Religion and more thoughts from childhood

I was reading through some posts at Panthera studentessa and I was intrigued by this post about her childhood experiences with a Pentacostal step family.  The rules of the religion clearly made no sense to her and I was reminded of a girl from the neighborhood I knew when I was young.  

We were riding home together on the bus and I invited her to my birthday party.  She told me that she didn't go to parties.  When I asked why she said that she was a Jehovah's witness and then she told me a story about a man having his head served up at on a platter at the request of some crazy woman.  I can't remember if the dead guy was attending a party or if the crazy lady with the decapitation fetish was hosting a party, or exactly how the details came together.  But I do remember her conclusion: so we don't go to parties because our heads will end up on a platter.  

Having attended many birthday parties myself and never having been decapitated or otherwise disfigured I really thought this girl was crazy.  We were kids and birthday parties were awesome.  I'm sure the belief system that forces the Jehovah's witnesses to stay home when everyone else is out having a good time is more complex than she had made it out to be, but in her young mind it was quite straight forward: attending party+having good time=head on platter.  Now that was the finest bit of brain washing I'd ever heard.