Posts by TerryWalstrom

12

Solicitations on PM from fake JW-net members

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

12 hours agofrom sarahemily958 to terrywalstrom.

hello how are you doing today i am sarah from rhode island united state i am a new member here i am hoping to meet someone here to share some experience on how to use jw thank you hoping to hear ffrom you soon

regards : sarah

TerryWalstrom

12 hours ago

from sarahemily958 to TerryWalstrom

hello how are you doing today i am sarah from Rhode Island United State i am a new member here i am hoping to meet someone here to share some experience on how to use Jw thank you hoping to hear ffrom you soon regards : sarah ____ This is the 2nd time I've received this on PM. Am I the only one? I doubt it.

2

Come Take a Ride in the WatchTower LEAD balloon!

by TerryWalstrom in

the lead balloon: parousia.

“up, up and away in my beautiful.

.balloon,” is the lyric of a popular song from the 60’s; lifting us into the sky away from cares and woe.. .

TerryWalstrom

THE LEAD BALLOON: PAROUSIA

“Up, up and away in my beautiful. . .balloon,” is the lyric of a popular song from the 60’s; lifting us into the sky away from cares and woe.

What creates the lift? Nothing but hot air beneath a large Nylon bag.

_________________________

For dramatic purposes, let’s change one little thing by making the balloon
LEAD instead of Nylon.

Still a beautiful balloon but unable to “Up, up and away”!

All the hot air in the world wouldn’t lift off the ground.

What a crazy analogy!
Or - is it?

_________________________

IT’S ALL G(R)EEK TO ME

Jehovah’s Witnesses, run into a lot of G(r)eek words in the Watchtower printed materials.
WHY?

The New Testament is called Christian Greek Scriptures in Watchtower Society-speak. Jehovah’s Witnesses pretend to understand.
It sounds so smart to know the “true” meaning of Greek words.

For Watchtower leaders what lifts their understanding of Greek is a balloon (is a Lead Balloon) for them to lift “Up,up and away.”

They BELIEVE in their lead balloon because they are:

Amateur “scholars” who monkey with Greek

Let’s jump into our mental Time Machine and travel way back over 100 years as the founder of the Watchtower Magazine, Pastor Russell, tinkered with the exact meaning of Greek words pertaining to the RETURN of CHRIST.
**Spoiler Alert**There’s going to be a lot of hot air and no lift.

Pastor C.T. Russell mimicked his hero: William Miller.
Who was Miller?

An unschooled, self-taught Baptist, William Miller (1782-1849), preached that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.

As many as one hundred thousand people were persuaded to believe his predictions

Which proved FALSE. This has been called THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT.

2. An admiring successor Millerite, Nelson H. Barbour, monkeyed with the date for Christ’s Second Coming and taught 1873, not 1844. Barbour published his version of predictions which also failed.

3. B. W. Keith, a reader of Barbour, wrote a kind of apology or solution to this apparent “failure” of chronology which centered on a Greek word in the New Testament, Keith looked at Benjamin Wilson’s The Emphatic Diaglott, and Keith noticed a marginal alternative translation of Parousia, the Greek word normally translated ‘coming,’ The alternate meaning was: (drum roll please….‘presence.’

4. Charles Taze Russell paid for Barbour to come down from New York and during the subsequent conversation Russell became convinced Christ had indeed returned “invisibly” in 1874 because of this Parousia explanation. Enthusiastically, Russell started The WatchTower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. Not “coming” but Presence.

________________________________

THE LEAD BALLOON: PAROUSIA

______________

IF you can understand it - and want to believe it - take a ride in the balloon!

WHAT THE HELL IS AN OUSIA? (oo-see'-ah)

Ousia is not a machine gun!
Ousia is Greek and its origins are rooted in Greek Philosophy.
Pagan Greek philosophy.

(I can imagine how excited you are to learn more. Let’s continue…)

Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle concerned themselves with nature (substance) as opposed to mere appearance (essence) in regard to Truth, Reality, existence.

