Vol. 7, No. 8, 1990

Watchman Fellowship Travels To India: East Is East and West is West, But This Is REALLY East!

Rick Branch

The lady on the other end of the phone explained her brother had gotten involved with the Jehovah's Witnesses and the family needed help and they needed it now!

I explained to Aarti (pronounced R.T.) how Watchman Fellowship's tapes and documentation manuals worked and she explained to me that I was not comprehending the situation.

The family lived in New Jersey and her brother, Vijay (pronounced V.J.) had joined the Witnesses eight years ago. They wanted someone to fly out to talk to him. They explained all expenses would be provided if only I could come. I agreed.

Weeks passed - no word from Aarti or her family - I assumed the crisis had passed. Wrong.

Rrriiinnng. On the other end of the phone was Aarti. She said plans had been slightly changed.

The family, originally from India, thought if they could get Vijay away from his Jehovah's Witnesses friends and back "home" the sessions would work better.

So, rather than flying me to New Jersey, the destination was changed to New Delhi. "Sure," I said.

After all, New York, New Jersey, New Delhi, New Hampshire, they must all be out there in the East somewhere - right? Well I was partially correct. New Delhi is in the East!

India Or Bust

Following a hasty preparation, many overnight packages, a hop flight to Houston, a short delay, and after assuring several concerned friends and family members that, "I'll be fine," I boarded the plane for a 24...hour flight to New Delhi, India.

After a brief layover in New York and Frankfort, Germany the plane landed in India.

The flight finished, it was time to wait in the customs line, baggage line and money exchange line.

Finally, I was on my way to the hotel. Just a short taxi ride. At last I could relax, or so I thought.

If you have never ridden in an Indian taxi, you have never experienced real fear.

Arriving at 3am in India, I assumed the taxi drivers would use their headlights. Wrong.

(I was later told by my host family that Indian taxi drivers believe burning the headlights runs down the car's battery.)

Aside from driving on the wrong side of the road (at least from an American perspective), they also drive anywhere and everywhere they want. In the middle, on the shoulder, etc.

When it is time to pass, they pass. It really does not matter if there is traffic in the oncoming lane. Just blow your horn. The opposing traffic will move - hopefully.

I have ridden the scariest roller coasters, have been in fights, have had car accidents, and have spoken to crowds of thousands, but nothing compares to the shear terror experienced by that taxi ride!

While it was my first, it would not prove to be my last while in India.

Vijay And Witness Theology

He had been in the Watchtower for eight years and knew very well all of their arguments. I slowly took him through the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Dating Game documentation manual.

At the beginning of the manual he gave me all of the standard arguments.

However, by the time we arrived at the false prophecy of 1975, he was visibly shaken. He openly admitted the Watchtower had made some false prophecies and they were, therefore, false prophets.

Also by the end of this first session, Vijay and I had become friends.

We went to eat together, joked and laughed, while still having differences of opinion.

I was able to establish a rapport with him which according to Witnesses teachings should never have taken place.

At a restaurant where he and I went to eat, along with his father, Chris, and sister, Aarti, I remembered my first experience of Indian cuisine.

I had eaten in a small restaurant earlier that day at the hotel where I was staying.

As I perused the menu, I suddenly realized that half of the menu items were not pronounceable. My motto is, if I cannot pronounce it, I do not eat it.

Suddenly I found my favorite food, a cheeseburger. I knew Carmen, my wife, would be perturbed with me for here I was in a fine restaurant, half way around the world ordering a cheeseburger. But I could pronounce it so that was my order.

I was also aware from my study of Hinduism and India that the cow is considered a sacred animal by many, but I surmised that if it is on the menu, it must be a dinner item.

When they brought the plate containing my food, I discovered that apparently the chef felt so bad about having the cow killed that he could not bring himself to cook it, too.

Remembering this past experience of Indian restaurants, I decided to let Vijay and the family order for me on this particular evening.

During the following couple of days Vijay and I had several more sessions going through some of the other WF documentation manuals.

After a time he freely admitted that the Watchtower was guilty of deception, fraud, lying and false prophesying.

