Posts by Terry
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3$1000 payment by Tight pants Tony to a porn channel (So that's why he doesn't wear tight pants)
by Terry ini predict this wee april announcement will make it half way around the world very shortly before the significance of the date itself becomes apparent..
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$1000 payment by Tight pants Tony to a porn channel (So that's why he doesn't wear tight pants)
by Terry ini predict this wee april announcement will make it half way around the world very shortly before the significance of the date itself becomes apparent..
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Terry
I predict this wee April announcement will make it half way around the world very shortly before the
significance of the date itself becomes apparent. -
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CHICKEN LITTLE and the power of stupid PROPHECY
by Terry inprophecy or bad guessing spoken with authority?
_________________________________________________________________________ (53 years ago!
) september 2022 broadcastgoverning body member, stephen lett:“we’re living in the final part of the last days.
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Terry
The still-in JWs I am in contact with live lives of quiet desperation and as bored as hell.
That says it all. -
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CHICKEN LITTLE and the power of stupid PROPHECY
by Terry inprophecy or bad guessing spoken with authority?
_________________________________________________________________________ (53 years ago!
) september 2022 broadcastgoverning body member, stephen lett:“we’re living in the final part of the last days.
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Terry
Peaceful Pete, technology has saved our bacon time and again.
Case in point: fertilizer.
Fear mongering actually serves a useful purpose IF the target audience is motivated
to FIX what's broken.
The despicable part of RELIGIOUS fear-mongering is that there is NO PRICE PAID by the
malefactors for getting it wrong.
Among Jehovah's Witnesses it work like this.
1. The numbers go up because "All aboard the Ark".
2. Great Disappointment due to failure of event - BUT...look at the outcome:
a. Weak ones leave
b. Strong believers remain and double-down
3. All the older generations know about the flops but they've put their entire life investment of time
and family sociability into a lottery. "What if I pull out and my number comes up?" FOMO is powerful. -
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CHICKEN LITTLE and the power of stupid PROPHECY
by Terry inprophecy or bad guessing spoken with authority?
_________________________________________________________________________ (53 years ago!
) september 2022 broadcastgoverning body member, stephen lett:“we’re living in the final part of the last days.
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Terry
PROPHECY or Bad Guessing spoken with Authority?
_________________________________________________________________________
(53 years ago!)
SEPTEMBER 2022 Broadcast
Governing Body member, Stephen Lett:
“We’re living in the final part of the last days. Undoubtedly, the final part of the final part of the last days - shortly before the last day of the last days - the final part of the last days undoubtedly, the final part of the final part of the last days, shortly before the last day of the last days.”
____ [Rutherford] Regarding his misguided statements as to what we could expect in 1925, he once confessed to us at Bethel, “I made an ass of myself.” (The Watchtower October 1, 1984 p. 24). -
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Jehovah’s Witnesses President Robert Ciranko dies of coronavirus
by Balaamsass2 infyi.
this showed up on my google feed.
i couldn't find an earlier story in the search box.
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Terry
THERE IS A TRAP involved!
Follow the logic, if you will...
1. Only an apostate would SEE this fake announcement on an apostate site or hear it from an apostate source.
2. A faithful JW who received this information could use this story to identify any apostate instantly.
3. Easy Peasy targeting i.d. Mission Accomplished -
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Hidden history of the Watchtower religion
by TerryWalstrom inthe deeper you dig--the less impressive jw’s become!___________________you may think you know the men who are vitally important to the birth of the religion--but chances are good you’ve been kept in the dark.. _____________.
did you know?the 1st case heard by the supreme court of the united states concerning the watchtower society involved a director (an officer) of the watchtower, william franklyn hudgings.. a brief description of hudgings and his character.hudgings was an attorney, quack doctor, self-identified ‘scientist’, a pro-zionist, and religious enthusiast who over the years held various director and officer positions in the watchtower society, and the affiliated people's pulpit association and international bible students association.
at the time of this particular case, william hudgings acknowledged being the corporate secretary of the people's pulpit association and acknowledged that his daily duties included the administrative charge of printing of the watchtower magazine, the bible student's monthly, the kingdom news, and other watchtower publications.. (hudgings was also re-elected to the watchtower society board of directors in january 1919.
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Terry
I wonder if it comes down to "knowing" the history or if it has more to do with a person's "social needs"
and craving for discipline and a numinous experience?