Note:

Plato taught “inner reality” in the Allegory of the Cave. (Where men see shadows only.) The Apostle Paul ripped off Plato’s analogy (Hebrews 10th chapter.)

Paul was from Tarsus. Tarsus was distinguished for its culture of Greek literature and philosophy.

“Was any of this important to Christianity?”

Yes. Christianity split into two pieces over it.
( 30 Christian councils met in an effort to rid Christianity of Pagan Greek Philosophy and its insidious influences. Forbidding definitions containing ousia was considered the correct approach.)

Christianity divided into two parts.
1. Roman Catholic Church in the Western part of the Empire
2. Eastern Greek Orthodox branch
Why? They couldn’t agree on (homo-ousious) the nature and reality of Jesus!

That damned Greek ousious!!

_________________________

THE NITTY GRITTY (i.e. “Where the rubber meets the road:)

Let’s take a closer look at ousia.

To think about something we need to distinguish what it is.
What is the nature of -- a dog?
Which dog?
My dog, Pepita in particular as a specific dog apart from all others in the category of DOG.

4th Century B.C.E. Aristotle would say Pepito is the (hypostasis) substance and the categories are the (ousia) essence.

4th Century C.E. Christianity argued homo-ousios : is Jesus a. Man b. God c. Man/God

19th Century C.E. Pastor Russell would argue about parousia in the same way.
The Nature of Christ’s return specifically: he can be present without being visible.

One might say, “Grampa is here with us today in spirit.”

This is how Pastor Russell explained the Return of Jesus and why He couldn’t BE SEEN WITH THE NAKED EYE. If Jesus returned in the flesh, there would be hypostasis.

________________________

“I’ll be back!” (the Terminator)

________________

Did Cyborg from the future mean “I’ll be back” literally or figuratively?

Does it matter?
Well - Duh!

Pastor Russell and Nelson Barbour were not qualified as Philosophers, or even Christian ministers. They were qualified as crackpots.

“Where is the evidence, we can’t see Jesus?”

“Aw, don’t worry about that--he meant parousia-essence and not hypostasis-substance.”

THIS IS THEIR LEAD BALLOON

To get their crank teaching off the ground a bit of Greek razzle-dazzle pumped hot air into their rhetoric.

Parousia is a kited check with no funds in the bank to back it up.
Parousia is an excuse to explain failed predictions for the second coming of Christ.

_________

Here is a True or False test of sanity: Do you believe a guarantee of something invisible?

Here is the Watchtower / Governing Body official proof of insanity.

Watchtower guarantee of 1975.PNG

Pastor Russell demonstrated an idiot belief in these Ironclad (lead) Balloon teachings:

The Last Days began 1799
Jesus Parousia started 1874
Jesus started ruling in heaven in 1878
The Gentile Times would end in 1914

Judge.Rutherford was “assured” of the return of ancient worthies resurrection in 1925.

He tested credulity with assurances and when nothing happened, insanity replaced Faith.

"In the year 1943 the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society published the book "The Truth Shall Make You Free." This moved forward the end of six thousand years of man's existence into the decade of the 1970's. Naturally this did away with the year 1874 C.E. as the date of return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of his invisible presence or parousia. Page 324 of the above book positively says: "The King's presence or parousia began in 1914."" God's Kingdom on a Thousand Years Has Approached p.209

_____________

The core beliefs of JW’s have been tested again and again with persuasive guarantees and reassurances. Big colorful assurances like Bright Balloons made of lead.

WatchTower had no clue as to the distinction between OUSIA and HYPOSTASIS and that ignorance has cost them and their followers suffering and embarrassments!
Many have died, become disillusioned, lost their faith, and turned to atheism and have been targeted as enemy apostates.

The sole duty of Jehovah’s Witnesses has been (over 100 years) to hand out invitations to the next Balloon Ride to unsuspecting passengers.
Lawsuits are piling up over injuries sustained.
You see, lead is not only too heavy to lift off -- it is poisonous as well.

