LongHairGal,
"You also can never know what may have happened if you decided to enlist and did go to Vietnam.."
____
Actually that was NOT the alternative!
Going to Vietnam was never the "other"part of the decision to refuse induction.
Hardly any Jehovah's Witnesses have been exposed to the details of the decision, the actual choice before draft age young men.
Here are the true facts of the matter.
ANY person drafted into Military Service was required to do 3 things.
1. Register for the draft immediately upon reaching the age of 18.
2. When notice arrived in the mail, the draftee had to report locally for an Armed Forces Military physical examination.
3. A meeting with a local Draft Board must be scheduled, but only IF A REQUEST of deferment from duty for cause was tendered.
I did all three.
My draft card which must be carried in public at all times, classified me as :
1-A-O - Conscientious Objector - Conscientiously opposed to training and military service requiring the use of arms - fulfills his service obligation in a noncombatant position within the military. Those classified 1-A-O are conscientious objectors available for noncombatant military service.
You see, LongHairGal?
Legally, all I was required to do was report for non-combat community service!
Ready for the big twist-ending?
My congregations elders (overseers) privately took me aside. I was counseled to NOT ACCEPT
assigned alternate service in a hospital!
I was told it was a "compromise" of my faith.
I was to REFUSE my lawfully assigned alternate service and - instead - go to prison to demonstrate
Jehovah's Witnesses were not like other false religious organizations.
I would never have gone to Vietnam. I would have helped sick people.
This is the "dirty little secret" hidden from most JW's all this time.
I was sternly admonished to never tell any officer of the court or law I HAD BEEN DIRECTED by my religion to do this, saying only "It is a matter of conscientious ; a Bible-based conscience."
Are you surprised?
One more surprise.
There was only ONE EXCEPTION allowed.
IF your Judge "SENTENCED YOU" to hospital work - you COULD accept.
Why?
You were under compulsion - NOT by the Military - but by the Law itself.
Crazy enough for you?
Posts by Terry
-
17A Song to Jehovah's Praise - rejected!
by Terry inas an obedient little jw at age 20, i was serving time in federal prison in the late 60's, and the 40 brothers inside seagoville prison decided to stage our own assembly.i was the music servant.
(we didn't have elders back then.
)the theme of the assembly mimicked the free world assemblies being held outside.long story short:i composed (what i think and everyone else thought was) a very good song titled:following the fine shepherd as the end draws near.we rehearsed it (bros who had instruments) and the consensus revealed it was a winner._____excerpt:"jehovah god above, we owe you all our love; you are our shepherd and we follow you.though satan demands, that we must compromise; we'd sooner face death than be wrong in your eyes.now and forevermore, we fear not satan's roar;you are our shepherd and we follow you.
-
-
Terry
-
6
Grant Us Peace
by Terry ingrant us peace______i was 12 years old.a jesuit (substitute teacher) entered my 6th grade classroom and beamed a handsome smile.. 1959 and this was music class.our actual teacher was unable to attend and sent her priest instead!how very odd.. i had never beheld an actual catholic priest before that moment, never had a human being with such a beautiful expression appeared.there is a word for it: numinous.. his name : michael.
the archangel.. he seemed to open his arms to the classroom...to enfold us inside wings of a theatrical presence.. he spoke and we were instructed.the song was dona nobis pacem (grant us peace.
)his mouth opened.
-
-
Terry
stillin18 minutes ago
Numinous is new to me. But I grew up as a Catholic and an altar boy and in the choir. I have had a few of those transcendent moments as a Catholic, but I can't say that I ever had one as a Witness.
_____
Stillin,
There was a moment as a JW that lasted maybe a full minute while in prison ...
I stepped out of the large Administration building at Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution into the "magic hour" straight light of near sunset.
I had delivered a prisoner request form to Lieutenant Bennett. (The inmates called it a "cop out" form :)Nothing much on my mind.
I looked up squinting at that red glow that catches the low-hanging cirrus clouds and turns them
to blacksmith-hot cherry red.
It hit me.
In my brain, a full-blown NUMINOUS moment arrived like...
Like ....
Tom Jones in person at the amphitheater in Los Angeles years later.
(Women of all ages wet their pants with an astonishing outburst of worship - or *something*)
My heart lept at that sunset and the 100% certainty only a fanatic can experience.
This momentarily persuaded me I was being forged by the blacksmith Jehovah in a kind of prison furnace and shaped for useful purpose.
I was to be something I not yet was - idling at present - yet a work in progress.
I felt (don't laugh) I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING.
