The Washington Post
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
For Michael, Heaven Can Wait
By Joel P. Engardio
filmmaker
God and the devil are discussing who gets to welcome Michael Jackson to the afterlife. The cartoon in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows Satan holding a newspaper with a headline announcing Jackson 's death. He looks up and poses a question to God, who is leaning over a cloud to listen. "Shall we flip a coin?" the devil asks.
Dueling twitter feeds are furiously chronicling all the theories about the final destination Jackson deserves as 20,000 attended Jackson 's memorial service at the Los Angeles Staples Center and more than a billion people worldwide experienced it on television and the internet. But some in the Jackson family, namely his mother Katherine, aren't concerned with heaven and hell. Jehovah's Witnesses don't see themselves going to either.Paradise on earth is where they hope to be.
It's been widely reported that the Jackson matriarch is one of Jehovah's Witnesses and raised her children in the religion. I vividly remember the issue of People magazine at the height of Michael's popularity in 1984, when I was 12, which featured a double-page spread on the history of Jehovah's Witnesses with reports of the gloved-one himself engaged in the door-to-door ministry. I was being raised by a Jehovah's Witness mom, too, and was often considered the weird kid because of my beliefs. So it felt validating to see mainstream press coverage of a superstar in my religion. But Michael's controversies didn't do Jehovah's Witnesses, or my reputation at school, any favors.
To my mom's disappointment, I never became one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Kids aren't automatic members; eventually one has to commit or not. So if I were to die unexpectedly, as Michael Jackson did, I know how my mom would feel about her prospects of seeing me again. I suspect it's not far from what Michael's mother is feeling now.
When people ask me what Jehovah's Witnesses believe, I like to say it's similar to the song "Imagine" by John Lennon: "No hell below us...no countries...nothing to kill or die for and no religion too...a brotherhood of man...and the world will live as one."
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian for sure. They believe Jesus was sent by his father, Jehovah, to die for our sins. But the reward for salvation doesn't involve the pearly gates. Jehovah's Witnesses have no desire to go to heaven. They look forward to a time when the earth will become the utopia in John Lennon's song. Jehovah's Witnesses call it paradise. People will literally live forever in healthy, ageless bodies on an earth where all political boundaries, war, famine, racism, disease and death itself cease to exist.
Jehovah's Witnesses say all the inexplicable suffering in the world -- the Holocaust, children dying of cancer - is because Satan, not God, currently rules the world. Satan challenged God that he could do better, so God handed Satan the reins to make a point. That's why, before paradise can come, God has to end the challenge once and for all, destroying the political, economic and religious systems that the devil has built up to oppress people. Jehovah's Witnesses call this Armageddon.
So where does this leave Michael Jackson? There is no hell for Jehovah's Witnesses. They say a loving God would not torture people with free will who choose not to worship him. Punishment for the unrepentant is eternal sleep. They don't get to enjoy paradise, but they won't know the difference.
A handful of Jehovah's Witnesses do say they'll go to heaven: 144,000 humans who have lived since the time of Jesus have been picked to go to be God's helpers. Out of seven million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide today, less than 6,000 claim to be on the heavenly list. For Witnesses, the motivation is all about heaven on earth.
But when is paradise coming? For decades, Jehovah's Witnesses set hard deadlines on the arrival of the earth-cleansing Armageddon. Now Witnesses simply say it is coming "soon." Who gets into paradise has been nuanced in Witness theology over the years. Currently, you don't have to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses to see paradise. This makes moms like my own and Michael Jackson's, I'm sure, quite happy.
Many will live through the destruction wrought by Armageddon and walk into paradise. People who die before Armageddon, like Michael, can hope to be resurrected into paradise. In the meantime, they go nowhere. They are in an unconscious sleep, preserved in God's memory. When the resurrection comes, God will re-create people. That's why Jehovah's Witnesses don't care if they are cremated or buried when they die. They'll be getting a new body anyway.
When I tell friends about this, they always ask what's the point of being a Jehovah's Witness if everyone gets to see paradise? The answer is that paradise won't be an easy adjustment. Presumably, gays won't be able to marry and women won't be able to be religious leaders in paradise -- as neither is allowed among Jehovah's Witnesses today. Same goes for a ban on sex for straight people who aren't married. A deflated "Oh" is the usual response among those hearing the explanation.
Jehovah's Witnesses say they live a lifestyle now that will best prepare them for the paradise to come. Because everyone in paradise, after having some time to check it out, will be given a choice to remain under God's rules or return to eternal sleep and cease to exist. That's why Jehovah's Witnesses knock on doors: to witness to everyone what Jehovah has in store.
Personally, I find their version of paradise a bit complicated. But so is heaven and hell. Sometimes I envy my Buddhist friend who doesn't worry about any of it. He's content coming back as a tree. I wasn't much of a fan of Michael Jackson's music beyond his early work, but I came across a song from his last album, which I had never listened to until now. It's called "Heaven Can Wait." Given Michael's Jehovah's Witness upbringing, some of his lyrics make more sense now that he is gone:
"If the angels come for me I'd tell them no...Me sitting up in the clouds and you are all alone...What good would heaven be."
All Jehovah's Witness mothers would agree.
Joel Engardio directed the award-winning PBS documentary KNOCKING about Jehovah's Witnesses. He is a writer, filmmaker and civil liberties advocate. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, San FranciscoChronicle , USA Today and on NPR and PBS.
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