(On the anniversary of my JW best friend's death, I've reached into my archive to replay this incident in his honor) The Remarkable Sister *Pettifog*

________

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 tossed off a few uninteresting statistics about how many days I’ve ridden my bicycle without relying on an automobile.

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 ago when last I saw you. I don’t expect you’d remember me but I remember you because my great grandmother use to tell me how much you reminded her of her favorite movie star, Randolph Scott.”

Straightaway, I put 2+2 together! I knew exactly who she was talking about--after all, nobody else in the whole world had ever said I looked like Randolph Scott but one lady!

“You’re talking about **Mildred Pettifog, aren’t you?”

This lady about fell over when I pulled that rabbit out of the hat!

“How in the world--I mean--that’s impossible you should say that. How--how do you know that?”

I explained the instant connection and invited her to sit. I could see she wanted to talk.

She was probably in her 50’s but who can really tell, right? She was jovial, keen-eyed and pleasant. All the while I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I’m a former Jehovah’s Witness and that is a ticking time bomb in one of these conversations. Until they find out you’re not one of them--they’re friendly.
If they are still JW, the second you tell them they’ll flee in terror at the prospect an “Apostate” might be talking to them.

It came as a huge relief when she took the initiative to tell me she had escaped from the clutches of the Organization ( the main autocrats in charge.)

We swapped horror stories and gossipy tidbits for awhile until she was just about ready to leave. Then she stopped and gazed out into the middle distance and dredged up a memory to relate to me. After I heard it, I sort of sat dumb with my jaw hanging open. This nice former JW told me a little story about Sister **Pettifog, her great grandmother.

___________________

The first time I encountered Mildred Pettifog she was a full time Pioneer knocking on stranger’s doors. (“Pioneer” means is she engaged in a door to door neighborhood ministry to achieve one hundred hours each month as a required ministerial quota.)
Yes, she was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and had been brought up as a Bible Student since the late 19th century.
In case that means nothing to you, think of it this way, the Civil War was fought 15 years before Mildred was born.
To gain a perspective, just think about the day airplanes flew into the World Trade Center in your own lifetime. That was 15 years before I’m writing this today.

By the time I was introduced to her (1960), this interesting little bundle of dynamite was already 80.

In today’s world, older women chase after eternal youth cosmetically in ways which hide or disguise the aging process. Hardly anyone actually knows what an old person would look like without this lavish attention to diet, exercise, Botox, facelifts, and youthful stylishness. However, back in 1960, when I first attended the Fort Worth Kingdom Hall as a guest, old ladies looked like old ladies.

For example . . .

Sister Pettifog sported a funny little purple hat riveted to the back of her head by a long hat pin with an improbably large pearl on its end about the size of a Robin’s egg. Her hair was mostly silver-white tinged with an incomprehensible blue tint.

What a face this lady had!

This elderly Sister flashed a crinkled smile and possessed large brown eyes like a puppy in a pet store window eager for adoption. Her skin was quite pale and her cheeks radiated a pinkish orange circle of something she said was “rooj” (rouge) a proper style back in the olden days. Once seen, Sister Pettifog was not soon forgotten!

Her dresses appeared to be handmade on her old Singer sewing machine using striped or polka dot patterns prudently selected at the local fabric shop. The steel rimmed bifocals framed her wide-set eyes perfectly and bestowed an impression of quiet intelligence and wisdom.

Sister Mildred always wore so much perfume you could tell if she was within a half mile of where you stood. Her favorite scent, Jungle Gardenia, had replaced her previous all-time passion, Chanel No. 5. I was told all this on the spot, of course, by the lady herself within 5 minutes of meeting her.

Although everybody who met Sister Mildred loved her instantly, the effect of that powerful perfume was devastating! It was like taking a large stone and tossing it in a small still pool of water--the splash and waves and ripples seemed to reach out in all directions tossing people’s nostrils hither and thither in pandemonium!

The most remarkable aspect of Mildred Pettifog’s persona was the fact she was one of the elite anointed members at our Kingdom Hall.
(At the time, it was special - very special. In recent years, the ruling Governing Body has taken all that special cachet for themselves alone.)

