Page 5 - Failed Experiment

A Failed Experiment

To begin with, as a population, 1-Ws were generally dedicated and
zealous church youth. They were willing to go against the grain of
society in order to abide by WCG belief concerning military service.
They did so at the risk of going to prison. Some did go to prison but
most were permitted to do alternative service. This set of
circumstances alone exposed them to challenges most WCG members
never had to deal with. Most of the 1-Ws I knew at AC had college
degrees, either from Ambassador College or some secular college or
university. Most of these idealistic young men felt fortunate to get a
job at AC Big Sandy on the 1-W program.
So, on a mild East Texas winter day, I drove out to the neatly and
rigorously maintained AC campus to meet with the AC official who
had hired me and with whom I had communicated by letter. I had no
reason to expect that this meeting would be anything but pleasant. This
was my first contact ever with someone at Ambassador College. It was,
after all, The Kingdom of God, as lay members had told me. I probably
spent 20 minutes with the official, a session that was marked with
anger, belligerence and contempt on his part throughout. I found the
anger inexplicable and surprising. I seemed to have committed some
offense but I didn’t know what it was.

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