Source

I've spent this weekend at the Jehovah's Witnesses convention, titled "Be Courageous", in Porirua. There were estimated to be 2,000 attendees. I ended up going this year because a couple of local Jehovah's Witnesses, both of which have come to my door over the last few years, made a point of visiting me earlier this week to invite me.

After my visit, I contacted an ex Jehovah's Witness friend, who was able to fill in some of the details about the conventions. They apparently happen all over the world, and have the same message, same talks, same videos, etc. As they are staggered over a period of time, some locations had already had their convention and so my friend was able to supply me with videos from a convention in the USA. Apparently there are scripts for most parts of the convention, so although there is the occasional mention of local issues, the thrust of the messages is the same over the world.

I skipped Friday, but went to the Saturday afternoon session with a fellow skeptic, and then went back by myself for the Sunday morning session.

Both days had a similar structure - singing, then one or more main sections of talks. Each section was split into five or six short talks given by a local elder, and the talks were accompanied by professionally made videos.

For saturday, firstly we were given five animals - the lion, horse, mongoose, hummingbird and elephant. They were accompanied by videos about these animals that were narrated by someone who sounded like, but definitely wasn't, David Attenborough. Next were stories of overcoming adversity from JWs in six continents, with two videos shown from each. The videos were well done, with voiceovers by english speakers who had accents matching the native language of the people telling the stories - until the Venezuelan video, which was strangely voiced by someone from Birmingham in England. One funny point was where they attempted to add drama to a story by talking about how a couple were sitting at home and then suddenly there was an ominous knock on the door. It turns out that it was the police, but it made me think of just how often around the world that ominous knock means that a Jehovah's Witness is at someone's door, trying to convert them. I've certainly heard stories in the past of elderly, vulnerable people joining the church and donating large sums of money to the church.

Sunday's segment was about the future - or at least the Jehovah's Witnesses idea of what will happen in the coming years - the end times. The videos were fictional, but all revolved around a group of elders who were steering their congregation. Each video would start with a male elder talking about one of the people they looked after, and would cut to a scenario where the person had to be courageous, before cutting back to the elder saying what lesson that person had learned.

There were some interesting points about the church and its beliefs that I noticed during the weekend:

Patriarchy

A frequent issue with religious groups is how they treat their women, and the Jehovah's Witnesses are no exceptions. Of course, a JW will tell you that their attitude to women is moral, because it comes from the bible (or, more properly, it comes from a man's interpretation of words written by another man thousands of years ago)

There were no women giving any of the talks. During our Watchtower study session on Sunday there were finally women on stage, but only men read scripture, and with only one exception when a man and woman were on the stage together to speak, the man spoke first. Often the man spoke first and last, with the woman speaking in the middle.

There were mentions of women being subservient to men, and about how selfish and independent thought is a definite no-no:

Skeptical Thoughts

Mark Honeychurch

August 19, 2018

My JW weekend

Mark Honeychurch