What did it actually mean to be “anointed” by holy spirit as a JW?

Sister Pettifog had what was known as “a heavenly calling.”

Rank and file Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t set their hopes on going to heaven when they die.
No, not at all!
The vast majority aim for an “Earthly hope.” Life everlasting in a new Eden.
Scant few possess the interior tingle of a self-aware frisson. (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 denomination really is.

Don’t worry about that right now, suffice it to say Mildred Pettifog was a rare individual viewed with almost “magical” specialness (although no JW would ever employ the word “magic.”)

Until fairly recently, the eight million of Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the world were under the impression the “anointed” got direct messages from the heavenly realm tipping them off about sacred secrets and advance prophetic divinations. These whisperings were better than stock market tips! (Although none has ever paid off).

Certainly this was the case when I was introduced.
The person introducing me spoke in a sudden and respectful hushed tone of awe in their voice as Mildred’s name was intoned. This created a funny feeling inside of me too. The psychology of awe is quite contagious! Sort of like, “Ya wanna meet Elvis?”

Now you may be wondering why I’m telling you all this about one little old lady, right? In the grand scheme of things, it means nothing to you, of course.
Well, don’t be so sure. Give me a couple of more minutes to relate my story and you might just change your mind. Fair enough?

Let’s begin . . .

________________

Before I met him, my future best friend Johnny had gone through a sudden ‘conversion experience’ after a conversation with Mildred Pettifog. He was only 9 years old at that time.

Sister Pettifog had knocked on his door and his mother Jenny had answered. Much to his surprise and horror, Jenny started cussing out the old lady and slammed the door in her face after only a few moments of discussion of the Bible.

Johnny felt his world crash about him. After all, his mom Jenny was NOT that kind of person. She was a charming, affable, and a genuinely kind woman. Why had she been so vulgar and rude to the old lady?

Johnny told me the whole story many decades afterward.

Johnny’s parents moved to Fort Worth from South Texas and had dressed up special to go to the nearby Baptist Church for the first time taking all their kids with them (Johnny, Judy, JoAnn, Vicki).
Upon arrival, the Pastor of the all white church pulled them aside and not-too-politely instructed them to go to the “Mexican” Baptist Church three miles distant.
Why?
“You folks will feel more comfortable there.”

Johnny’s father was from a Spanish family and his skin was deep hued in an era in which race relations in the South were testy, judgmental, and volatile.

Following this stinging and hurtful embarrassing rejection, Jenny and Steve disavowed church in a fit of righteous indignation, nursing their tender feelings self-isolated from fellowship of any sort.

The arrival of Sister Pettifog at the door that day was ill-timed at the “worst possible” moment for raw emotions triggering an unfortunate outburst from Jenny Santa Cruz.

9-year-old Johnny ran after the old lady and apologized to her for his mother’s tantrum and insults.
Sister Pettifog was jovial and forgiving. She invited Johnny to sit with her once a week for a private Bible study. He leapt at the offer being of an especially open and intelligent frame of mind given to a natural curiosity about the Divine.
So powerful was the teaching and personality of Sister Pettifog, in no time at all she was studying with the rest of Johnny’s family, overcoming all objections, answering questions and amazing them with her uncanny grasp of all the spiritual secrets of the Almighty Jehovah!

The upshot of this incident will now make more sense to you with this background in place.
For, you see, Johnny became my best friend some 3 years after that incident and he began bombarding me with religious conversation from day one. A kind of apostle of Pettifoggery.

When I attended the local Kingdom Hall with him my first time, it was fated to be my first meeting with Johnny’s favorite person in all the world of Jehovah and anointing: Sister Pettifog!
It was Johnny’s tone of hushed awe which made my spine tingle when Sister Pettifog took my hand and told me, “You remind me of my favorite movie actor, Randolph Scott!”

We’ve now squared the circle on all the background, haven’t we?
Yes, I think so.
I became a Jehovah’s Witness 3 years later. Within 20 years I’d be an Ex-JW while Johnny remained entrenched and immovable for the rest of his life.
(He died at age 69. We had not spoken for years because of JW religious shunning practices when a member stops being a member.)

