Thesadpandagod - The Sad Panda God

Jehovah’s Justice

So about that new light, and who they chose as center figure for that. 

A while back the Mormons got flack on this site for their skin lightening teaching. Well, the Jehovah’s Witnesses deserve as much if not more flack for their racism. 

For anyone out of the loop, the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe paradise will emerge on the planet itself after Armageddon, after which everyone who wasn’t preached to in all of history is revived to be preached to. They recently slightly changed it to mean that the sinners can’t actually commit new sins during the thousand year trial period, and they made a whole video display about that.

The change is trivial, but what’s really jarring is this character.

We’ve seen this guy before in previous propaganda; he was one of a lineup of revived people shedding their culture. The rest of the line up is gone, he’s central now and he’s got an additional African indigenous man and a conquistador, all resurrected, as backdrop.

He’s reborn in his traditional clothing and with the longer hair, but minus his decorations; things that are considered sinful for a man to wear who are to be without any decoration, and even for a woman as they’re bright and take in addition rather than being subtle.

“In their former lives, some of them practiced horrible, vile things.”

Like this white guy being genocidal towards native people and the native guy … dancing shirtless and with ornaments around a fire as part of a (very badly replicated) cultural custom. Sure, Watchtower Society, those are definitely, clearly the same kind of horrible, vile things. Definitely. /sarcasm

“… so they’ll need to learn to live by Jehovah’s standards. Who will teach these unrighteous persons?”

Who indeed.

Fun fact : all old cultures will be pulverized by meteorite strikes, and all new buildings will be in the westernized JW style. There is no home to go to.

His willingness to be taught is then demonstrated by starting to wear a western shirt; unlike the conquistador, who stays in his heathen buttonless shirt as a sign that he somehow wouldn’t agree with the new new world.

Who better than white people to show indigenous people the wonders of nature. It’s not like indigenous people have been practicing ethnobotany, controlled fires, hunting that uses all parts and pesticide free agriculture for eons and are currently prime advocates for respectful coexistence with nature. No sir, paradise is pristine parks where everyone always wears their Sunday best.

“They will need to develop a relationship with Jehovah …”

They have redrawn the former painting to emphasize the guy’s hair being too long and unruly by JW standards …

… so it stands out more when it’s cut in the next shot. 

Unseen Tears.

That’s how his relationship with Jehovah progresses, through the only clear trait he was introduced with : his culture and its removal. There’s no indication he committed real crimes like the conquistador, but by Jehovah’s Witness standards, his culture is a sin. All the world is ruled by Satan, who created various cultures to offend Jehovah. Growing closer to Jehovah means to be …

Taught to loathe their own culture

“… and dedicate their lives to him.”

A century of trauma at U.S. boarding schools for Native American children

“What a privilege it will be to see obedient humans become free of the burden of sin and death, and gain perfection.”

Death by civilization

Look at the guy in orange. That’s supposed to be a resurrected Israelite.

In older illustrations they would sometimes feature people in Asian or even African garb, this has also disappeared. The only cultures now allowed in Paradise is modern white and their generic concept of Israelites. Suspiciously pale Israelites who occasionally have blond hair.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in a resurrection with a trial period of thousand years, during which people who did not yet have the chance to convert are indoctrinated. If they do not convert, they will be killed. 

Everyone else becomes the immortal inheritor of the planet under the all white male heavenly government, who will run a monoculture in a worldwide park.

The staff could have chosen a drug addicted teen with spiky as the centerpiece of their message about growing into a good church boy for their disturbing post genocide fantasy, but they chose to aim it at indigenous cultures.

At this time. Apparently they looked at the news about the residential school massacres and decided that yes, now is the time to double down on the cultural purge theme. It must have been inspirational to them.

Imagine being murdered by one of those schools, waking up to a strangely paved over, unnatural version of the world you knew, and be told that the Christianity they made you convert to was wrong, and you have to convert to this other type of Christianity in this new school or you will be killed again.

That’s what Jehovah’s Witnesses hope and pray for : that they get to reenact global colonization with the backing of supernatural forces.

