AMONG DEMONS

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES BELIEVE THAT EVIL SURROUNDS US. WHAT I SHOULD HAVE FEARED WAS THE RELIGION ITSELF

- Daniel Allen Cox

IN THE SUMMER OF 1984, WHEN I WAS EIGHT my parents took me on a trip to Sauble Beach, Ontario. While they tanned, I played in the waves of Lake Huron, built sandcastles and befriended seagulls. The water wasn't that deep, and there was otherwise nothing to be afraid of. But it was a different story at night in our rented cabin.

A clock kept falling off the wall, no matter how many times we put it back up. Same thing with the toilet seat that kept slamming down. It had to be demons, my mom told me; they swirled through the drafty shack all night, angry that we were Jehovah's Witnesses, determined to convince us of the superiority of evil. My mom sat on my bed and prayed for deliverance: “Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah” We left the cabin early, sleepless and before our rental was up, and drove back home to Montreal.

What most people know about Jehovah's Witnesses is that they proselytize on street corners, telling strangers they can live forever on a paradise earth. They're the ever-smiling Christians who don't vote and who discourage their kids from going to university because they would be better served by attending meetings and missionary training organized by the Watch Tower Society, the group that controls all Witness life and is the sole source for what it calls the truth."

Few outsiders are aware how much JWs see their own persecution as irrefutable evidence that they're on the right path. Whenever a country's government bans their preaching work or shutters Kingdom Halls, the group says, “See? They wouldn't do that if we didn't have the truth.” When the apparent persecution takes a more paranormal slant, they believe that the Devil and his gang of demons are behind it.