It can't be intellect alone. Emotion, superstitious tendency, depth of education/ all those things have more weight than a cold historical analysis as far as a newly interested person is concerned.
Also...
A newbie has no pressure to overcome for the first six weeks. Love bombs are going off during that time.
You become the most interesting person in the world while you're being courted.
After that -- it is boiling the frog s-l-o-w-ly. -
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What Would Grandfather Say Now?
by LostintheFog1999 inmy late grandfather believed he was one of the anointed.
that aside when asked about whether the jw organisation would last, he would pull out the attached wt magazine (the second edition) and say "if the day ever comes when the organisation asks for money outright, it will be proof that jehovah is not it's backer.
" that's how convinced he was that such a thing would never happen.. i often wonder what my grandfather would make of the modern organisation today..
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Terry
Remarkable Sister Pettifog
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This morning I arrived on my bicycle at the local Starbucks early and took up a seat at the outdoor table in the fresh air.
That’s when it happened--a group of 3 older ladies at one of the other tables outside rose to leave and one of them walked over to my table and spoke directly to me.
I was wearing earbuds at that moment and didn’t hear. I popped them out and asked her to repeat herself.
“That’s a beautiful bicycle you have there. What a great way to stay healthy!”
I thanked her and idly chatted about this and that.
As I spoke, I could see she was scrutinizing my face like a private investigator rummaging for clues. The analytical part of my brain went on alert at that instant. What was she doing?
“I think I know you. It’s been a long, long time since I last saw you. I don’t expect you’d remember me, but I remember you because my great grandmother used to tell me how much you reminded her of her favorite movie star, Randolph Scott.”
“You’re talking about **Mildred Pettifog, aren’t you?”
We both laughed and proceeded to rake over various remembrances about
The 1950s and 60s.
That’s when I heard the following bit of eye-opening information.This pleasant lady told me a brief story about Sister **Pettifog, her great grandmother.
___________________Backstor
Sister Mildred was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses brought up as a Bible Student since the late 19th century.
In case that means nothing to you, think of it this way: they fought the Civil War only 15 years before Mildred was born!
They introduced me to her in 1960. Sister Pettifog was already 80 years old.
Way back in 1960, when I first attended a Kingdom Hall as a guest, old ladies looked like old ladies. White hair was quite acceptable.
Sister Pettifog sported a purple hat pinned to the back of her head by a long hatpin. Her hair was mostly silver-white tinged with a faint blue tint.
This elderly Sister flashed a crinkled smile and her skin was quite pale; with cheeks radiating a pinkish powder blush (a proper style back in the olden days.)
Her dress appeared to be handmade and steel-rimmed bifocals framed her wide-set eyes that bestowed an impression of wisdom
The most remarkable aspect of Mildred Pettifog’s persona was the fact she was one of the anointed members at our Kingdom Hall.
(In those days it was very special... and a wee bit mysterious.)
What did it actually mean to be “anointed”? I wanted to know.
Sister Pettifog had what was “a heavenly calling.”
The vast majority of JW’s aim for an “Earthly hope.” Life everlasting in a new Eden.
Scant few possess the interior tingle of a special self-awareness.
If you’ve never been a Jehovah’s Witness, you’ll be scratching your head about now wondering aloud just how cuckoo this might be.
Until fairly recently, the eight million Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the world imagined the “anointed” got direct messages from the heavenly realm tipping them off about sacred secrets and advanced prophetic divination. These whisperings were better than stock market tips!
The person introducing me spoke in respectful hushed tone of awe.
This created a funny feeling inside of me, too. The psychology of awe is quite contagious! Sort of like, “Ya wanna meet Elvis?”
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At this point, I’ll try my best to give you the story as told to me by the great-granddaughter of Mildred Pettifog.
________PETTIFOG goes rogue?
“The first time my great grandmother said one bad thing about the WatchTower organization. Of course, I knew that the Truth as published by the WatchTower organization had a way of suddenly flipping the script and Granny Mildred noticed it and used the word, “Sneaky.”
This shocked me. I didn’t believe my ears.
I asked her to explain. When I heard what she had to say, I wished I hadn’t!
She stood there in the kitchen helping me wash dishes like she always insisted on doing and at the same time started ticking off a long list of “sneaky” things she claimed the Organization had done over the years to prove they were “making stuff up.”
I kept telling her not to continue. I was panicking! I immediately thought of rushing her to the hospital. I thought she had suffered a stroke and wasn’t responsible for her words!”
