Prince cleans up his act, but his funk remains pure
Providence Journal (subscription), RI - 3 hours ago
... Some of Prince's more notoriously explicit lyrics were cleaned up for this show, a reflection of his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses. ... [excerpt: Prince cleans up his act, but his funk remains pure
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 18, 2004
BY RICK MASSIMO
Journal Pop Music Writer
BOSTON -- There aren't ...............................
Some of Prince's more notoriously explicit lyrics were cleaned up for this show, a reflection of his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses. For example, in "I Feel for You," "It's mainly a physical thing" became "It's mainly a spiritual thing," and of course "I'm your messiah" became "He's your messiah" in "I Would Die 4 U." These were a little jarring, but mainly unobtrusive.....]]
Atlanta Journal Constitution (subscription), GA - 5 hours ago
Vera Hicks of Dallas, Ga., is helped by brothers of
Jehovah's Witnesses to receive her baptism at Gwinnett Arena.
Jehovah's Witnesses ... [excerpt....
Long-term deal looks glorious to Jehovah's Witnesses, arena By
BILL OSINSKI The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/17/04
Can I get a witness? Can I get 43,000 Witnesses?
If I happen to be at Gwinnett Arena on certain summer weekends, the answer is a resounding "Yes!"
| SUNNY SUNG/AJC (ENLARGE) |
Vera Hicks of Dallas, Ga., is helped by brothers of Jehovah's Witnesses to receive her baptism at Gwinnett Arena.
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| SUNNY SUNG/AJC (ENLARGE) |
Jehovah's Witnesses at Gwinnett Arena wait their turns to be baptized. Presentations were more the norm at the convention, though.
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This summer, the approximately 200 Jehovah's Witnesses congregations of metro Atlanta and North Georgia have, for the first time, held their district conventions at the arena. Three meetings were convened over recent weekends; the fourth begins Friday. The overall attendance for the four meetings is estimated by church officials to be about 43,000.
All members of a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation are expected to attend an annual convention. Although the conventions are times of spiritual renewal, the atmosphere is more like a giant Bible study group than a revival.
Much of the convention agenda is a series of presentations, during which many in the audience sit with their Bibles in one hand and a notepad in the other.
"We're one of the quietest, most attentive crowds when we gather," said Jerry Beck, minister (overseer) of a Jehovah's Witness congregation in Dunwoody and the church official who handles convention bookings. "We want our conventions to be meaningful experiences in our people's lives."
On Saturdays during the conventions, there are mass baptisms of new members of the congregations. Typically, those baptized have spent six months or a year studying the tenets of the faith.
The baptisms are full-immersion experiences, conducted on the floor of the arena in large tanks filled to chest level with water.
At last week's convention, more than 90 people were baptized, and at a recent convention for Hispanic Jehovah's Witnesses, more than double that number were baptized.
For the past 20 years, the Jehovah's Witnesses of this area have held their conventions in Macon. But given the success of the recent meetings, church and arena officials are in negotiations for long-term contracts that would keep the Witnesses coming back to the arena in the years ahead.
Preston Williams, general manager of Gwinnett Center, said he expected the economic impact of the conventions to be "substantial." Detailed estimates won't be available until some time after this weekend's meetings, he said, but people who stay in the arena area for most of a weekend would tend to spend considerably more than people who come for a concert or sports event and then go home.
Aside from the financial aspects, the Witnesses are "great people to work with," Williams said. They take care of some of the ancillary chores, like parking, and handle cleanup, rather than relying on arena officials.
For their part, church officials expressed praise for their new convention site. "We love the building, and we love the location," Beck said.
People at the convention were enthusiastic about the move to the arena. "This is awesome. I can sleep in my own bed," said Angela Hardy of Snellville.
Cindy Odie of Lilburn said the convention experience for her was "energizing, like a shot in the arm." Since the individual congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses usually are no larger than 200 members, it's beneficial to come together as a denomination, she said.
"We come together for spiritual food; there's so much that's bad out in the world," Odie said.
The large gatherings at the arena for the four convention weekends are a reflection of the growth experienced by the denomination in recent years, church officials said.
Over the past decade, the number of congregations in the metro Atlanta area has increased by about 50 percent, Beck said.
According to the denomination's 2004 Yearbook, there are more than 16 million Jehovah's Witnesses in 235 nations. Those figures, for 2003, represent an increase of more than 2 percent over the previous years.
Over roughly that same period, the share of Americans who identified themselves as historically mainline Protestants declined from 63 percent to 52 percent, according to a recent study by the National Opinion Research Council at the University of Chicago.
Why are the ranks of Jehovah's Witnesses growing while those of mainstream Protestant denominations are declining?
Beck said part of the reason for the mainstream decline is that many people believe religions are bringing more problems than solutions into people's lives.
The Witnesses who participate in the traditional door-to-door evangelism associated with the denomination seek to help people find answers to problems in the Bible, through personal, one-to-one study.
Jehovah's Witnesses also have beliefs and practices that distinguish them from other denominations, Beck said. They prefer to use God's biblical name, Jehovah. And their core belief is that in the realm of eternity, the kingdom of heaven will be a real government administered by Christ and 144,000 chosen believers, Beck explained. The rest of the righteous will exist in an earthly paradise, he said.
They've found particular success with their personal style of ministry among the growing immigrant communities, as the recent weekend gathering of thousands of Hispanic Jehovah Witnesses at the arena show.
"The missionary fields have come to our doors," Beck said.
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