The memorial and religion... something to consider in terms of the hoax

I was just thinking that i could share my thoughts with you guys concerning the memorial ceremony and how it is related to the Jacksons' religious beliefs. I've been interested in religions studies for a very long time. Especially, i have focused on Jehova's witnesses in my studies. I think I know a lot about their doctrines and the character of their organization. I know a lot of them myself. I'd like to highlight here, though, that I am aware of the fact that MJ quit JWs around 1987. Some of his siblings did too. However, there are some interesting points to consider:
1) MJ and his siblings were raised as JWs, had very religious mother and remained religious themselves (Remeber MJ highlighting that he believed in God?) Also, Jermaine when asked by Lary King about the religious character of the ceremony, said "you know lary, we were raised as JWs" or something like that. Now, I know many present and ex-JWs and I know that their religious beliefs are always very deeply rooted in their consciousness, no matter if they are still religious or they were so in the past. I soppose MJ and his brothers and sisters are similar in this matter...
2)One of the main doctrines held by JWs is that they [b]do not believe that people go to heaven
[/b] right after their death. They are dead i.e. nonexistent until armageddon after which they go to the paradise on earth. Only a limited noumber of them go to heaven, but that's irrelevant now. Anyway, souls do not go to heaven.
3)Now, do you see my point and how it relates to the memorial?? Why do the Jacksons use the present tense? Why do they keep repeating that 'MJ is looking at you and listening to you from heaven', things like that. Hey, from heaven??? this is not something you would expect to hear from a Jehova's Witness! nor even from an ex Jehova witness. (a know a lot of them and although they are no longer in this org, they still do not believe in heaven. This however, might not be the rule at all, i'm just thinking).
4) Thus, this whole circus probaly means that the Jacksons know that MJ is really observing this (cause he's alive)
I just thought I would share my thoughts with you. What do you think??

Maybe, although I do admit that I know very little about JWs and their beliefs.
I do know that Jermaine is Muslim but again in Islam it is believed that after one's death - although the deceased knows where they will go - they still have to wait until the Day of Judgement and then go to either Paradise or Hell depending on the weight of their scale.

Perhaps after they left JW (those who did anyway, Katherine is still JW right?) they decided to leave the beliefs behind too including the belief of heaven and fully embrace whichever faiths they chose afterwards whether it be some branch of Christianity or another faith.
I was surprised at the lack of 'religion' at the Memorial, but I did notice that the presentation/lyrics on the screen of 'We Are The World' [I think] had different religious symbols on it.

Maybe it's their way of hammering home the hoax because they know that people will immediately accept it when someone says 'He's watching over you/us in Heaven'

i think that you could be right
this is really smart thinking!

Another.Part.Of.Me wrote:Maybe, although I do admit that I know very little about JWs and their beliefs.
I do know that Jermaine is Muslim but again in Islam it is believed that after one's death - although the deceased knows where they will go - they still have to wait until the Day of Judgement and then go to either Paradise or Hell depending on the weight of their scale.

Perhaps after they left JW (those who did anyway, Katherine is still JW right?) they decided to leave the beliefs behind too including the belief of heaven and fully embrace whichever faiths they chose afterwards whether it be some branch of Christianity or another faith.
I was surprised at the lack of 'religion' at the Memorial, but I did notice that the presentation/lyrics on the screen of 'We Are The World' [I think] had different religious symbols on it.

Maybe it's their way of hammering home the hoax because they know that people will immediately accept it when someone says 'He's watching over you/us in Heaven'

Another point is that according to their doctrines one CANNOT be a JW if they are famous. I mean, you cannot be in that organisation if you are a public person. This is probably why the Jacksons embraced other religions so eagerly. Still, if you say that Jermaine is a muslim and muslims have to wait till the Day of Jugement to go to heaven (or hell), then agin, why the heck the heaven thing and the present tense? we have the same story here...

dunno_it wrote:

Another.Part.Of.Me wrote:Maybe, although I do admit that I know very little about JWs and their beliefs.
I do know that Jermaine is Muslim but again in Islam it is believed that after one's death - although the deceased knows where they will go - they still have to wait until the Day of Judgement and then go to either Paradise or Hell depending on the weight of their scale.

Perhaps after they left JW (those who did anyway, Katherine is still JW right?) they decided to leave the beliefs behind too including the belief of heaven and fully embrace whichever faiths they chose afterwards whether it be some branch of Christianity or another faith.
I was surprised at the lack of 'religion' at the Memorial, but I did notice that the presentation/lyrics on the screen of 'We Are The World' [I think] had different religious symbols on it.

Maybe it's their way of hammering home the hoax because they know that people will immediately accept it when someone says 'He's watching over you/us in Heaven'

Another point is that according to their doctrines one CANNOT be a JW if they are famous. I mean, you cannot be in that organisation if you are a public person. This is probably why the Jacksons embraced other religions so eagerly. Still, if you say that Jermaine is a muslim and muslims have to wait till the Day of Jugement to go to heaven (or hell), then agin, why the heck the heaven thing and the present tense? we have the same story here...

That's interesting, I didn't know that bit about the public figure part, thanks It makes me wonder why Katherine took Michael and Latoya witnessing with her door to door and in malls etc when they were younger if she was as devout as she is now. Maybe she didn't know?
Jermaine has been a Muslim since 1989, he converted in Bahrain I think and he's been a Muslim ever since. I've seen him at a couple of speeches/events (The annual Global Peace & Unity conference/event) when he was in London and he's cool. I'm not going to pretend that I've spoken to him but I have seen him onstage. He's become a bit of a celebrity in the UK since his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007.

The heaven thing does strike me as odd. I have not watched the Larry King interview, I watched the one when they were at Neverland and Larry was asking all these stupid questions, but that was so long ago and I wasn't really focusing much at the time. If that is the right interview then it would be worthwhile me re-watching it again and analysing it properly this time.
We do have the same story here because in Islam people don't go to heaven or hell when they die, they - or rather their souls wait until Judgement Day.
Well spotted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8djnlJIYIU&NR=1
that's the link for the interview with Jermaine. It's so intreresting ho he keeps using the present tense throughtout the whole of it You are right, he admits to be a muslim:) So why the heck "Ican feel him" and "that's who he was, that's who he IS"??

You're right. This is the same interview I watched (I still don't know how Larry king became so famous because he's a rubbish interviewer).
He does speak of Michael in the present tensse a lot, especially after he's used the past tense then he quick-changes to present tense like you showed above.
I'm not sure what to think esp with the heaven references.
He said something interesting when Larry asked him where he wanted Michael buried, near the train station.
"It's hard Larry, to point where your brother's gonna be. It's tough"