“A year passed with these embarrassing conversations (private as they were). We moved to Oklahoma and started going to a new Kingdom Hall. All the while, she kept going to all the meetings and out in Field Service, (door to door,) like nothing inside her had changed. I asked her how she could pretend what she was learning and teaching was still “The Truth”?
“Granny smiled and explained that her ‘anointing’ could do a lot more good ‘undercover’ than being labeled an apostate because nobody is permitted to listen to an ex-member. But everybody would listen to her as one of the anointed remnant!”
At this point in her story, I was begging for details.
Granddaughter glanced at her watch. She had to go shortly, but she said she’d tell me this one thing Granny did when she was around young Witnesses. The teens.
Sister Mildred Pettifog would wait until she was in the car with a trapped audience who couldn’t flee. Then she’d start talking about her life as a Jehovah’s Witness. . . .
____PETTIFOGG’S HISTORY from her own testimony
"I stay faithful to the Organization!
I knew I was going to heaven no matter what the Governing Body decided was true!
Right or wrong. Where else would I go?
I didn’t graduate from High School or go to college when I was young because Armageddon was coming in 1914--what good would a worldly education do me?
Pastor Russell said what Jehovah told him and it didn’t happen the way he told it.
Was it a mistake? A human opinion? Wrong is wrong. But we believed it and we were surprised, sad, and many of our Friends declared it a ‘false prophecy’ and left the Organization. Not me."
"Pastor Russell took a wait-and-see attitude but he died and Brother Rutherford told us 1925 was the year it would all go down. Another mistake, or human opinion, but Jehovah’s anointed remained faithful to the organization.
The Bible says “No man knows the day and hour.” That didn’t stop Brother Franz and Brother Knorr from 1975, however.
It was exactly the same thing taught in 1874, moved forward a hundred years.
Yes, 1874, 1914, 1925, 1975. We all went along preaching it as ‘Truth’ even though it was men’s opinions, wrong guesses, and the anointed slave assuring us we are a spirit-directed organization. Who am I to say they are wrong - until the date comes and goes? I remained faithful to the Organization."
"I am in my 90s knowing we, the anointed, were dying off.
We are the anointed Generation of 1914 and have to still be alive to SEE the end.
We used a generation of human lives as the Countdown Clock. We were the proverbial “canary in the coal mine.”
We are part of the MILLIONS NOW LIVING who will NEVER DIE. Do you understand? Why would we leave an organization that gives us this heavenly assurance?""Each year, more of us anointed die and it assures and proves Armageddon is getting closer and closer. What fool would risk leaving with such assurance?
Now I’m 98 years old. I was 95 the last time Armageddon didn’t come.
Do you understand? It is now 1977. 3 years ago they taught us the world was ending because of earthquakes, famine, and wars, and IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.Many have gone away now. They lost faith in Jehovah’s organization.
But not me! I’m faithful and loyal to the bitter end.”
________
Mildred Pettifog’s granddaughter shook her head in wonderment at the words she related and added, “How she got away with that—I just don’t know. You could see the young kids’ faces. They didn’t know if she had lost her mind or what!”
If a young person were of college age, she went out of her way to talk to them.
She’d get them off by themselves and say: “I never got a proper education because the world was ending. It ended over and over and over.”
“I have friends who never married because of that, too. They have no kids or grandkids because they assured us we’d all be in heaven or Paradise. Many people now are old, bitter, and unhealthy, thinking they never lived a real-life - just waiting around for Armageddon.
Not me. I went ahead and married and I had beautiful kids and grandkids. I’m anointed too - and Jehovah’s spirit allowed me the freedom to have a life.
Well, I am sorry I didn’t go to college. I could have earned enough money to give my children and grandchildren a start in life. But don’t listen to me. I’m just a grumpy old lady and my mind isn’t as clear as it used to be. You better do exactly what the Organization tells you to do.”
Then Granny would walk away leaving those young JW’s with a dazzled expression of pure horror and puzzlement behind.
_________
I asked the granddaughter if any Elders ever gave her a good stern talking to?
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! Are you serious? Granny was too slick for that!
She knew her scriptures, and she’d start quoting them one after another until the busybody would shrug and give up. You see—she knew they had too much respect for her to get mean—as they do with most members who have loose tongues.”
I asked what happened to Sister Pettifog.
“Granny died peacefully in her sleep 10 days before her hundredth birthday.