Seconds ...mere ticks of a small wristwatch later ...that whole moment vanished. I couldn't get near
recalling the *feeling* itself.
None of that means anything, of course. But - I can say it more or less happened.
So many human beings have felt "the calling" ....
Was it like that? Or just a brain fart ? :)
As things turned out (very badly) I am here to say: nope. -
6
Grant Us Peace
by Terry ingrant us peace______i was 12 years old.a jesuit (substitute teacher) entered my 6th grade classroom and beamed a handsome smile.. 1959 and this was music class.our actual teacher was unable to attend and sent her priest instead!how very odd.. i had never beheld an actual catholic priest before that moment, never had a human being with such a beautiful expression appeared.there is a word for it: numinous.. his name : michael.
the archangel.. he seemed to open his arms to the classroom...to enfold us inside wings of a theatrical presence.. he spoke and we were instructed.the song was dona nobis pacem (grant us peace.
)his mouth opened.
-
-
Terry
Under his arm was a Bible, well-thumbed and comfortable.
His face tipped me off what was up-- I've seen this sort of dreamy glow before.
Hell--I owned it myself when I was twenty.He was telling the barista how much he appreciated her and she nodded, smiling pleasantly.
Was it god shine, moonshine, or the milk of human kindness at play upon the fields of the Lord? Don't know.
He gave no offense--as I waited on him to detach a bit longer than his simple transaction at the register required.
Later, he sat down at a table next to me.
Uh-oh, thought I as his chair bumped mine and off we go...
____He flashed an incredibly compassionate face and his tender words of pardon swept outward and fell upon me as a warm April rain on flowers.
I nodded affably. Silence is golden, you see.
Some half a minute later, he stood and turned round extending his hand for shaking, introducing himself.
"I'm Raj."
"I'm Terry, how do you, Raj?"
"I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your being here today and what a blessing you are to me."
"Many people feel that way about me, Raj and it's very good of you to say so."
"God Bless you, Terry."
I presented my best expression of utter delight.
Raj falters inside his thoughts momentarily. Then, he turned back around and sat for five minutes.
Presently, up springs Raj.
He gallops over to a table seating 3 ladies engaged in a personal chat.
I can't hear what he says as he interrupts with his endearing message of starlight and golden feathers. 3 ladies' faces light up like moonbeams. Raj tugs out a chair for his bottom and sits stringing rainbows for several minutes.I sigh.
Straightaway, delighted giggles bubble to the surface. A trio of middle-aged womanhood is loving whatever blossoms out of Raj's verbal garden.
Now he's back. He sits and opens his laptop. I catch sight of his screen. It's Bible Gateway. Of course, it is.
Nope--back up! Across the floor, he glides. Table to table like a latter-day Johnny Appleseed of appreciation and cheer. He plants seeds of--I don't know what. Nobody is less than delighted by the time he departs and on to the next harvest.
What's he on about? For some reason--experience probably--I already know the answer.
There is a word for it. It's a word I didn't learn until I was way past embodying its meaning in my own youth.
NUMINOUS: having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity.
____Raj was a divine delivery system yesterday afternoon.
The message?We are beautiful. We are dear. We are appreciated.
As an encounter, it was the least offensive I've ever known.
_____ -
6
Grant Us Peace
by Terry ingrant us peace______i was 12 years old.a jesuit (substitute teacher) entered my 6th grade classroom and beamed a handsome smile.. 1959 and this was music class.our actual teacher was unable to attend and sent her priest instead!how very odd.. i had never beheld an actual catholic priest before that moment, never had a human being with such a beautiful expression appeared.there is a word for it: numinous.. his name : michael.
the archangel.. he seemed to open his arms to the classroom...to enfold us inside wings of a theatrical presence.. he spoke and we were instructed.the song was dona nobis pacem (grant us peace.
)his mouth opened.
-
-
Terry
Thank you, Vanderhoven7.
I appreciate the appreciation :) -
6
Grant Us Peace
by Terry ingrant us peace______i was 12 years old.a jesuit (substitute teacher) entered my 6th grade classroom and beamed a handsome smile.. 1959 and this was music class.our actual teacher was unable to attend and sent her priest instead!how very odd.. i had never beheld an actual catholic priest before that moment, never had a human being with such a beautiful expression appeared.there is a word for it: numinous.. his name : michael.
the archangel.. he seemed to open his arms to the classroom...to enfold us inside wings of a theatrical presence.. he spoke and we were instructed.the song was dona nobis pacem (grant us peace.
)his mouth opened.
-
-
Terry
GRANT US PEACE
______
I was 12 years old.
