Honesty Makes Them Different Too

HIS heart sank when he saw the parking ticket under the automobile’s windshield wiper. The fine was $25 (U.S.), and he was pained because it was unjust. There were no signs prohibiting parking. Worse yet was the fact that he was from a distant place and could not afford to return to the city to appeal his case. So he took photographs of the area to prove that there were no warning regulations posted anywhere. And being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he asked a fellow Witness to appear in traffic court for him.

Here is his friend’s report of what took place in court that morning:

“When you are called before the judge, you must give your name and address. Then they administer the oath of truthfulness. Before they gave me the oath, the court clerk, an older gentleman, asked me to repeat my street address. When I said, ‘124 Columbia Heights,’ he evidently recognized it as the address of the world headquarters of the Watch Tower Society and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Turning to the judge, he said: ‘You have nothing to worry about here, Judge. These are good people. They do not lie! They never lie! They cannot lie! Their religion does not allow it, and they hold strictly to it. I have never known any of their men or even their women to tell a lie. They are as honest as you can get. I have seen plenty of times when they could have escaped a parking ticket just by telling a little fib, but they would not do it.’

“Then, turning to me, he declared, ‘I know you would not tell a lie because you know who would roll over in his grave if you did?’ ‘Who is that?’ I asked. ‘The Judge, Judge Rutherford [onetime president of the Watch Tower Society],’ he answered. ‘I used to deliver mail to him 47 years ago. I knew Jehovah’s Witnesses before they grew big. The Judge was some man!’

“After all of this, the court judge did not even bother to swear me in with the oath. He asked me to present my case, which I did. His verdict? ‘Not guilty.’”

Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘wish to conduct themselves honestly in all things.’ (Hebrews 13:18) And their adherence to honesty is one of the many ways that they differ from the world.