She had written a long letter to be read to the congregation at her funeral. She mailed it to the Presiding Elder and a copy to WatchTower headquarters a few days before she died. Do I need to tell you that the letter disappeared? It was not read, nor mentioned!
Plenty of Elders asked all the family about Sister Pettifog’s state of mind.
I told them she had only grown more loving, kind, cheerful, and open-hearted the older she got. I told them what she had said about loyalty to Jehovah’s organization, too. They didn’t seem to catch the irony.”
______It was time for the granddaughter to leave. I thanked her for stopping to talk to me.
As an afterthought, I asked one more question. “Did any of that weaken your faith?”
She smiled as she climbed into her car and gave me her answer:
“The day after her funeral I walked away and haven’t been back to a meeting since then. Nice talking to you, Randolph.”
Away she drove.
She truly was a Remarkable Sister Pettifog!
_________________
**Note: I have changed the name to avoid tampering with people’s memory of her.
If you think you know her actual identity but aren’t sure - I’ll give a hint.
Her nickname was “Boots.”
She was in the Poly Congregation in Ft. Worth, Texas._________________
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neutrality
by enoughisenough ini had a thought about neutrality...how we were never to take sides on political issues, say by voting.
how does that square with the letters we were asked to write to various lawmakers in countries-not too many years ago we were ask to write to russian officials.
i wonder if there is to be a letter writing to norway.
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Terry
reply to the post:TonusOH24 minutes ago
I think it began as a way of codifying the stance against military service. I'm not sure when or how it was extended to activities like voting or serving on any sort of political body.
______________Here is my reply to the post:
Rome and War went together like forks and knives.
When Christians were invited to join the feast - they refused!
Constantine must have exclaimed, "I've got the unruly Christian unified by he Apostles Creed, but now I have to deal with their CONSCIENCES."
The solution was the drafting of a theory of war that made it acceptable to Christian boys and men.
A brilliant fella by the name of AUGUSTINE drafted a lovely "get out of jail free" proposition.
THE JUST WAR THEORY
I'll keep it dead simple.
Romans 13 really means: if your government tells you to kill - you must obey but it isn't counted against you as a Christian because God gave the go-ahead to the Gentile Authority.
You see, when the government and religion are both on the same page, it is THEOCRACY.
The Superior Authority says, "Jump" and you ask, "How far?"
The Superior Authority says, "Kill." and you say, "Bang, you're dead."
There was no NEUTRALITY ISSUE because no CONSCIENCE was troubled.
Not until Protestants broke from the Catholic authority was CONSCIENCE reborn!
It was every man for himself once again.
Lots of denominations had run-ins with various governments over conscience. It took many hundreds of
years to come up with solutions.
The U.S. came up with ALTERNATE COMMUNITY SERVICE.
This worked quite well - except for the fake consciences of Jehovah's Witnesses who
were told they were under a different Theocracy. Do as the GB says - not the Superior Authority. -
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neutrality
by enoughisenough ini had a thought about neutrality...how we were never to take sides on political issues, say by voting.
how does that square with the letters we were asked to write to various lawmakers in countries-not too many years ago we were ask to write to russian officials.
i wonder if there is to be a letter writing to norway.
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Terry
1966 DRAFT BOARD
Six of Fort Worth's leading citizens had responded to an invitation to membership on its Draft Board. The group included the head of the local taxi cab company, a Baptist minister, an attorney, a physician, a construction foreman and shift leader from the Post Office. Draft Board meetings were often chaired by Mr. Charles Needham at the downtown Federal Building.
The members of the group visibly straightened as I entered the room and began inspecting me. My job was to convince them I was a genuine minister of my faith. I was on my own. I was only 19 years old. I eyeballed them back.
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Each man was studying me intently; making mental notes and categorizing every detail; forming preliminary conclusions about who and what I was as a person and a citizen and maybe as minister. First impression counts.
For one thing, the physician stared at my shoes, which were definitely cheap. My hair was groomed, but, not professionally trimmed. I thought of myself as a young man exuding shopworn elegance. I think I looked homemade.
The Postal clerk studied how I held my body stiffly and how tense my lips made me appear. This kid is nervous. That was what they were all probably thinking. I didn't really know. I was experiencing a frisson of paranoia and self-induced manic energy. I was, however, mentally prepared.
The Postal clerk smiled, perhaps remembering his own first day at the Post Office as the only black man among all whites. I was guessing.