___________

Back to the great granddaughter’s story related to me this morning!

_________

At this point, I’ll try my best to give you the story as told to me by the great granddaughter. . .

“The first time my great grandmother said one bad thing about the WatchTower organization I thought I was going to have a heart attack! It was like a bomb went off in my head! Granny Mildred is the one person most able to turn a Bible study into a Baptism. She had a way about her. She was not just the best; she was the best of the best. But, as you well know, the Truth, so-called, of the WatchTower organization has a way of changing infrequently with a strange anonymity to the process. 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 horrible things she claimed the Organization had done over the years to prove they were NOT the true religion! I kept telling her not to continue. I was panicking! I immediately thought of rushing her to the hospital. It was obvious to me--or so I thought--she had suffered a stroke and wasn’t responsible for her words!”

“It took her almost a year to deprogram me! 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 stand it. How could she pretend this was still “The Truth”?

“Granny smiled and explained she could do a whole lot more good ‘undercover’ than as an Apostate, because nobody was allowed 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 laughing out loud. This was amazing me! I begged for details. The granddaughter glanced at her watch. She had to go shortly but she said she’d tell me this one thing Granny always did when she was around young Witnesses.

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. . . .

“I was born the year after the WatchTower was first published. My parents were among the first Bible Students to subscribe. Pastor Russell taught the Time of the End had begun in 1799 when Napoleon took the Pope hostage. You don’t know that, naturally. The organization finds that embarrassing. Pastor Russell taught Jesus returned in 1874 invisibly. You don’t know that either, of course. Pastor Russell used measurements on the Great Pyramid to predict 1914. The Pastor assured all of us, 1914 was Armageddon! Until the 1930’s, Pastor Russell’s successor, Judge Rutherford, continued the Pyramid nonsense! Guess what? We were all surprised when everything we had been taught--everything we had been teaching our friends and neighbors was sudden changed overnight--and no longer the Truth anymore!
By that I mean this.
Judge Rutherford finally changed everything by moving dates forward just like it was nothing--game pieces on a board! Lots of Brothers and Sisters fell away over the years because they were more loyal to the Bible than to the changes the WatchTower kept on springing! Can you imagine that? Just think how I felt as a young girl and then as a teenage woman to have to erase everything I was told was true and just pretend it never happened! But let me tell you--I was not faithful to the Bible--no sir! I stayed faithful to the Organization! I knew I was going to heaven no matter what the Governing Body decided was true! I didn’t graduate from High School or go to college. You know why? Because Armageddon was coming in 1914--what good would a worldly education do for me?
But it never happened!
Then, when I was 45 years old, Armageddon came again. By that I mean this--it did NOT. It was ‘supposed to’.
But, once again, we remained loyal to Jehovah’s Organization--never mind the Bible. The Bible says “No man knows the day and hour.” Well, that didn’t seem to faze Brother Fred Franz! Franz was like an Old Testament prophet. If he said it--it was considered true.
He came up with 1975 as the End of six-thousand years of human existence . That’s what he called it. That’s code for: Armageddon.
We all knew time was short by the time I was in my 90’s because we, the anointed, were dying off. We, the anointed Generation of 1914, had to still be alive to SEE the end. Our life was the Countdown Clock. Each year, more of us anointed would die and that proved Armageddon was getting closer and closer. I’m 98 years old. I was 95 the last time Armageddon didn’t come. You understand? That was 3 years ago we were taught the world was ending because of Earthquakes, famine, wars, and I suppose the heartbreak of psoriasis too--except IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. So many have gone away now. They lost faith in Jehovah’s Organization. But, not me! I’m faithful and loyal to the bitter end.”

The granddaughter shook her head in wonderment at the words she related to me 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. (With a wink.)

“I have friends who never married because of that, too. They have no kids or grandkids because we were assured 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. But, I went ahead and married and I had beautiful kids and grandkids. Do you suppose I’m sorry? 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.”

