last night at the philly show during john blackwells drum solo prince pops out from under the stage and hands everyone in the front row of the section i was sitting in jehovahs witness pamphlets. i was just wondering...

does he do this at every show? has anyone else gotten one?

it was an amazing experience.... he came up to us and handed them out.

jonno said:

Is it an amazing experience when other JW's knock on your door? If the answer is no you were just hero worshiping.

[/quote]Is it an amazing experience when other JW's knock on your door? If the answer is no you were just hero worshiping.[/quote]

I can't wait till the next one comes to my door. I am going to start playing "The Rainbow Children" and ask for their interpretation and ask them if they have ever just "hanged" with Prince and Larry.

I will show them that I know more about Prince than they do (of course not as much as fellow Org'rs), and probably more about the Bible than they do.

Of course I am kidding. Anyone can be very selective with pulling quotes out of the Book. Take it as a Whole.

I am not trying to flame, but I have seriously wondered the following questions:

Why do Kingdom Hall's have no windows?

Why do they not have worship times posted out in front like other churches?

Rod319
[This message was edited Mon Aug 23 18:52:25 2004 by rod319]

rod319 said:

1. Kingdom Halls do have windows. Depending on the design in the country where it is located the design could vary.

2. Kingdom Halls do have at the entrance a sign showing the different meetings and times.

3. If you are interested in further information you can ask any Jehovah Witness.
[This message was edited Mon Aug 23 19:41:12 2004 by keepinitreal]

[/quote]

1. Kingdom Halls do have windows. Depending on the design in the country where it is located the design could vary.

2. Kingdom Halls do have at the entrance a sign showing the different meetings and times.

3. If you are interested in further information you can ask any Jehovah Witness.
[This message was edited Mon Aug 23 19:41:12 2004 by keepinitreal]
[/quote]

Thank you for your response. Let me give you a little background on me and maybe some other people will make these same observations where they live. Let me again say that this is intended with no disrespect.

I live in central Virginia and since Prince's conversion I probably have paid more attention to Kingdom Halls.

>99% of the ones around here do not have windows visible from the road. I grew up in a very conservative country church where there were no stained glass windows, but certainly windows (since we had no AC at one time).

Again, I have never seen a sign listing worship times visible from the road. Even my little country church listed it's one worship time on the sign. We did not list the minister's name (another conservative thing I believe).

lovemachine said:
Is it an amazing experience when other JW's knock on your door? If the answer is no you were just hero worshiping.[/quote]

umm... duh

i think its obvious that the only reason i thought it was cool was because it was prince and not some random person i dont know

i just wanted to know if this is a regular occurence at prince concerts... sheesh.

jonno said:

Uh... I'm not OK with this.

jonno said:

I didn't notice him doing this at either of the shows I've been to. So, fans give him roses, he gives them JW pamphlets??

The only JW i wouldnt shut the door on is Prince..... but then still i would just be interested in his guitar playin skillz.

He did it at both Toronto shows. I found it really funny that he poped up out of no where. I recived a pamphlet and was like OMG. I kept it but im not changing my religion just becuase Prince has.

onno said:

One intereesting thing to note is this, now don't quote me since I don't know for sure. But typically it takes anywhere between 5 to 10 years to become a JW. You have to study for many years and then you can be baptized into the faith.

So I don't think Prince is a JW yet. And from what I have heard from other JWs, is that Prince thing with the pamphlets wouldnt count as spreading the word. Also, they say for certain he isn't a JW yet, because the fact he is on tour, getting paid to entertain, means he hasn't been baptized yet adn therefore isn't a JW. Yet.

Kenshin said:

I think you're falling asleep at the wheel... where have you been?

Prince has been studying with the JWs since around '97, '98... that's 6 to 7 years ago. Plenty of time for him to have been baptized, which he was, I think last year or the year before. I read an interview on the ORG, with the elder of the hall he was baptized in.

Unless Prince is fooling everyone, I say he's been a JW for quite some time now.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

OK. Well first off, aside from listening to his music and seeing him in concert I don't follow his life. Not particularly interested.

Secondly. If he is indeed baptized. Every JW I have talked to mentions he is going against his new faith by entertaining for money. That by doing that he is blatenly going against the faith doctrine. Like its a major issue, with celebrating birthdays, and thinking Jesus was Jehova's first creation.

Again...I am not a JW, I only know what other tell me on this matter. I was just sharing. As I said, I don't particularly care what he does. As long as he play music. But I am a stickler for descrepincies, so if you told me Prince was Catholic, but belived Shiva was a part of the Trinity..I would have an issue. That's all.

Kenshin said:

I don't particularly care for his private life either, and I'm not a JW, but when his music is preaching this religion (ala The Rainbow Children) my spiritual ears perk up.

