I was walking down the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver Wednesday afternoon, when a professionally dressed teenager handed me an out-of-date copy of “The Watchtower.”

Having read some literature on totalitarian sects, I knew he was a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“What is the best thing about your organization?” I asked with a nice smile and looking directly into his eyes.

“Well, hm…truth!” answered the kid looking at the ground.

“Truth!” I replied. “Is there something about the organization that you do not like?”

I knew exactly what he was going to answer: “no.” The members of “Jehovah’s Witnesses ” are not allowed to be critical toward what they belong to.

This is the scan of page 7 [bottom part] of the 15 December 2005 copy of “The Watchtower” that the 14-year-old kid gave me (on 1 March 2006!) in downtown Denver. The “official publication” of Jehovah’s Witnesses , as seen above, has reprinted an information piece from a Georgian [Republic of Georgia] newspaper. The article states New Year’s holiday’s pagan origin, and Watchtower republishes it to show the “evil” roots of New Year celebrations (since Witnesses of Jehovah are not allowed to have any kind of holiday celebrations/parties/birthday parties).

I asked the kid whether he knew the history of the organization. He said “no” and pointed two women sitting across the street for “reference.” I approached these women and said I had some questions.

“Why did you join the organization?” I asked one of them. “Truth,” followed the answer. “Truth?” I repeated. “How do you define truth?” I asked and received a long non-sense lecture.

My next question was again about the history of the “Watchtower,” the central body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The woman, who was basically the one to answer my questions, started to speak about Adam and Abel worshiping Jehovah and I had to interrupt her. I clarified that I was referring to the establishment of “Watchtower.”

The other woman was already becoming skeptical with my questions. “Are you writing a paper for your school?” I said “no,” but I did not say either I might post the conversation at my blog (I am not sure whether Jehovah’s Witnesses are allowed to know what blogs are).

I asked whether they knew that the former leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses had predicted that the end of the world would be the year of 1914 and that many members lost their homes, by selling those and “waiting for the day.” I received an interesting, even a critical response from one of them, “No human is perfect; we can’t know the exact date, but it is very close.”

The other lady did not want to continue the conversation, because she was convinced I was a “student writing a paper,” or simply a “spy.” She even took my picture with her cell phone, but I pretended as though as I did not notice it.

“How do you know so much about the organization?” they asked me. I said I had read opposing views on the organization and that I knew some former and current members.
“Former members???? Oh! Don’t talk to them! They are liars! You need to talk to current members to learn about the truth!”

“Have you ever talked to former members?” I responded with a smile on my face.

“No!”

“Why?” I asked.

“In order to learn how McDonalds operates, would you talk to a person who was fired instead of talking to a current employee?” I was confronted.

“I would not talk to a fired employee, but I would definitely talk to an employee who voluntarily left the job to see what s/he thought about the organization. Would not you do the same?” I asked back.

At this time they were all “convinced” I knew “too much” and I was “writing a paper.” One of them noticed my folder that said “Phi Theta Kappa” on it.

“Do you belong to a sorority?” (The poor “witness” did not even know that sorority is “An association or a society of women,” as described at www.dictionary.com.)

“No, Phi Theta Kappa is the International Honor Society for colleges.” I replied and found a good excuse to ask a few questions about education to the kid who was standing there all the time.

“How old are you?” I asked the kid. “14” he said.

“Why aren’t you at school?” I asked.

“I am home study.”

“How much time do you devote to the organization?”

“70-80 hours per month”

“How much time do you devote to your classes?”

“I do homework on Mondays and Tuesdays only and I devote the rest of the time to do Bible studies and help the organization.”

…They were ready to go, and I had nothing to add but to shake the hand of the brainwashed teen and wish him more time to do homework. “Life is change; you will learn more by growing bigger” I said.