Interview, Portrait: La Toya Jackson Talks Michael Jackson, Celebrity Life

Michael Jackson’s legacy as an icon of music history is so clouded by our media-biased views of his life that we’ll never know the man behind all his rich music. He is the ultimate example of what happens when celebrity worship goes too far… having the press and court of opinion try him the last half of his life. I created a before and after portrait of The King of Pop on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/06/in-memoriam-king-of-pop.html

The negative influence of the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses on Michael and his family have been either downplayed or totally ignored for as long as the Jackson Family has received public attention. For those readers who really want to know what life is like to be reared in the WatchTower Cult, nothing beats real world scenarios, and of real world scenarios, nothing beats actual civil and criminal court cases.

The following website summarizes 900 court cases and lawsuits involving children of Jehovah’s Witness Parents. The summaries demonstrate how JW Families rear their children and live life day-to-day. Also included are nearly 400 CRIMINAL cases — most involving MURDERS:

DIVORCE, BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, AND OTHER LEGAL ISSUES AFFECTING CHILDREN OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

[GOOGLE TITLE FOR LINK.]

Excerpts from LaToya Jackson’s own 1991 biography, LATOYA: GROWING UP IN THE JACKSON FAMILY:

” … neither I nor my siblings ever led a normal existence, not even as small children, years before celebrity transformed our lives. We were a not-so-typical but classic dysfunctional family. Yes, there was love and happiness, but it was poisoned by emotional and physical abuse, duplicity, and denial. … The proscriptions of my Jehovah’s Witness faith, my mother’s seeming love and devotion, and my father’s inability to express any emotion but anger kept us all entangled in a web of guilt disguised as love, brutality that was called ‘discipline,’ and blind obedience that felt like loyalty. … We couldn’t identify it, but we all sensed something was wrong in our house. Most of my siblings ‘rebelled’ by essentially running away from home to teenage marriages. … I was Mother’s best friend, and the quietest, shyest, most obedient child of all. I surprised everyone. I also broke the cardinal rule of a dysfunctional family. I stopped living the lie and playing the destructive game. — pages 1-2.

“Thinking back over all those years, I realized that Mother was the guiding force behind the cruelty and abuse. This lady who pretended to be so gentle on the surface had in fact caused all the turmoil in our lives. We’d always thought that it was Joseph, but it was her, telling him what to do and how to do it. Like I’d said to her before, she was always throwing the rock and hiding her hand, convincing everyone — outsiders and my own
siblings — that she was sweet, kindhearted, and compassionate. Little did they know that the minute they were out of earshot she talked about them very, very viciously. After seeing it so many times, I finally had to face the fact that this was her true personality. — page 257.

“Michael and I were very active in the Jehovah’s Witness faith. … Five days a week the two of us and Mother studied the Bible at home and attended the Kingdom Hall. … Every morning Michael and I witnessed, knocking on doors around Los Angeles, spreading the word of Jehovah. … As my brother’s fame grew, he had to don convincing disguises, like a rubber fat suit he bought years later, — pages 53-4.

“… because we were supposed to associate exclusively with other members, Michael and I made few friends at the private high school … We did, however, become close with another [Jehovah’s] Witness. Darles was my first and only friend outside the family, and I treasured the time we spent together. … Each day at lunch the three of us studied the Bible together. She also joined us at the Kingdom Hall. During a meeting, Darles bravely challenged one of the elders. … The elder’s reply was typical. He cited the scripture, which supported his position but did not really address Darles’s
point. So she wrote a letter … This outraged the other elders. One day Rebbie’s husband, Nathaniel [Brown], also an elder, cornered me. ‘LaToya,’ he said, ‘you’re never allowed to speak to Darles again. Ever. … She’s been disfellowshipped.’ … After that neither Michael nor I had anything to do with Darles. We missed her so much and for the first time began to privately reconsider some of the [WatchTower Society’s] teachings. We felt that questions should be encouraged, not silenced through threats of disfellowship. — pages 55-56.

“Mother … frowned on our socializing with white kids, an attitude I found hypocritical coming from a Christian. — page 34.

“… both my parents harbor racist attitudes, particularly against Jews, … ‘Wherever you go, whatever you do in this business, you find a Jew,’ Mother used to complain bitterly all the time, ‘I can’t stand it.’ … She’d go on and on. ‘They’re always on top. Jews are so nosy. They like controlling you. I hate ‘em all.’ To their faces, however, my mother was as sweet as could be. … Hearing talk like this turned my stomach, especially when it came from my mother’s mouth. How could a religious woman be so hateful? … The depth of Mother’s loathing was expressed in one of her oft-repeated opinions: ‘There’s one mistake Hitler made in his life — he didn’t kill all those Jews. He left too many dxxx Jews on this earth, and they multiplied,’ —pages 132-4.

“On the Victory tour, … , [Michael] hired someone whose sole task was to locate a Kingdom Hall in each town so that Michael wouldn’t miss a single meeting. … Michael … won those record-breaking eight honors at the 1984 Grammy Awards. The very next morning one elder issued him an ultimatum that my brother must choose between music and the [Jehovah’s Witness] religion. … Because Michael diligently studied the Bible, he could usually cite chapter and verse supporting his contention that entertaining people was not wrong. ‘I’m still living according to the [WatchTower Society’s] teachings,’ he pointed out, as he’d done so many times before. I still go door to door wherever I am, even if I’m on tour. I can’t help it if people hang up my poster on their wall or tear my picture out of a magazine. I don’t ask them to idolize me. I only want them to enjoy my music.’ … many Jehovah’s Witnesses used to congregate outside the Kingdom Hall hoping to catch a glimpse of Michael Jackson, knowing full well this kind of adulation was forbidden. Michael did everything humanly possible to demonstrate his dedication to Jehovah. Once when an elder criticized, ‘Your movements on stage suggest sex; don’t do them anymore,’ my brother complied without protest and promptly changed the routine. He also invited an elder on tour to see for himself that he lived in harmony with all the [WatchTower] faith’s rules, canvassed door to door, and attended all the meetings. … One day I walked into Janet’s room to find Michael crying his eyes out. ‘LaToya, … I can’t talk to you ever again. … The elders had a big meeting, and they told me never to speak to you because you haven’t been coming to the Kingdom Hall. … they said that if I don’t stop talking to you, they’ll kick me out of the religion.’ … Michael decided to disobey the elders’ edict and after that never attended any more meetings. … he subsequently severed his ties to the organization through a formal letter. What made this painful episode even more agonizing was that for a long time I believed Michael might be one of the Remnant, the select 144,000. — pages 196-200.