JW Convention Season





Currently Jehovahs Witnesses are in 'convention season'.  Thousands of them are gathering at arenas all across the globe to hear the program for the REMAIN LOYAL TO JEHOVAH assembly.

The theme however does not fit the material being delivered to these vast audiences.  The REAL theme of these conventions is;  OBEY THE SOCIETY!

To demonstrate my claim just take a look at the video they are showing of Sonia Ericsson, a young woman who is born into a family of Jehovahs Witnesses.  Throughout her whole childhood and into her teenage years she is force fed the Watchtower, Bible and Tract Society's (WBTS) views on a daily basis. She is given no chance to explore other faiths or alternative viewpoints.  When she leaves school as a young woman she feels trapped in the organisation (and why wouldn't you?) and soon, when a young man at her work takes an interest in her, she commits (and I say this with my tongue firmly in my cheek) the terrible sin of falling in love and sleeping with him.

Now before I go on explaining the video lets take a reality check; she slept with a man that she fell in love with.  In the real world she would probably go on to move in with him, eventually marry, have children, grand children and a happy, satisfying life.  Let's make it plain that she did not murder a child, shoot Bambi's mother or kill a dozen students in high school with an AK47.  She had sex with a man she loved.

Let's look at sex amongst people that God approved of.  King Soloman had so many wives and concubines that he could not have possibly had sex with all of them in a whole year (though I bet he had fun trying).  Abraham had a concubine as well as a wife.  Jacob married two women, Rachael and Leah.  King David had at least 8 wives.  So let's not get too hung up on Sonia's 'sin' because it hardly merits a mention alongside many of Gods 'approved' ones.

However the WBTS, in their video, portray her love interest as a vile, worldly person and her 'crime' of falling in love with him and engaging in a perfectly natural act as 'SIN'! 

They then show this young woman (who incidentally is previously shown as a child dedicating her life to God in baptism, long before she is old enough to decide if she still likes Sponge Bob Square Pants) being disfellowshipped.  Why?  Because she still loves the man she is in a relationship with and she doesn't want to 'REPENT' for something she is not ashamed of.

The video then gets to the point it is trying to make.  The parents throw her out of their home and won't have any contact with her.  Her mother even ignores the phone when her daughter calls her - how would she feel if the police knocked on her door and revealed that her daughter had been raped and murdered just minutes after she had phoned her parents for help?

The video slams home the point that by shunning their own daughter those parents are showing loyalty to God and that is the most important thing.  They also claim that by shunning their daughter the parents are showing her the importance of serving Jehovah and it may 'bring her to her senses'.

Well of course it does!  She returns to the Witnesses, dumps the love of her life, admits her 'sins' and is eventually reinstated as a Jehovahs Witness.

Surely everyone watching this video has the same realisation - this girl did not return to the Witness fold because she believed in their teachings or even because she 'loved' Jehovah.  She did it because she was BLACKMAILED by this disgusting, controlling organisation.  She just wanted to regain her relationship with her mother.  She doesn't believe in what the fusty old men in Brooklyn spout - she doesn't even care what her mum and dad believe - she just wants to be able to talk to her family again and the only way she can do it is by playing by the JW rules. 

To the WBTS loyalty is earned by threats and punishments that contravene the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 

Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation...

Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

The video I have talked about is one of many being shown at the convention - tomorrow I will discuss another that almost beggars belief.

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