Anyway... I don't know how he is getting around that particular rule of doctrine, if that is true of their religion, I'm not sure.

It seems to me, that as long as his fortune is building a new wing on the back of a kingdom hall somewhere... I don't think they'll try and stop him from recording and performing his music.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

That I can agree with wholly. Although it is unforttunate. But oh well. I don't really care.

Kenshin said:

It is unfortunate, becuz the 'special' privileges that are made for P aren't made for others.
[This message was edited Wed Aug 25 19:45:34 2004 by Vital]

Has anyone declined it when Prince handed it and what did he say??

Vital said:

I believe other "celebrity-JW's" also have privileges, like the serena en venus williams. Winning is a thing that jehova's should not find important, yet the sisters are very competetive

I watched from the front row Friday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver, and Prince DID NOT hand out any kind of pamphlets. Maybe he's just doing it in certain cities or something.

rainbowchild said:

i'm not going to decline... but i will tell him i'm selling it on ebay if he hands me one...

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

I was in the front row three nights out of six in DC and Boston. I only witnessed the Watchtower handout once. I think he does it most nights, but you would only notice if you were on the side he came out of (the section between Mike Scott and Rhonda, where Chance does his Beyonce dance). No one made enough noise for those around us to realise he was there, and he was in semi darkness.

Max

rainbowchild said:

you cant really decline it.

its so dark that i had no idea what he was handing out and when he got to me i took it and by the time i realized what it was he had already moved on.

i dont really care though... its a great momento

Now why would entertaining for money be against the religion? JWs DO have jobs of all sorts. The only jobs I can think that wouldn't have been acceptable were elected positions or ones that was immoral in some way. Nothing immoral about entertaining in and of itself. I was a JW for years in my childhood (in Central Virginia for the person who noted the no windows). . . and either I missed that or the rules have changed. (And some beliefs certainly HAVE changed over the years.)

Oh, and it certainly doesn't take 5 or more years to be baptized . . . I think my mother was baptized after 2 years of studying.

No big deal!

AnnaStesia said:

As I stated I am not a JW nor do I claim to be some expert on this subject. From what I have been told from a handful of JWs, is that the congragation they are in has it being very typical for members to take several years to study before being baptised(this is in Chicago).

As far as the entertainment part goes, the way I understood what was told to me was that if he wasn't getting money from the tour it would be more acceptable. But getting paid to entertain, or throwing a party for money, etc...are not allowed. Logically its a flawed comparison between a job and entertaining. Yes Prince's job I guess is to entertain, but if he wrote poetry for birthday cards before converting...could he still do that job afterwards? From what I have heard, no.

I am not going to respond to anymore of these posts as I don't have the knowledge to fully explain the situation. Nor do I care to. As I said in my previous posts...I was simply saying.

Kenshin said:

Prince's Kingdom Hall is small and modest just like all the rest....no new wings....

Vital said:

Every JW gets "special" treatment....We are treated as individuals.
We all are learning and maturing as Christians. Nobody is required to be perfect...NOBODY.
If you look over the changes Prince has made over the past few years, you will see
an evolution...slowly but surely.
For example, he performed "The Work" on Jay Leno in 2000 backed by girating girls in micro mini skirts....
He performed it again in 2001 with fully clothed band members, and no girls.
All are individuals who are encouraged to apply Bible principles as one understands them.
Plus, a lot of things U guys think are "taboo" are not.

suomynona said:

I'd accept a pamphlet from Prince and read it. If he knocked on my door and asked to discuss his faith (as he's reportedly done in the Minneapolis area), I'd invite him in, offer him a soda, and talk with him. And I'd probably even accept an invitation to go to a Kingdom Hall with him, at least once.

I doubt any of this would change my position on religion. (For the record, I was raised Catholic, left the church around the age of 18 or 19, and am now an atheist.) But I would rather get information on the Jehovah's Witnesses directly from the source and come to my own conclusions, rather than rely upon third-party information that is of questionable accuracy and likely biased. I'll fully admit that I know relatively little about the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I would be interested in learning more about them, if only to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. Plus, I try to keep an open mind about things and reexamine my views from time to time, as I did when I studied philosophy in college, which is what led me to leave the Catholic church.

i am not a fan of the doctrine promoted by the watchtower society. imo there are elements of their teachings that are truly harmfuul, like refusal of life saving blood transfusions, abstention from voting. my conscience disallows adherence to this doctrine
so i wouldn't accept a pamphlet from prince, even at a concert. just my 2c. but i can definitely see how people who otherwise wouldn't accept a pamphlet might be tempted if prince proffered it.
[Edited 9/3/04 4:54am]