He began to sympathize a little, maybe? Wanting to please the Lord did not make you a coward. My imagination ran riot.
Charlie Needham spoke.
"Please sit down and make yourself comfortable. Terry. Is that how you’d like to be addressed?
Needham glanced again at the wall clock and noted the time.
"Terry is okay."
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I sat in the center of the U shaped tables on the opposite side of the members with my chair pushed out three feet away from the nearest man.
I could see all of them and they could scrutinize me. I felt like a slow swimmer circled by sharks. I’m not saying I was paranoid. I’m just not saying.
"We will now proceed with our hearing. Can you give us a brief Statement covering your request for ministerial deferment?"
Their eyes bore in with expectancy. It really felt like a firing squad listening for the order to "fire!"
I cleared my throat again and again as I spoke. My mouth was dry. I was articulate. My vocabulary was unusually broad and detailed. I was odd duck.
As the self-help nerd who had often spent many hours memorizing large lists of words for fun; the kid these men were listening to must have puzzled them.
I repeated to the Draft Board the essential points I had already confided to the F.B.I. agents who interviewed me the month before: Who, what, when, where, how and why I am who I am. They were looking for authenticity.
F.B.I. agents had been keen to know how long my association with Jehovah's Witnesses had been developing. I explained I had been more or less attending the Polytechnic Kingdom Hall since I was 12 years old. That had been 1959. I became a baptized member in 1963. They scribbled it all down and departed. Now, I repeated it all for the local Draft Board.
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I explored each man’s face as I spoke using all the highly developed skills I'd been absorbing at the Kingdom Hall in Theocratic Ministry School of Fort Worth. I made excellent eye contact and used persuasive gestures and modulated my voice well as I present the summation. I was an actor in my role as theologian. Besides, there was a scripture about being “a theatrical spectacle to men.”
Morris Culpepper loosened the top button on his shirt and undid his tie just enough to prevent strangulation. Rubbing his neck, he started scribbling with a yellow pencil on a legal pad. He was taking his job seriously, for sure.
"Here is what I want to know. Do you have a regular job? Do you work for a living? Or, do you preach in a church like normal preachers?"
He angled his massive head toward Reverend Oakes to indicate normal.
"I am a portrait artist and self-employed. I don't punch a clock anywhere. I live at home with my grandparents and mother. Jehovah's Witnesses are ministers; all of us. We’re the ones ringing your doorbell on the weekends while you’re trying to sleep.”
I managed a wry smile as Reverend Oakes pouted at my unseemly lack of seriousness.
"What we mean is this," Oakes tapped his manicured fingers together in the spider-doing-push-ups hand gesture.
"Are you a full-time minister so you actually deserve deferment?”
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Oakes was confrontational without being mean-spirited. This was a question I'd never been asked before.
"Well, our ministry is something we all take seriously enough that we don’t just wait for Sunday.”
“You consider yourself Christians and not Jehovah’s?” Oakes inquired archly.
“We say, Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses.”
Oakes twitched his mouth with a dismissive grunt and turned to his left.
Attorney Parks was fidgeting in his uncomfortable oak chair. He pulled a Mont Blanc pen from his inside suit pocket and pointed it like the muzzle of a Derringer pistol toward me.
"Correct me, please, if I state this improperly. My understanding is Jehovah's Witnesses won't perform alternate service in a hospital as community service even as a privilege extended to persons like you.”
“Yet, if the Judge compels you by sentence to perform the same service you had refused; you happily comply and take the job! I have to say this makes no logical sense in my legal experience.”
Parks narrowed his dark brown eyes and seemingly forced himself not to blink as he awaited my answer. I felt like he was a snake trying to hypnotize a mouse. I was more dazzled by his sharkskin suit and expensive fountain pen.
"To accept alternate service to military service is to substitute this for that. This violates our Christian neutrality. It is like taking an I.O.U. for money owed.
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“It means the same. So, I have to refuse. But, if the Judge makes it compulsory rather than voluntary, as dutiful Christians under subjection we comply.”
Attorney Parks raised his eyebrows and chortled.
"Excuse me, you aren’t the Swiss. You have no neutrality. Caesar is Caesar in both instances. The military and the Judge work for Caesar. It’s six of one and a half-dozen of the other. You are confused.”
