LostGeneration:
Ah yes... poor Mr. Spinks.Semi off topic, but anytime I hear "lands" now regarding JWs, I think of Angus Stewart
Love how he cracked on the witnesses with a smirk on his face over their stupid usage of "lands"!
He made things more difficult for himself by trying to deflect the question to how many 'lands' rather than defining 'lands' as he was actually asked.Q. I notice you use the word "lands" rather than "countries". Can you explain that?
A. I should know my geography better. How many lands are there in the world, Mr Stewart? How many countries? I've got an idea --
Q. I'm not here to answer your questions, particularly such difficult ones.
A. I apologise. You have asked me the question. I'm not certain how many countries there are in the world and how many lands, but it's simply - yes, I can't answer the question, but --
Q. What is a land? When you say there are Jehovah's Witness congregations in X number of lands, what do you
mean? Do you not mean countries?
A. It would include islands, so I think that is probably - it is probably not a significant point, but it would be 239 different islands or countries. I didn't write it. I'm not certain what it means.
Q. So you don't know why the language of "lands" is adopted by the Jehovah's Witnesses rather than "countries"?
A. Well, I don't think we refer - we use "islands", so whether there's some --
Q. Indonesia, for example - is Indonesia one land or however many it is, a thousand, lands, however many islands
there are in Indonesia.
A. No, you've got me, Mr Stewart. I couldn't explain. I don't know the reason.
Maybe they should add a section to the Correspondence Guidelines™ for when someone asks what a JW 'land' is.