Then Granny would walk away leaving those young JW’s with a dazzled expression of pure horror and puzzlement behind.

I asked if any Elders ever gave her a good stern talking to.

“Oh for heaven’s sakes! 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--like 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 letter disappeared and was never read or mentioned by anybody. I was asked if I knew anything I needed to tell--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 catch the telltale irony.”

Then, the granddaughter had to leave. I thanked her for stopping to talk to me.

“How long after your grandmother died did you start to fade?”

She turned to go and stopped. Her tongue flicked out to lick her lower lip reflectively.

“It was probably the day after her funeral.”

_________________

She really made my day

I sat and shook my head for awhile.

Her great grandmother was directly responsible for my best friend Johnny’s captivation with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Johnny, in turn, was responsible for my indoctrination leading to eventual imprisonment later on during the Vietnam War.
I, in turn, was a Pioneer who held many Bible studies and had several baptisms occur. The chain-of-abuse was finally broken, of course.

I became an Activist writing books whistleblowing the inside story of WatchTower deceit.

Yet--I really have to hand it to the lady who thought I looked like Randolph Scott. She takes the cake! She was a secret agent activist for the last years of her life and she got away with it. I’d love to know how many young people she spoke to whose minds were changed or jarred or awakened by her cunning testimony?

She really and truly was the Remarkable Sister Pettifog!

_________________

Terry Walstrom

**Note: I have changed the lady's name at the request of her granddaughter. I told her I wanted to write about her. She is still 'estranged' as an ex-JW fader. I've honored her request.

39

What a Bad Day for Democrats

Bishara Sirhan, the father of RFK assassin, was a member in good standing as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

At least, the Elders and notables in his neighborhood had singled him out as such when they snitched to authorities and to newspaper reporters at the time of Robert Kennedy’s murder.

Bishara was living 20 miles northeast of Jerusalem in Israeli-occupied Jordan at the time.
Bishara spoke fluent English. Unfortunately for him, he had a reputation for being excitable, even volatile at times.

Sirhan Sirhan’s father remonstrated with reporters:

“I am very, very sorry! I brought up my children as best as I could and to fear God. I am sorry for what happened.”

Bishara had moved his family to the U.S. in the 1950’s, remaining 11 years before he split with his wife and returned to Jordan where he built his home. In a public show of piety, he had inscribed on his wall in Arabic:

“Jehovah the High, you gave me happiness in the world. Give me eternal life. You are the only God and nobody shall be worshiped before you.”

Neighbors made it clear to reporters how they felt about other religious neighbors when they said they looked down on JW’s because they were too ”pro-Jewish.”

___________

Photocopy of newspaper article: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1798&dat=19680606&id=j0QgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JIwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7123,578715

___________

This was reported June 6, 1968, when the newspaper in Sarasota published the article.
What consequences followed? In less than 24 hours, I heard about it.

At the time, I was a Jehovah’s Witness serving an indeterminate sentence of possibly 6 years in the Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution.
Why “indeterminate”?
I was not yet legally an adult. Adult sentence guidelines called for up to 5 years in prison for violation of the Universal Military Training and Service Act. However--a non-adult could get the “indeterminate” sentence of six months to six years depending on factors yet to be determined by parole hearings.

This was during the Vietnam War and JW’s were urged by local congregation leaders to make ourselves targets of prosecution as conscientious objectors.
When news the news arrived in Seagoville of the rumor connecting assassination of RFK with Jehovah’s Witnesses it created a tremor.

The impact on the 40 or so Jehovah’s Witnesses in prison was mild panic. At least, that’s how I would characterize it. A fellow JW inmate named Sam explained the implications to me in no uncertain terms.

“This could be the beginning of the Great Tribulation,” he began. “The persecution could arrive and we’re sitting ducks if the other prisoners decide to take revenge.”

I listened quizzically. I had a dim grasp of politics as many JW’s did. We only knew what we learned as framed by Watchtower rhetoric. The buzz was already in the air about 1975 being “The End of 6,000 years of Human Existence.”