“Seventh-day Adventists refuse even to pick up a rifle but one of them during WWII won the Medal of Honor saving lives under fire as a medic on the battlefield. You think you’re too good for that? Neutral doesn’t cut it. It is a contrived position and illegal.”
Reverend Oakes, Charlie Needham and I each started speaking at the same time. Needham paused and let the Reverend take the lead while holding his hand up to me as a “stop” sign.
"Thank you, Charlie. I want to say this to you, young man…”
Oakes took on the fervor of the actor John Carradine in the film Grapes of Wrath. His craggy countenance waggled with melodramatic intensity as though mugging for an unseen camera.
“The Pharisee binds people with burdens of self-invented rules, regulations, traditions and twisted reasoning. Jesus said it burdens the faithful unnecessarily but, in stark contrast, his yoke was light upon your shoulders…”
Needham jumped in at the pause.
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"We aren't here for religious debate or legal harangue; we just want some simple statements of fact for our decision. I hope you understand."
I sighed and shook my head as the Reverend shot him a disappointed look.
Culpepper wasn't following any of the fancy arguments. He lost the thread early on, it was obvious.
"Son, what if everybody believed the same way you did?"
Now here was a straight line I could volley!
"There would be no wars; no need for a Draft Board and we wouldn't be sitting here today."
I relaxed feeling I had finally scored a point. Yet, I was troubled by what had just been said by the attorney. Culpepper wasn't having in one-ups by this smart kid.
"What I mean is. . .what if only Americans believed just as you do and the Communists knew that?"
This was going to be easy. . .
“I suppose you could say we’d all being doing exactly what Jesus commanded by turning the other cheek and loving our enemy!”
Charlie Needham's sense of propriety now violated; he addressed the subject in a more serious way than before.
"Son, if somebody broke into your house and threatened your family's life, wouldn't you defend them with violence if it saved their lives?"
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"Sir, the Vietnamese people have not broken into my house. If anything, my country has trespassed into their huts.”
I suddenly had a sense I was in a riptide but the words came to me easily.
Culpepper stiffened. He looked like his heart was pounding double time.
"My father served in WWII because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He wasn't going to let Emperor Hirohito or Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini take over this world or run his country.”
“We'd all be under Hitler's thumb or going up in smoke in some Auschwitz if God-fearing Americans all believed the way you Jehovah’s believe."
Culpepper's eyes were bulging out of his skull and he seemed to know he was not comporting himself well. This was passionate patriotism overcoming him.
I took a deep breath and answered thoughtfully and in whatever measured tones I could summon.
"Jehovah's Witnesses died in concentration camps in WWII. One thing you can be certain of. No Jehovah's Witness ever pointed a rifle at your father or pulled the pin on a hand grenade in the armies of Hitler, Mussolini or Hirohito.”
It was a prudent answer. I thought it cut to the heart of his objections.
Doctor Jarvis appeared to feel the heat of argument was getting off point and the clock was running out as well. He glanced at his watch and the clock.
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A change of subject might cool things down enough to wind things to a close.
"Would you say Jehovah's Witnesses cherish life and view it as a sacred gift from God?"
Jarvis was laying a subtle trap rather obviously, I thought.
"Sometimes, if you save your life you lose it in a greater sense.”
Jarvis leaned forward as a knight about to unseat a rival in a joust.
"If life is so precious to you; why do you allow little children to die rather than accept a blood transfusion?"
I cringed inwardly. This was the most difficult issue to explain. Especially with doctors who took a black and white view of life, it was hard to argue persuasively. To me, it made no practical sense either—yet, the Bible confused me on this.
"Our hands are tied by what the scriptures say. Nobody wants a child to die under any circumstance. We believe the life is in the blood and it is sacred.”
Culpepper's body jerked like he'd been stung by a wasp.
"Any religion that stands by and lets an innocent child die—when they could be saved by a doctor—is no religion I'd care to call Christian. That’s pure evil!"
"Well, it's in the Hebrew and Greek Testaments, Sir. We didn't put it there. We just obey it. 'Keep yourselves free of blood.’ Make of it what you will."
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I was out of my depth on this. I couldn't understand what any of this questioning had to do with my own deferment. Every denomination has deep teachings hard to bear. Needham looked like he had had enough for his own decision. It was up to him to bring order and organization and accomplish what they set out to do to conclude matters straight away.
"I think we've all heard enough to determine what we are dealing with here. You can have the last word if you like, in summation."
