Trigger Warning: sexual assault, violence
The first book that I can remember reading to myself was My Book of Bible Stories, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Mom was a Jehovah’s Witness, and she wanted me to be one too.
Mom wanted peace and quiet to take a nap, but I wanted her to play a cassette tape with a recording of the book. I don’t remember why I wasn’t able to play the tape myself, but I was a spirited child. I was probably in trouble for something.
“Why don’t you read to yourself?” she asked. “You probably have the whole thing memorized by now.”
She was right. I had listened to that cassette tape so often that I could replay the tape in my head, word for word. I opened the book, and I tried to match the words I was hearing to the words on the page.
I yelled, “I did it, Mommy! I can read now!”
“Great, now leave me alone. I’m trying to sleep.” Mom said.
Below, I have summarized some stories I read as a child that disturb me to this day.
Jephthah’s Promise
It is important to keep your promises, even when you promised to enslave your only child to the tabernacle in exchange for victory over the Ammonites. Jephthah’s daughter isn’t important enough to name. What’s important is that Jephthah was really sad when he realized he would have to send her away, but he did it anyway. Remember kids, you belong to your parents. They can sell you into slavery at any time.
Read the original text at https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-stories/3/jephthahs-daughter/
The Copper Serpent
Remember how Jehovah sent the Israelites free food from heaven called manna? Those ungrateful jerks had the audacity to complain about eating the same thing every day, so Jehovah said, “Let them eat snake.” Poisonous snake. The snakes were not as high in nutritional value as manna, and they were biting and killing people, so the Israelites complained some more. Jehovah decided to help them out a little. Did He remove the snakes? No. Did He defang the snakes? No. He told His best friend Moses to make a copper statue of a snake. Whenever an Israelite got bitten by a poisonous snake, they could look at the copper snake and get better. Did you know that you are poisoned deep down inside just by being born? That’s why this copper snake is just like Jesus.
Read the original text at https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-stories/3/copper-snake/
Dinah Gets Into Trouble
You should only make friends with other Jehovah’s Witnesses. Why? This happened in the Bible, and it could happen to you. It would be all your fault. Did you know Jacob had more than twelve sons? He had many daughters as well, including one named Dinah. We know her name because she did such a bad thing. She started hanging out with strange women from another country. Then, some guy named Shechem forced her to lie down with him! Only married cis-het couples are supposed to lie down together. When Dinah’s brothers found out, they killed almost everyone. Jacob got very angry with them, and it was all Dinah’s fault for making friends with strange women.
Read the original text at https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-stories/2/jacobs-daughter-dinah/
Some denominations water down Bible stories to make them more suitable for children. They make cartoons portraying characters as cute singing vegetables. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t. It’s a point of pride for them.
Are your kid’s eyes puffy from lying awake in fear of the locust from Revelations?
That’s great! They need to be afraid of a life without the Truth. Otherwise they might start reading books outside the faith and go to college some day.