Most Hated "True Stories"

by Ingenuous 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Ingenuous

  I was inspired by the "most hated analogies" thread.

  A brother giving the Public Talk one Sunday told the most ridiculous story. I couldn't even swallow it when I was "in."

  I'll try not to laugh while I'm typing this.

  Once upon a time, in a land far, far away... Someone planted a bomb in a Kingdom Hall. They left it under one of the seats in the front row. Turns out, a lot of people were late that Sunday, so the front row was empty. In the middle of the talk, the bomb went off. The speaker was killed. However, everyone else in the Hall was spared.

  The bomb had been loaded with nails to do as much damage as possible. Just before the bomb exploded, the speaker had told everyone to read a scripture with him. Since everyone obediently turned to the scripture, when the bomb went off, their heads were bowed, so all of the nails missed everyone because they flew over their bowed heads. When investigators went over the scene, they found everyone's Bibles on the floor turned to John 8:32 (or some such).

  Also spared was a mother and her baby who were in the back room. Apparently, the blast hadn't killed any of the audience in the main hall, but was powerful enough to blow out the back wall of the hall - except for the part covering the room the mother and baby were in at the time of the explosion.

  Of course, the audience who heard this story was absolutely amazed and their appreciation for Jehovah's protection deepened.

  If anyone has died from laughing so hard they've choked on their food/drink, I refuse all blame and lay it at the feet of the elder who gave this ridiculous public talk.
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  horrible life

  BS
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  thom

  I heard what's most likely the same story but some facts changed:
  The speaker went through the roof and outside, but survived. The only person killed was a brother sitting in the front row.
  Then it's followed by comments about how this just proves that Jehovah can exterminate who he wants no matter who is around them, just like he'll do at Armageddon.
  I have no idea if it's a true story, but I feel bad if some guy got killed and then people are chatting about how it must have been God that killed him and he must have had some hidden sin. Just goes to show what a sick bunch they are (and alot of us were).
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  Jeffro

  The one about the the train drawbridge that the controller has to get in place so the train doesn't crash, but it means his son will get hit by the train. (They then apply it to God allowing his son to die to save mankind.)

  COs and DOs particularly like to use this one. Sometimes they say it's a true story; others say they don't know if it's true or not. I hated it especially when they said it was a true story. For the record, it is not based on any specific actual event.

  It first appeared as a short allegorical story in the Michigan Baptist Bulletin in the 60s, then was picked up by the Seventh Day Adventists in the 70s. Some point after that the Witnesses picked it up and ran with it.

  More information at http://www.snopes.com/glurge/drawbrid.htm.
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  gespro

  The only person killed was a brother sitting in the front row.

  Ah, yes, a want-to-be elder told me this story saying the brother who died in the front row had just gotten reinstated [and just in time to be considered for resurrection].

  After I left the 'troof' [and before the 'troof' left me] I was on the road on and off with a jazz-fusion group that contained a couple of members of The Way Ministries.I overheard these two guys talking about an experience some of their house calling people had gone through.

  It turned out to be a story I heard at the Hall about the sisters who went to a house they were told to stay away from and when they got to the screen door in front and saw a dog and a cat looking out.The dog says 'Didn't they tell you not to come to this house',and the sisters run away screaming ! I was totally amazed to hear this story comnig from the Way boys [as we called them] That's when I started having some doubts about the JW's. It took me nearly 20 years after that to learn the truth about the 'troof'.
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  FlyingHighNow

  Wasn't the story about the bomb in one of the magazines? I'm almost certain it was. That happened in Australia if I'm not mistaken.
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  doofdaddy

  Yeah happened in Sydney in the 80's if my memory serves me well.

  As I recall it was planted by an irate exhusband of a jw.

  The "miracle" was more to do with the inexperience of the bomb maker rather than divine intervention. Most of the explosion went up rather than out.

  I worked on the quick build to replace the hall. We thought we were working in a war zone.....

  Oh, how embarrassing
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  Bonnie_Clyde

  I agree with "doofdaddy." I remember it happened in Australia. I believe the account of the bomb was in the Awake! Don't have access to the WT CD ROM right now. Could somebody look it up? I thought it was the speaker who was killed. The part about the bowed heads is ridiculous.
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  Ingenuous

  Gespro - I remember that story. Only, the way I heard it was:

  The sisters go to a house and they knock. The dog comes to the window and says "Nobody's home." The sisters figure they're hallucinating from the heat or something and knock again. That's when the cat comes to the window and says, "Didn't the dog tell you nobody was home?!"
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  Ingenuous

  The story in the mag wasn't even close to the piece of fiction I heard that day at the hall. I've come to realize that Witnesses have a habit of embellishing the truth and being quite credulous when they think they've found something good to say about themselves.

  ***

  g85 11/22 p. 9 Bomb Blast Levels Kingdom Hall in Australia ***

  A POWERFUL bomb, estimated by police to be one kilogram (2.2 lb) of gelignite, had been hidden under the speaker’s platform, timed to go off during the Bible lecture. Its explosion sent the speaker through the roof and landed him on a pile of debris outside the hall—bleeding, critically injured, with two broken legs.

  Graham Wykes, sitting in the front row, was killed instantly. His wife and two daughters suffered severe injuries. One member of the Society’s branch staff, Sue Schulz, had her nose broken and lost most of her front teeth. One interested attender had to have shrapnel removed from her eyes. A three-month-old baby was hospitalized with a concussion.

  By Sunday evening 14 of the 46 hospitalized were held over; the others were allowed to go home. Most of them were suffering from shock and damaged eardrums. Observers were amazed that more were not killed, since the hall was reduced to a shambles.