Johnny and I go back all the way to childhood. We met in elementary school all those years ago. He was a chubby, one-eyed kid with freckles and a coat that didn't fit him and I was a tall and vanishingly thin introvert who wore dress pants instead of blue jeans.
It was not love at first sight. But, it turned out, we were both movie fanatics. We loved horror films and he recognised me from having attended the William Castle (horror director) fan club meeting from half a year earlier at the local movie palace.
We became fast friends no matter how unalike we were physically or in that familial way that often shapes and molds people ever after.
I soon practically lived at his house. He and his family were all Jehovah's Witnesses. That meant next to nothing to me. I had no clue. Everybody but me and my family seemed to have some religion or other. They were normal, happy and healthy people who welcomed me without hesitation.
The weeks, months and years that passed pulled the two of us into that intimate bond of two boys who share the marrow of their bones before, during and after adolescence. We shaped each other. I didn't know where I ended and Johnny began. We talked about everything together from Famous Monsters of Filmland to women's allure and the transitions from boyhood to manhood. Oh yes, and religion!
Johnny never failed to find a religious subtext to inject into my thinking and his questions challenged me. I had no instruction whatever inasmuch as churchgoing was not part of my family life. There was no doctrine in my mental bank account and little inclination to open one.
But, you know how friends are. What is important to them must needs be important to you. A bond begins and ends with affinity; sharing the same reality and communicating about it. I was drawn in to a "bible" study which was little more than a launching pad for a Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained study with freqent bible page flipping and text reading.
I remember how awkward I felt. Here was my peer, my best best buddy, taking the role of mentor and questor and I dropped down a notch to novice. Embaressing it was!
If I am honest with myself I will have to acknowledge I put up a fight; but, my data base was more common sensical than informed by knowledge that might prove useful to debate or counterargument.
I was easy. Before long I was attending the Kingdom Hall. Johnny's parents and sisters were immeasurably supportive, easy to be around and generous to a fault. Steve, Johnny's dad, never failed to drive across town to pick me up in his car to drive to the meeting and drive me all the way home afterward. He may have worked a long and tiring day; but, his enthusiasm for the Truth would not permit his energies to flag. I doubt I ever even offered to pay for the gas!
Weeks, months, years have a way of flashing by. Before I knew it I was standing in a Baptism font and shivering in the water; I was a newly dedicated witness to the kingdom of Jehovah himself.
Fast forward a few million years. Well, let's just say 40.
Johnny remained a JW through thick and thin. I was disfellowshipped. I had married and divorced his sister. She had died in an auto accident. I had moved to another state, California and away from Texas. We hardly ever spoke anymore even before the disfellowshipping.
Then, one day a year ago he popped up and ever since we have been meeting for lunch and chatting. I am his outlet and foray into some familiar resonance humans must have in their real life. I represent something to him he cannot abandon. He knows he should never speak to me---but, he finds room in his mind and heart to justify that somehow.
All that is well and good. Yet, inevitably, in every conversation something religious will come up. I'd say 75% of the time it is Johnny who drops the phrase that starts it. "Being a religious person..."
I never fight him. I don't argue. I offer different points of view. I manage to present the non-approved version of things. As long as I am not outright threatening he is okay. But, sometimes........
Today at lunch we were talking about stem cell research. He brought up the issue of not taking BLOOD. "In my view" Johnny began, "I don't think it is right to take any forms of blood. If blood is forbidden then, that is all there is to it. Blood fractions and all that are just an excuse to get around the issue."
There it was; my opening! If I wait long enough I always have a door open. He had just been talking about how he did not understand how people could object to using human embryos for stem cell research and then took a left turn into the blood issue.
I told him that the prohibition on blood as interpreted by the Society was quite different from the Jewish view at the time of Christ. I explained that Jews regarded all Gentiles as under a different sort of law than their Mosaic law. Gentiles were regarded by the Rabbi commentators on the Torah, as under the "law of the sons of Noah".
I explained that when Paul visited Jerusalem and discussed (argued) about what restrictions were necessary on Gentiles who accepted the Jesus view of Judaism, the local brothers merely repeated the very same items as that "law of the sons of Noah".
I then proceeded to explain to him that "keep away from things strangled" meant don't eat meat that has not been bled. But, the "keep away from things strangled and from blood" meant bloodshed. Murder.
He got very angry all of a sudden! He really puffed up and launched into a tirade. He had only once before taken on that pontifical tone with me.
Over and over I went back and explained to him what I was saying because he seemed intent on refusing to hear the details.
I continued...
"The Gentiles would not need to be circumcised anyway now that the law requiring such had been fulfilled by Jesus. Gentiles were no longer converting to JUDAISM as such. They would remain Gentiles under the law of the sons of Noah and the Judaic Christians would remain bound by special covenant through Moses. Gentiles had been viewed suspiciously in the past, but, now would be accepted into the fold providing they understood how their natural Jew brothers and sisters expected them to behave. If they tried to eat meat that had not been bled or if they had any leftover idols around even as keepsakes or if they got into a situation where they killed somebody who was a Jew---they would be bloodguilty. That Jew would not go to the authorities of Rome--they would take matters into their own hands according to the saying "By man will his own blood be shed".
Then something happened. I could see it happen physically to Johnny. I know him well. He GOT THE POINT! He grew very red in the face. And then he put on a sick smile and said, "I'll have to think about that. I don't agree. But, I'll think about it." Then he changed the subject.
Later I mentioned that the Watchtower had carried many articles under Rutherford condemning Aluminum utensils. He said he had read about those and that there MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING TO THAT. I asked why. He then said, "They don't make aluminum cookware anymore---there has to be a reason for that".
I calmly looked at him and said, "People don't ride horses anymore, there must be a reason for that too."
He got very embaressed.
I think the fact that technologies DO CHANGE might have more to do with that than the WT articles being right, don't you.
He stayed red for half an hour.
Sigh.