“Hang fire a minute, Sam--let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Why would anybody attack conscientious objectors who refuse to take up arms?”

Sam gave me a look of wonderment that I could be so naive.

“Jehovah’s people are despised because we self-identify as detached from our fellow man - defiant and pure.
All folks need is one little excuse to blame us for something--like the son of a Jehovah’s Witness murdering President Kennedy’s brother!”

I thought about what he was saying, but I didn’t feel panic, only worry. It just sounded possible but far-fetched.

“Well--I don’t know why I should be upset. You’re the only one who’s said anything so far. Besides, isn’t Jehovah supposed to be protecting us?”

Sam made an exasperated face at me--like I was clueless.

“There are such things as martyrs, you know!”

I had to laugh. Soon Sam laughed as well.
The over-dramatic statement struck us as excessive.

“We’ll wait and see. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

______________

Sunday June 9, 1968, the Washington Post printed an article taking things a step farther.

A reporter from the prestigious Washington Post was welcomed into Bashar Sirhan’s home overlooking the Dead Sea as cold beer was delivered. The reporter asked the assassin’s father about his connection with the Jehovah’s Witness ‘sect’ (presumably from the eleven years spent in California). This was only a few days after the first news article mentioning the JW’s. This time, Bishara refused to talk about it directly and complained about his gossiping neighbors. Finally, he shrugged away prying questions ‘with some irritation’ by saying, “These are confidential matters.”

(PDF copy of Washington Post article)

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/K%20Disk/Kennedy%20Robert%20F%20Assassination%20Clips/Item%20111.pdf

Ironically, Sirhan joined the Baptist church and was briefly a Seventh-day Adventist. In 1966, two years before he would kill Kennedy, he turned to an occult organization called the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis, or the Rosicrucians.
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These two publicized mentions of Jehovah’s Witnesses had created an effect.

Watchtower Society was ‘crisis prevention’ mode.

Do we have to wonder why?

Subscribers to the Watchtower magazine had immediately begun canceling subscriptions!

Subscriptions were obtained door to door in person, a laborious process at best. Each canceled subscription represented hundreds of man-hours of grunt work (called our ministry.)

A secret letter was sent to each city by the Watchtower headquarters with instructions not to show the contents of said letter to any outsiders. The message was to be copied and passed from congregation to congregation. Headquarters didn’t seem to know any details of any JW connection with the Sirhan family. A vigorous denial was suggested unless anybody at the local level had contrary personal information.

The letter is dated a month after the news article appeared.

Photocopy of confidential letter:

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http://watchtowerdocuments.org/documents/1968_Watchtower_letter_on_Kennedy.pdf

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I was 18 when Robert Kennedy’s brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been murdered not all that far from where we now served out our time in prison.

JFK’s assassination was the most sensational, world-stopping event in my lifetime.

I was in High School on November 22, 1963, and one day later submitted to baptism and became officially a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses at assembly in Cleburne, Texas.
(Oddly during that religious assembly, not one word was spoken concerning the sensational murder the day before! It was all an oblivious, self-induced happy-happy New World Society talk and religious jabber.)

Among Jehovah’s Witnesses, every single world event is proof positive of End Times signs and wonders! This is how newspapers and newscasts are filtered through their consciousness. Everything “proves” we were right! Any minute now--the Great Tribulation and Armageddon will come and sweep everything and everybody but--US! We were “the only true religion.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses are self-focused on purpose, you see.
Only us. God’s chosen.
JW’s are indoctrinated to expect to be the bullseye of Satan’s target when the End comes.
This is (cough cough) predicted in advance in scripture.
Such a badge of honor turned to horror having the words “Jehovah’s Witness” smeared in newspapers with a world-shaking assassination.
Being so self-involved, self-centered, and special meant: ”This is it!”
THE END OF THE WORLD was beginning and we were trapped!
Oh the silly drama!

54 years have passed and the Watchtower religion is still promoting the world’s GOING OUT OF BUSINESS sale.

At District conventions with huge audiences in attendance, the Watchtower presents slick video dramatizations about---guess what? The bunker mentality they are still promoting!

