Many of us will remember, when we were members, how we were taught we were “family” and since we came to act like we were one big family, we could be quite outspoken with each other, often not using any tact whatsoever. Looking back on what certain people said can now seem ridiculous, humorous, and even crazy.
- I was having trouble with my car door and couldn’t afford to get it fixed due to financial burdens. We had just pulled up to the building for services and I was trying to slam the front car door shut and it was giving me problems. I had to try several times. All of a sudden another member a few cars away hollered out, “Tie a rope around it!”
- After services I was waiting to receive some magazines that another member told me she had for me. She seemed to be taking a long time, talking to some others, and since we had to get going, I asked her again about them, and she said, “We can’t all be perfect like you are.”
- A good friend of mine was telling me about his money woes in spite of tithing. One frustrating time, as we were walking to the meeting hall, he blurted out, “A guy feels like he ought to go rob a bank!”
- My husband hadn’t been able to attend services for awhile and I was riding to services with a woman (whose husband wasn’t there that day either). She was blabbing away in the car and because I had my mind on my husband, I wasn’t really paying attention to her. She asked me something and I didn’t know what she meant. Irritated, she said, “xxxx, get off the honey!!”
- One extroverted lady who was having some anger problems with me came up to a group of us before service and said hi to all of them except me, shaking their hands. I mentioned something about why she didn’t say hi to me and she blurted out, “When I say hi, I’m saying hi to everyone–to the whole world!”
- I decided to grow a beard since my wife said she thought I looked good with one. But the local elderly deaconess came up to me and said, “You look horrible! You ought to shave that thing off!” This was in spite of the local elder having a beard himself–until the new minister came.
- One couple lived on a farm and the wife did everything for her husband as the Proverbs 31 wife. Her husband was bragging about how she had just sewed him a suit. I made some comment about how that was really something and he said in front of her, “That’s her job, isn’t it?”
- One young fellow, who was at our home, was relating to us how the ministry had just said that Kentucky Fried Chicken had lard in it and he said, “Why did they have to tell me?” Asking what he meant, he said, “If I didn’t know, I could go on eating it.”
- We were meeting in some building for a special service and I had placed my notebook and Bible on some empty chairs near the front to save seats. I came back later when the service was beginning and found they were moved to the floor and another burly member and his wife were sitting there. I told him I had saved those seats and he said, “No, those are my seats!”
- After 1975, HWA let up on teaching that members would flee to the Place of Safety. But in the 1980s one lady who had been in a long time started telling me, “I have a lot of books picked out that my husband and I are going to take with us when we go to the caves in Petra.”
- I loved reading books and was telling a member that I liked to go to the library because they had lot of good books. She retorted, “I don’t go to the library because the books are too old.”
- One time at services I was puzzled why another member who left our fellowship seemed to be prospering and everything going good for him instead of being cursed. The member I was talking to said, “Because Satan takes care of his own.”
- I told a member that we traveled to Salt Lake City for our honeymoon. Evidently only thinking SLC equaled Mormons and their tabernacle, not realizing there was also a beautiful and very large rose garden there, exclaimed in astonishment, “Why on earth would you want to go there?!”
- During a very difficult time, I had to work out of state for awhile until I could get caught up financially. The person who told me about the job was a wealthy person in my local congregation who had ties to this job. Later I mailed a large check ($1,000 I think) to my wife who then took it to this member’s wife so she could easily get the cash for us. When this woman (who never knew a hard time financially in her life) handed over the cash, she said, “Have fun shopping!” That was outrageous. She evidently thought we were going to frivolously blow it all at once, instead of using it on outstanding bills.
- I was sick for a month due to overwork and my body being wore down. After suffering one thing after another, I got an allergic reaction from a double dose of penicillin to knock out a severe throat infection, which in turn, caused a bad rash all over my body. One member, who had no empathy, said, “Boy, he sounds just like Job!”
- There were three members I was close with. One time some of us were having problems with each other. The second one (who was evidently trying to analyze the situation) wrote me a letter and said, “When there’s three involved, it can always be kind of tricky.”
- When I was new, a lady was talking about the Place of Safety and she smilingly said that when they got to the caves in Petra, “My husband and I will have another baby.”
- A tornado was close to a lady member’s house in the country. She told me she went outside and was looking up in the sky at it approaching and kept repeating, “It’s only material possessions.”
- When I was at the Feast talking with someone, the conversation gravitated to what nationality we had in us. When I said German and Irish, they said, “That’s a dangerous combination!”
Related Material:
How I Was Gaslighted by a Former WCG Member (words of emotionally abuse; 10-2-20 letter)
Crazy Statements Made by WCG Ministers (a lot of these are humorous; e.g., #8)