It felt like a high tide had crashed on my head and I struggled back to the surface. What could possibly change any minds?
"Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time and trouble to hear me out. When I was a kid I wanted nothing better than to be a jet pilot in the Air Force.”
“I played army and cowboy and owned a two gun holster. I was an ordinary, normal American kid. Gradually, by studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I came to see my service to God from a different line of view. That's why there isn't just one church, I guess. There are thousands of them and we all differ in some way.”
“Logically, they can't all be true and right. So, we have a standoff and the freedom to step on one side of the line or the other and make our best call. I request a deferment to tell Jehovah's side of the story. I can't take up weapons in good conscience and I can't work in a hospital for reasons I explained. Conscience compels me. I am just trying to do the right thing.”
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If anything, my words were coming from somewhere deep inside of me. This was sincere confession. It was a command performance and self-conscious.
I believed what I said. I had been carefully taught. It was my duty. I never mentioned I’d been coached.
Charlie Needham nodded as though putting a period at the end of a long sentence with his chin.
"Thank you. We'll confer and give our decision directly to proper authorities. You'll get something in the mail eventually from the Selective Service concerning your status. That's about it."
I clutched my green New World Translation of the Bible as I quickly departed from the room and down the staircase to the lobby and out into the bright sunlight. I took in a deep breath and tried to clear my head.
First, there had been an F.B.I. interrogation and now, this. When would it all end? I was almost certainly going to end up in prison no matter what I said. I groaned.
Exhaling slowly and fighting off a gnawing sense of panic, I set off walking to the bus stop. Inside of a few months the die would be cast.
Later, arrested and released on my own recognizance, I entered the last phase before things got really serious.
When a young man is on the threshold between adolescence and adulthood, in a normal context, his life is filled with glorious plans for the future.
There were no such plans for my life which could be immediately realized with any confidence or optimism.
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My best friend Johnny got married in 1967 to a young Witness girl who couldn’t have been more than 14 or 15 years old. He had a job driving a truck and was already well on his way to an average life and family. Being married, he didn’t go for full-time door-to-door ministry. He later told me, he knew how to play the game.
I had recently met a Witness girl my age at one of our frequent religious conventions. She had the same heritage as I did: Finnish. She and I tried to make promises to each other about staying in touch in the event of my incarceration, as though that were really going to happen. All sense of possibility was dying inside me.
When you have a concrete wall blocking your view of the future something poisonous seeps in to your sense of life itself.
How many young men do you know who have a self-belief to go with their dreams and plans? I didn’t.
My personal ambition became stunted and deformed instead of blossoming into reality. The uneasy brooding of status quo ruled. It was a countdown.
_________________COURT-APPOINTED ATTORNEY
At my Preliminary Hearing I asked Judge Leo Brewster if I could defend myself rather than have an attorney represent me. Judges don’t like that sort of thing. It leaves a conviction open to a Writ of Error too easily. Judge Brewster denied my request and appointed attorney George Petrovich.
Reluctantly, I made an appointment and arrived at the law office to discover rows of black and white photographs of aircraft carriers, destroyers and other military depictions decorating his walls. How encouraging!
I heaved the kind of sigh the Burmese tiger heaves when the ground gives way beneath him and he finds himself in a deep pit unable to escape.
George Petrovich was what you’d call an unassuming fellow, which is to say he asked simple, almost naïve questions, and seemed genuinely puzzled why any young man would avoid the military.
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“Why are you refusing induction?”
The office was small and the attorney had two chairs set up for us. We faced each other and for some silly reason I kept checking his knee so no accidental contact was made. I had an aversion to physical contact, you see.
I confess I was a bit paranoid because of an incident with the physician who had privately examined me for possible military exemption. I had a bilateral inguinal hernia which this doctor said he could not detect!
And then, he began casually handling my penis appraisingly and pretending there were tiny traces of stitches from circumcision remaining which he needed to remove! My circumcision had occurred 19 years earlier. Well, color me suspicious!
He repeated a few times, ‘Any other ideas how you might obtain an exemption?’ I set a new land speed record exiting his office. The only thing that got blown was my exemption.
Without a medical exemption my only alternative was refusal of induction leading to arrest and now consultation with a court-appointed attorney; the one with his knee a few inches from mine. I figured I needed to stifle my paranoia and emphasize my average Joe-ness. I spoke.
“The military was not the historic choice of Christians trying to obey the teachings of Christ Jesus.”
