Jehovah's Witnesses have released this bizarre, disturbing video teaching kids to be homophobic

[hunter]

12. I was JW until my mom was bounced from the religion. Literally. Big guys at the door...

... of the Kingdom Hall. Though shalt not pass. Shunned.

My mom's sin is that she can't stay out of politics. Yep, that's her in the peace march on the TV news.

I learned I didn't have to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Fourth grade, a well meaning teacher explained to the class why I didn't stand for the pledge, religious freedom and all that, which enhanced my reputation as one of the weirder kids.

Kicked out of the Witnesses our family was then Quaker. I still didn't have to say the Pledge. I still don't.

My mom's ancestors were pacifists who'd fled war ravaged Europe for America's Wild West, mostly in the nineteenth century.

My last immigrant ancestor was a mail order bride to Salt Lake City. She didn't like sharing a husband so she ran away with some guy. They homesteaded some land my mom's cousin still owns. It's still more than a hundred miles to the nearest McDonalds or WalMart.

My mom's dad was a Conscientious Objector in World War II. He wouldn't take up arms. They gave him a choice, prison or building Liberty and Victory Ships. He built ships. My dad's dad was an Army Air Force officer during World War II, imagining himself a romantic flyer but they kept him on the ground. Somewhere in that service he acquired a knack with titanium and later worked as an engineer for the Apollo Project.

My dad, and my wife's dad, both served honorably in the U.S. military, and had their university educations paid for by it. My dad was a very nearsighted Radar O'Reilly sort, and my wife's dad was a Navy medic and Geiger counter waving atomic testing guinea pig assigned to the Marines. No guns required.

I'm not gonna knock Prince.