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‘People Would Be So Receptive Right Now, and We Can’t Knock on Doors.’
Brenda Francis settled into the Kingdom Hall in Calhoun, Ga., in mid-March, surrounded by dozens of familiar faces. Signs cautioning against shaking hands and hugging were posted around the room. It felt weird to her but was certainly understandable with the threat of an outbreak looming. She herself already had stocked up on some masks and gloves.
When it came time for members to comment on the Bible readings, Ms. Francis noticed the microphones typically passed around the room were now attached to the end of long poles.
That was the moment Ms. Francis, a 69-year-old widow living in a small, semirural community in the South, realized just how dramatically the coronavirus pandemic was about to reshape her spiritual life, more than anything ever had in the 47 years since she was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness.
A few days after the boom mics came out in the Kingdom Hall, word came down from the group’s headquarters that, in the interest of safety, Jehovah’s Witnesses should stop witnessing, its practice of in-person attempts at converting people to the group.
“People would be so receptive right now,” she said of her ministry, “and we can’t knock on doors.”