Any day now the Great Tribulation and Armageddon will come. Will they be ready?

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Back to Sirhan Sirhan

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On June 7 in Los Angeles, a News Dispatch:

In this more detailed news story, the Elders in Bishara’s community (whom he called ‘gossips’) provided news reporters with these tidbits of enlightenment:

“The Elders said the family became connected with Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘many years’ ago. And it was that religious group which paid the way for the Sirhan family to go to the United States in 1957. These notables said they believed Bishara still received money from the Jehovah’s Witnesses in addition to money sent by his other son.

When asked, Sirhan claimed he lived off a ‘small pension’ and a bit of farming. The article explained that Jehovah’s Witnesses had been banned in Jordan in 1959, but had continued to operate secretly, particularly in the old Arab sector of Jerusalem.

Los Angeles authorities reported that Sirhan had been admitted into the U.S. as a permanent resident who could remain indefinitely without applying for citizenship.”

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The Palestinian-born Sirhan is serving a life sentence for gunning down Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after he won the California Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy died the next day.

Sirhan was sentenced to death in 1969. His sentence was commuted to life in prison after California banned the death penalty.

He has said that he had no recollection of the killing.

48 years after the fatal shooting, Sirhan Sirhan was denied parole for the 15th time.
He’ll go up again in 2021.

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Why did Sirhan Sirhan kill RFK?

At the time of his arrest, Sirhan spoke of being “. . .opposed to Kennedy’s support of Israel.”

What are Jehovah’s Witness views on Zionism and Israel?

In 1946, during the time the horrors of the holocaust were emerging, the Watchtower made the following comments about Jews.

"Nothing in the modern return of Jews to Palestine and the setting up of the Israeli republic corresponds with the Bible prophecies concerning the restoration of Jehovah's name- people to his favor and organization … The remnant of spiritual Israelites, as Jehovah's Witnesses have proclaimed worldwide the establishment of God's kingdom in 1914" Let God Be True (1946) Second ed. pp.217-218

"There is no evidence in the Scriptures that the Jews as a people are meek. On the contrary, Jehovah's Witnesses only find it stated in the Bible that the Jews are "stiff-necked and hard-hearted", but when they call at their homes with the message of God's kingdom they witness the same characteristics. They seem to think that because they are Jews, and were once God's chosen people, they must ever remain that way." Consolation 1946 Jan 2 pp. 14,15

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Historical note: Jehovah’s Witnesses had spent the previous 60 years as Pro-Zionists. Suddenly, a 180 degree shift appeared contrary to that stance.

[Watchtower 1955 May 15 p.296, and the "back to Palestine" movement that the Watchtower had promoted became labeled as a teaching of Satan:

"By the publication of Volume 2 of the book Vindication that year, Jehovah's witnesses came to see that such a "back to Palestine" movement was by the spirit of Jehovah's archfoe, Satan, who has deceived the entire inhabited earth."] http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/zionism.php

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The Question now arises, could Sirhan Sirhan in any way have been influenced by the writings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in some disturbing way, seeing in print the Zionists were backed by Satan?

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We may never know, but it is a question I’ve heard asked. The Watchtower’s reaction to the mention of Jehovah’s Witness connection to the RFK killing may have brought to mind this anti-Zionist propaganda they were responsible for spreading. Did the collective leadership feel a sense of responsibility? Did their eagerness in trying to distance themselves indicate awareness of culpability, guilty conscience, or simply a desire to prevent the loss of subscribers?

Like I said, we may never know.

Conspiracy theories spring up easily like mushrooms after a spring rain and they are as difficult to snuff out as a forest fire.

This is my personal memory of those dark days in prison, in a decade of upheaval, when I was in the thrall of a cult myself, self-sacrifice of freedom for Belief followed undue influence of my elders.
If Jehovah said, "Frog", I was told it was my duty to respond by saying, "How high do I jump?"

The only hopping I do since I left the cartoon mentality of the Watchtower religion is at the iHop pancake house.
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