A Jesuit (substitute teacher) entered my 6th grade classroom and beamed a handsome smile.1959 and this was Music class.
Our actual teacher was unable to attend and sent her priest instead!
How very odd.I had never beheld an actual Catholic priest before that moment, never had a human being with such a beautiful expression appeared.
There is a word for it: numinous.His name : Michael. Of course. The archangel.
He seemed to open his arms to the classroom...to enfold us inside wings of a theatrical presence.
He spoke and we were instructed.
The song was DONA NOBIS PACEM (grant us peace.)
His mouth opened. The simple melody released.
It began ...continued...ended. A sort of dream.With him, Michael carried a violin case which opened
as the spectacular instrument caught the light ...just so...
as his head tilted and his cheek pressed against the wood as a baby's cheek against his mother's breast is pressed.This was the first violin I'd heard played outside of a tinny radio speaker.
As the ancient melody climbed aloft, Michael's voice joined in.The violin played one line as the Jesuit's voice carried underneath a harmony. This introduced a magic inside my head which, to this very day, has never left me.
We were asked to sing. Boys sang harmony;
girls, the melody.Doh oh nahhhhh
(pause) no-oh-beeeeese.....
Pah ah chem pah chem ....Doh oh oh oh nahhhh
no oh oh oh beeeese
pah ah chem, pah chem.I learned more from that music class than from all the rest.
It was more than my mind could contain or my emotions could comprehend.
I've come to conclude what I experienced was a
transcendent moment.I suddenly realized why the Catholic Church had lasted two thousand years.
_____Catholics were never taught anything compared to Jehovah's Witnesses who were indoctrinated relentlessly.
Ironically, a couple of thousand years have passed for Catholics and only one hundred for JW's and they've both
ended up in court infested by child molesters.
The simple awe of church spectacle and music the hearts of the parish inside those churches. Forgiveness
is dispensed and hearts are (seemingly) healed.
Inside a Kingdom Hall, fear of Armageddon is pounded like hammer to anvil.
So different; yet - perhaps ultimately the same.
-
17
A Song to Jehovah's Praise - rejected!
by Terry inas an obedient little jw at age 20, i was serving time in federal prison in the late 60's, and the 40 brothers inside seagoville prison decided to stage our own assembly.i was the music servant.
(we didn't have elders back then.
)the theme of the assembly mimicked the free world assemblies being held outside.long story short:i composed (what i think and everyone else thought was) a very good song titled:following the fine shepherd as the end draws near.we rehearsed it (bros who had instruments) and the consensus revealed it was a winner._____excerpt:"jehovah god above, we owe you all our love; you are our shepherd and we follow you.though satan demands, that we must compromise; we'd sooner face death than be wrong in your eyes.now and forevermore, we fear not satan's roar;you are our shepherd and we follow you.
-
-
Terry
I have had half a century to weigh the days of my prison experience carefully.
Hindsight pits the man I am against the boy I was.
In my memoir of prison, I Wept by the Rivers of Babylon, I have a conversation with myself.
Nobody learns anything from experience except AFTER the experience. Up till that point,
you go on trust, counsel, admonition, and - I suppose, a certain amount of self-interest.
The problem with a Jehovah's Witness's "conscience" is that IT DOESN'T EXIST. Not really.
Why do I say that?
Because we are not allowed to act in our own best interest. Not legitimately.
We are only deceived into thinking obedience to Watchtower results in everybody's best interest
and that is fraudulent.
I was a Conscientious Objector in name only. I acted against my own best interests under mind control.
I can say that now. I'd have argued differently, of course, back then. -
19
IRAN - An inevitable clash of civilizations just up ahead (1953-1979)
by Terry insatan peeks over the horizon in qatar :).
arbitrary borders on a map of the middle east, post wwi.. .
civilizations were uprooted.. .
-
-
Terry
waton12 hours ago
Persia ( Iran) was once the friend of Israel, when it freed the captives at the waters of babylon, and send them back rebuilding.
_____
The big change in Persia (Iran) was the invasion of Muslim armies which conquered in 651.
Iranians (Persians) were Zoroastrians until then.
Zoroastrianism was a STRONG influence on the theology of Judaism as its faith centered on a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate conquest of evil.
We in the West seem to forget the invasion of Islam into countries such as Persia and Egypt turned the culture upside down and all but entirely eradicated their psychology.
Think of Japanese culture BEFORE and AFTER the defeat and invasion of U.S. armies in 1945. -
17
A Song to Jehovah's Praise - rejected!
by Terry inas an obedient little jw at age 20, i was serving time in federal prison in the late 60's, and the 40 brothers inside seagoville prison decided to stage our own assembly.i was the music servant.
