Before this blog moves on from the amazing experience that was Washington, D.C., I want to share one more photograph – one that didn’t really fit in with the mood of the others.

Prior to our visit to the National Archives, Joey, Emmett, and I walked up the stairs to exit the train station, and we saw this:

It’s not a very good picture, so sorry about that. But what you see here are seven Jehovah’s Witnesses standing around two carts. The carts were filled with recent issues of their magazine and not a single issue sitting there was in English (I know because I asked). In the 25 minutes that Joey, Emmett, and I sat in that park waiting for the National Archives to open, none of them spoke with anyone else beside me, and a guy who walked up to them asking directions. And they weren’t sure which way to point him…and, oh boy, does that ever track.

I approached them to see if they had any magazines I might like to take – you know, just to thumb through as a way to remember the good life choices I have made. I didn’t see anything in English, so I asked one of them, and she stopped talking with her friends long enough to walk in front of the carts and help me look. She seemed as surprised as I was that there was not a single piece of literature in English. A few minutes later, while I was sitting on a bench with the boys, she walked over to me with a Spanish magazine and pointed out that there is a QR code on the back, and that I can scan that to find English versions of their propaganda.

This was definitely the most pathetic “witnessing” I have ever seen. Back when I was a faithful cult member, we had to wear uncomfortable suits and knock on people’s doors, harassing them to take our “literature”. And on the occasions when we stood on the streets, we didn’t just hide behind carts. We approached people! And the things were handed out were in English! And it certainly didn’t take seven of us to hold up a single magazine.

Pathetic.

I take a certain schadenfreude in observing what a farce the cult has become in the years since I’ve exited. The old guys in charge are clearly scrambling to make it a more palatable lifestyle for the members who are sticking with it. They don’t need to wear ties anymore, they can have beards, and – evidently – they can just stand around in a big group socializing with each other while cheap metal carts sit idly by holding non-English magazines that are only half the pages they used to be, and are largely just pictures now. The dumbing down is in full force!