Now, out of what I had just spoken, what part of that puzzled him the most, do you suppose?
“Why’d you say it backwards?” he asked.
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“Say what-backwards?”
“You said, Christ Jesus, instead of Jesus Christ.”
“Well, Christ is a title, like King George. You wouldn’t say George, King would you?”
It was probably at that moment I saw the light of amicable solidarity fade in the attorney’s eyes. He didn’t argue. He pulled back physically a bit and simply regarded me quietly. He was wearing a rumpled suit that didn’t look tailored or expensive. This guy was losing his hair but had made no effort to hide it with a swooping comb-over. He was a decent, average man.
“So…how do you think I can help you with this, uh… problem? Didn’t anybody explain to you that you are not required by the law to actually engage in combat? Alternate service is provided for conscientious objectors. The word “alternate” means other than, as in other than military.”
“They’ve assigned you to Terrell State Hospital right here in Texas. It could have been a lot worse. It could have been out of State, you know.”
Here he was like a modern day Galileo reasoning with the Vatican. He wanted me to snap out of my delusion, I could tell. I wanted to, believe me.
“It may be unusual but, I assure you it is a simple Bible principle. No man can serve two masters and I dedicated my life at baptism to one master the Bible identifies as Jehovah.” I explained.
“I’m dedicated to ministering door-to-door. That’s how Jehovah’s Witnesses do their
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evangelizing—door-to-door.” I sported my best winning smile.
Petrovich brightened. He could solve my problem for me; I could see it coming a mile off.
“Look, you can still go door-to-door—in Terrell after work, or even before work. You don’t have to live in the hospital. You can easily perform Community Service like a regular 8-5 job—see?” He beamed.
I wanted to tell him not to cloud the issue with facts but he was, after all, an attorney. Plan B commenced. I had to enlarge the scope of my defense with historical precedent. Any lawyer would immediately see precedent as binding.
“Back in the 1st century, the early Christians refused to share certain duties of Roman citizens. The Christians felt it a violation of their faith to enter civil or military service. They would not hold political office. They would not worship the emperor. Why? They were subject to Jesus’ command. They obeyed God as ruler rather than men.”
I didn’t even try to guess what he was thinking. I didn’t have to, he told me.
“Terry, nobody is asking you to be a Roman citizen. Nobody is forcing you onto the battlefield. Nobody is demanding you become a politician or worship President Johnson. All anybody is asking you to do—since you are opposed to fighting—is do your share by working in a hospital.
It is community service and not military service. Why can’t an obviously bright guy understand that?”
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I did get it. Rocket science, it wasn’t. It was basic fairness. I took out the verbal trowel and slopped it on.
“Back during the Civil War conscientious objectors were sometimes offered an alternative to fighting in a regiment under the command of an officer.”
“They could hire somebody to fight as a substitute. It seemed perfectly fair to the lawyers who thought that up. But, the problem is, it didn’t solve the problem. The real problem was the serving part. Substituting one thing for another thing which accomplishes the same end is a compromise of integrity as a Christian. That’s why hiring a killer is wrong.”
My underpaid, court-appointed attorney looked at his wristwatch and shrugged. He spoke musingly.
“I had a roommate in law school. He was an Orthodox Jew. On the Sabbath he wasn’t allowed to operate machinery, answer a phone, push an elevator button or anything. It was a ‘day of rest’ from all physical work. So, you know what he did? He did what all the other Orthodox Jews did in law school. He paid his goyim friends to answer the phone and take a message, push the elevator button and drive him where he needed to go. His conscience was perfectly clear.”
“Are Jehovah’s Witnesses just showing off their super-piety one-ups, or what?”
“Well Sir, I appreciate your confusion. I’m not the one to judge. But, suffice to say, we view alternate service in
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the very same wheelhouse as military service because it involves this-for-that. So, I cannot do it.”
The lawyer flashed a momentary pout with his mouth and shrugged it off.
“Okay, fine. How do I plead your case for you then?”
“I guess the most honest way to plead is ‘Guilty’ and make a plea for leniency for conscience sake. The mitigating circumstance is I’m not doing any wrong by trying to do what is right. You shouldn’t punish a twenty year old for trying to serve God according to a clean conscience. That’s not justice.”
_____________________________
(Above are 2 chapters from my book)
https://www.amazon.com/Wept-Rivers-Babylon-Conscience-2013-10-04/dp/B01FEMEHRK/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