At this point, I assumed he would be willing to leave the organization. After all, why would someone wish to stay in a church that is guilty of so much deceit?

Emotional Ties

I had temporarily overlooked one important aspect of cultic control - The Emotional Tie.

For eight years the Witnesses were Vijay's only friends.

Also, to a large extent, I believe he had substituted the Witnesses for his family. Because everyone in his family were of the Hindu faith, their faith was "pagan" in his theological eyes.

Though intellectually Vijay knew the Witnesses were in gross error, it was the emotional tie that held him captive to the Witnesses.

Realizing that nothing more could be done at this point in time in this given situation, we concluded the sessions and enjoyed our last day in India.

India's climate was something like Houston in the summer time. Hot, Muggy, Humid, Sticky and... well, Humid.

After another hair...raising taxi ride to the airport, I was on my way home.

The trip had not been as successful as I had hoped, but given the circumstances, better than I had expected.

Homeward Bound

Landing in Frankfort for a brief layover, I remembered while in college I had taken my foreign language courses in Hebrew and German.

Realizing there was very little need for Hebrew in this situation I endeavored to recall my vast vocabulary of German words.

I was able to remember how to say "Sally, where is the bus station?" which I deemed would be very important if I met a lady named Sally and if I missed my plane to New York and had to take a bus!

Finally, back in Texas and the trip was finished. Or so I thought.

For the next two weeks I called Vijay on the phone many times and we spoke, laughed and joked about several things unrelated to the Watchtower.

We also talked further about his decision to speak with the Jehovah's Witness Elders about the material I had presented to him in India.

While in India he assured me he would question them about the false prophecies, lies and cover...ups I had shown him.

I had given him copies of all the documentation and he explained he wanted to hear their side.

That seemed reasonable, as I knew that they would have no better explanation for the false prophecies than Vijay had in India.

Unfortunately, when Vijay returned to America, he "chickened...out."

Rather than asking the Elders, he simply kept his mouth shut and went along as if nothing had happened.

Tracked Me Down

While James Walker, Texas State Director for Watchman Fellowship, and I were in Utah for the Capstone Conference about two weeks later, the family we were staying with in Utah received a phone call from New Jersey.

It seems Vijay's father wished to fly me to New Jersey from Utah for a day's stay before Vijay left for Kentucky to link up with a Jehovah's Witness group.

Realizing that was impossible due to my speaking schedule while in Utah, I agreed to fly to New Jersey from Texas the following week.

When I landed in New York, Aarti, Vijay's sister asked me, "So how do you want to handle it?"

"Handle it?" I said. "What does `handle it' mean?"

She explained that Vijay did not know I was coming and wondered what would be the best way to proceed from here.

I decided on the direct approach. We walked in to their home in New Jersey and I said "Hi Vijay, nice to see you again," and stuck out my hand to shake his.

Needless to say, of all the people Vijay perhaps wanted to see at that moment, I was on the bottom of his list.

When he first saw me it was as if the "boogie man" from his worst nightmare had suddenly materialized before his very eyes!

It did not take long, however, until we were talking and laughing again.

The next day, before I was to fly back to Texas, we talked for an hour and a half about the things we discussed in India.

I also helped him to see that the Jehovah's Witnesses had lied about who Jesus is.

We went through several scriptural passages that the Witnesses, inadvertently (I am sure) failed to mention.

Again, he was able to admit they have lied, have been deceptive and are guilty of biblical manipulation, but still there was that emotional tie!

Epilogue

Since returning from New Jersey, I have not heard how Vijay is doing in Kentucky.

I would ask that you pray for him as he knows that what he is saying publicly, as he goes door...to...door, is false.

He is undoubtedly going through emotional, intellectual and spiritual turmoil at this time.

I would ask that you also pray for his family. While they are not Christian (though I was able to speak with Aarti some about this - pray for her also), they are still very concerned about this member of their family.

And please pray for the missionaries of Watchman Fellowship that we will always be able to say, "Here am I, Lord. Send me."