I just watched infinity train season two, and the main character is amazing! When you leave you a cult you don't just have to rebuild how you view the world, but also yourself. You have to stop trying to change yourself. You have unlearn the teachings that condemned individualality. You have to loudly scream that "I exist!" The character's whole arc revolves around these ideas making her extremely relatable.

Characters that I hold close to my heart as an ex-cult kid

The entire cast of The Path (Hulu) • Venus, Jupiter and Neptune of We Know The Devil (PC game) • Rapunzel (fairy tale) • Lapis Lazuli of Steven Universe • Aziraphale and Crowley of Good Omens (Gaiman & Prachett) • Lake of Infinity Train • Bucky Barnes of Marvel • Mark Grayson of Invincible (Kirkman) • Abigail Hobbs of Hannibal (NBC)

from one chronically anxious person to another: the world is not going to go up in flames. What happens will be more slow, more bureaucratic, more boring. There is no catastrophe to end all catastrophes, no rapture, no sudden end. You can't give into the call of the void, because there is no void. So you just have to do the work to make tomorrow a better place, anyway. Because that's how it gets better.

you will not be stuck here forever.

they will guilt you and force you to attend every meeting and participate in every activity but one day you will be gone and they won't be able to control you anymore.

one day you will not be forced to find solace in church bathrooms.

I feel bad for the non-cult friends I have sometimes because they always ask "How are you :) ?" so innocently. They say they genuinely want to know cause I hold back, and it's nice to have that support. Still, it feels bad to always have a new horrible thing happen that's shaken you.

Sure I'm growing so much as a person and I love that, but I'm also dealing with my parents increasingly abusive behavior and struggling to organize my escape plan. All anyone can really do is say "It will get better!" Truely I believe that too, yet I still have to suffer now and I cant make myself ignore it anymore. I'm tired of being miserable no matter what I do. Everything that can be done has been, so now I helplessly flounder.

Even to this blog, it feels bad to not offer any insight or clear hope. I've seen so many people in similar situations who aren't lucky enough to know they should be done with this in less than a year. I just wish it would stop hurting...

 tbh i fully believe that healthy kids should be getting in some stupid trouble.

like, a child that’s in trouble all the time, frequently skipping school, getting caught doing crimes? that’s a kid that desperately needs literally any positive attention. that kid needs help. obviously.

but a child that is perfectly well-behaved, never speaks up for themself, is seen and not heard? that’s a child that’s afraid. they also need help.

25000 likes!

Horrifying but also awesome

god would never let me into heaven bc i am so much prettier than him and hes jealous

Also graduations were big because they were the only excuse we had to give more elaborate presents. Plus my family would allow non witness family come to those events, it was nice.

Jehovah Christmas- a funny (and hypocritical) family tradition.

Now, I’d like to stress that no, we do not call this event ‘Jehovah Christmas’. While I think suggesting that name would get my sister to laugh- I doubt any of the devout family would be happy about it. Instead it is boringly called ‘The November Party’ but I want to suggest a different name.

This family tradition came about last year, before we locked down fully for COVID. It’s a two day event- one day for gifts, the next for food. With that in mind, it’s more of a Christmas / Thanksgiving combo than a unique tradition.

On the first day, the third Friday of every November, we each (8 of us total) get each other a gift, nothing extravagant but there is no hard price limit. We keep gift bags labeled with our names on a big table, and we all just put our gifts in the bags after wrapped. We all open them, taking turns taking a single gift out of your bag. The following day, my dad and grandma cook a big Thanksgiving-like spread. And then, for the one time a year we do this- we eat together at the big table.

This tradition was obviously born out of a desire to celebrate holidays without really celebrating them. I can’t remember who’s idea it was, though I can assure you it wasn’t mine. While I see the obvious hypocrisy here, I’m not going to bring that up and dash away the chance for my sister to experience that little bit of the holidays. Plus, I love it and wish they had done it when I was a kid.

Anyways, if you and your families had any fun traditions like that, please share them because I’d love to hear.

A moment of light during the siege