NOT THE SAME JAY-DUB AS THE PLAINTIFF IN PRINCE v MASSACHUSETTS...

Update [3]: Gene M Bridges at Triablogue wonders "what it means for a Jehovah's Witness to convert to Islam?"

Update [2]: Apparently there has been some rapprochment between at least one famous Jehovah's Witness and the Vatican.

Update [1]: Speaking of Watchtower mindslaves, this piece of fatuousness in the Weekend Australian IKEA catalogue colour magazine (11 September 2004, p 8), commenting on a photo of Jacko (flanked by sisters LaToya and Jackson, and all wearing white suits) turning up for his pre-trial hearing at the Santa Maria courthouse:

"Note the use of the [T]rinity, a holy Christian symbol," says Jasmin Martin, body language expert. "Michael is flanked by his two sisters..."

NOT THE SAME JAY-DUB AS THE PLAINTIFF IN PRINCE v MASSACHUSETTS ... Catholic blogger Sean Gallagher links to an interesting news item; that Prince -- yes, The Artist Formerly Known As, the "Purple Rain" guy -- has converted to Jehovah's Witness-ism, taking it seriously enough to have gone out doorknocking for the cause. Larry Graham, former bass player for Sly and the Family Stone, goes with him.

Just was is it with African-American pop stars and the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society? There's also Michael Jackson and George Benson. (And in the Trinitarian camp of those who believe that Jesus Christ and the Archangel Michael are the same, Little Richard is now an ordained Seventh-Day Adventist minister.)

One intriguing sideline is that a Jewish couple complained because they let Prince and Graham inside, thinking they wanted to use their home as a video set, but then the ditheistic duo "start[ed] on this Jehovah's Witness stuff." Contrary to the Jay-Dubs' much-repeated belief that the Trinity is the biggest stumbling block against Jewish and Muslim acceptance of Christianity -- they like to [mis]quote Catholic theologian Hans Küng's statement that "Even well-informed Muslims simply cannot follow, as the Jews thus far have likewise failed to grasp, the idea of the Trinity" (from Christianity and the World Religions, quoted in Should You Believe the Trinity?, Watchtower publication) -- there is, it seems, no love lost among the small-U unitarian branches of Abrahamic monotheism:

* '... Eduardo Campos, a 62-year-old Uruguayan immigrant married to an Israeli, whom ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to get fired from his job at the Vita food company [in Israel] merely because he is a Jehovah's Witness ...' -- Daniel Lazare, "The One-State Solution", The Nation (3 November 2003).

* 'The death by beheading of two Jehovah's Witnesses captured by bandits connected with the Abu Sayyaf Muslim separatists is part of a "jihad" against Christians in the southern Philippines, the military believes. ... A letter was found from one of the heads warning that those who do not believe in Allah will suffer the same fate. They said what they did was jihad," said Brigadier-General Romeo Tolentino.' -- Kimina Lyall, "Beheading of Christians 'a jihad'", , The Australian (23 August 2002).