Thanks for posting that. I was baptized indoors, so I never feared the rain. I liked the comment of "Many carried well-worn bible, and consulted them often" If they only knew that they list 100 scriptures so you are so busy looking them up that you forget to think about the one that was just read. How sad we can look back and see, what we could not before.
wendy

COMF

"I spend about 12 hours a month going door-to-door," said Niera Smith, 21, a student at Malcolm X College studying to be a paramedic.

Only twelve hours in service, and yet she's got time to get a worldly education in things that are passing away with this old system! Shameful, disgraceful, that the reporter happened to pick this spiritually weak sister to interview. What was Jehovah thinking, allowing us to be misrepresented this way?

Faithful COMF, caught in a time warp in the 70's

expatbrit

COMF:

Yes, that's an interesting point. (Shit, I sound like a WT study conductor!)

I suspect that this baptismal candidate was especially selected to be the interviewee. The WT spin doctors always try to present a deceptive image of "normality" to the media, hence the student with limited service time.

Expatbrit

MacHislopp

Hello Expatbrit,

thanks for the article.
Another one for the "media "...we know really
the rest.

Agape, J.C. MacHislopp

ozziepost

G'day all,

Doesn't this news reporter write just like a Watchtower Reporter
Note these expressions:

They take seriously Jesus' exhortations to his disciples to spread his word.

Saturday's convention is the first of three planned for Chicago this spring and summer. One will be in Spanish. Organizers expect a total of 51,000 attendees among the three. Another 186 conventions will be held in other cities around the United States this year.

The News Service department at a District Convention prepare News Releases and if, by chance, it's published in a newspaper, chances are it will be just about verbatim and with a Staff Reporter's name as a by-line. It simply illustrates the laziness of the media and its lack of investigative journalism.

Cheers,
Ozzie

Freedom is not having to wear a tie.

Tina

Hi expat,
It must have been a slow day newswise for them to bother to print that press release.....paramedic!!!! not in my day lol,
Tina who only goes to COmiskey now to see the Sox

Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny...."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense,you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."

trevor

Baptism

I was just thirteen years old when I qualified for baptism. It seems very young looking back, but at the time I was aware that to be fully accepted and to be sure of surviving Armageddon, it was a step I had to make. Failing this I would have had to rely on my parent's baptism to count for me.

In my own case, the baptism, which was a happy occasion, took place in a specially constructed small baptism pool built into the floor of one of the Kingdom Halls near where the assembly was taking place. The water was warm and the people present were kind and happy for me. The event brought great joy to the brothers and sisters who knew me. I was warmly congratulated and experienced a feeling of well-being and deep satisfaction that I was pleasing those I loved and dedicating my life to serve God.

It only I'd known the truth!

Jehovah's Witnesses don't take rain check

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