(we didn't have elders back then.
)the theme of the assembly mimicked the free world assemblies being held outside.long story short:i composed (what i think and everyone else thought was) a very good song titled:following the fine shepherd as the end draws near.we rehearsed it (bros who had instruments) and the consensus revealed it was a winner._____excerpt:"jehovah god above, we owe you all our love; you are our shepherd and we follow you.though satan demands, that we must compromise; we'd sooner face death than be wrong in your eyes.now and forevermore, we fear not satan's roar;you are our shepherd and we follow you.
-
-
Terry
Inside Seagoville Federal Institution (on the outskirts of Dallas) there were two large "congregations" of young brothers.
That's about 40 JW's from Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas mostly.
Only one brother, A.C. Williams (as I recall) gave up and told the warden he would enlist in the Army.
Sidebar: I think many (if not most) of us were admonished by the Judge who sentenced us, "At any time,
if you change your mind, you can be released from prison and go into the Armed Forces."
I know of a few others who had been attacked in jail.
I was sexually assaulted in prison.
Another brother became a "companion" to a convict which -to the rest of us - looked suspiciously like something else. Randy Wharton was his name.
Day to day life was constant mental adjustments, ratcheting up, fastening down, an inch at a time.
I said to myself, "Nothing can stop time from passing and every day is one day closer to getting out."
In my wildest dreams, my entire sentence - at worst - would last half a year. That seemed an eternity in my head. As it turned out, I went in in 67 and got out in 69 on parole until 73.
You see, I was twenty years old when sentenced under the Youth Correction Act. The maximum sentence was SIX years. Had I been twenty-one the maximum would be FIVE.
Ironic.
___
In research, years and years afterward, I discovered that all of us were fully within our rights to appeal our Draft classifications (many were not acknowledged to be real religious ministers).
The only help the Organization offered officially was a letter to the Judge - BUT - only if a brother was a full-time Pioneer (and agreed to remain so.)
Many brothers opted to go into the Full-Time Pioneer work under the proviso in their congregation the Watchtower Society officials would send a letter to be used to exempt them as legitimate ministers.
I was instructed by the congregation Overseer (Elder) and his assistant never to say to anybody I had received counseling about military service.
I was like a disavowed mercenary in a bad movie.
I was engaged to be married before I went to jail. Within a few months I got a letter reneging on our promises.
I'd hear rumors the Brothers were asking her out on dates quite often.
I tried not to see this as betrayal.
That was NOT easy!
My congregation never sent a letter or postcard of encouragement or even offered my mother a word.
Mom never failed to visit me. Jw's? Ha ha ha. Don't kid yourself. -
19
IRAN - An inevitable clash of civilizations just up ahead (1953-1979)
by Terry insatan peeks over the horizon in qatar :).
arbitrary borders on a map of the middle east, post wwi.. .
civilizations were uprooted.. .
-
-
Terry
To my way of seeing (having lived in the forties, fifties, sixties,seventies, eighties, nineties, etc),
politics is now a religious litmus test of true-believers. But it is a religion of fanatics, hot heads, and short fuses.
There is an unpleasant glimpse of how friends and relatives are AT THEIR WORST I never wanted to see.
I'd love say it's "inhuman" - but - we all know that would be wildly inaccurate. -
17
A Song to Jehovah's Praise - rejected!
by Terry inas an obedient little jw at age 20, i was serving time in federal prison in the late 60's, and the 40 brothers inside seagoville prison decided to stage our own assembly.i was the music servant.
(we didn't have elders back then.
)the theme of the assembly mimicked the free world assemblies being held outside.long story short:i composed (what i think and everyone else thought was) a very good song titled:following the fine shepherd as the end draws near.we rehearsed it (bros who had instruments) and the consensus revealed it was a winner._____excerpt:"jehovah god above, we owe you all our love; you are our shepherd and we follow you.though satan demands, that we must compromise; we'd sooner face death than be wrong in your eyes.now and forevermore, we fear not satan's roar;you are our shepherd and we follow you.
-
-
Terry
We were "manufactured" poster boys advertising the "true" religion but I never got a visit request from
anybody from the congregation other than my best friend who came out to see me one time between 1967 -1969,
When I returned to the congregation after parole, the word was "How was college?"
It was seen as a vacation rather than as prison.
I guess that's how little thought was given.
I should have spilled the beans about sexual molestation rather than acting as though I had angels with brass knuckles as body guards.
