Theodore Jaracz was the keynote speaker at my convention...

under_believer

We just had our convention at the Memorial Colosseum in Portland, OR. Good old TeddyJ was our keynote speaker. I can tell you right now that the ol' boy's still alive and kicking. He's obviously elderly, but he has a strong speaking voice and still knows how to work the crowd, even within the restraints of the "JW Approved Assembly Delivery Style" of public speaking.

The old bloviating blowhard blandly belched banal, boring bullshit twice, though I missed his second talk entirely as I was up orbiting the place with a fractious infant. His closing prayer lasted for at least ten minutes--afterwards my wife was like "does he not get to give enough talks or something?" It is the height of arrogance and self-importance to stand up there and pray for ten minutes. It was like another talk--he covered the main points from the assembly, mentioned various scriptures, and gave warnings and corrections to the audience.

Question: Are public prayers supposed to be communication with the audience, or communication with God?

The now-infamous "D.E.A.D." comment was NOT made at my convention, so I can confirm that this was one yokel spouting his own special sauce. The anti-school rhetoric was VERY strong, stronger than I've seen it in a decade. One particularly galling interview took place with this 19-year-old girl who went against her parents' wishes for her to go to college, spurning the money that they'd saved for her out of their want--they were not a rich family but scrimped and saved enough to send their daughter to school anyways, obviously foregoing pleasures and comforts for her. She "prayed to Jehovah for a month." Then she told her parents that she wasn't going to college, she was going to pioneer instead. When her parents objected, she moved out with roommates. Jehovah has since provided employment (she didn't elaborate but one can imagine that she's a shelf stocker at a grocery store, or maybe does house cleaning.)

God that story pissed me off--this girl rejected all of her parents' careful, loving preparation and provision for her, and when they were upset about it, she just left them. This is a positive example in the Witness world--put the service of a manmade organization fulfilling a role that was never mentioned in the Bible doing work that Jesus never asked you to do, in front of your parents' love.

The drama was a 95% fictitious account of Gehazi. They wrote all this fake backstory about how he was jealous of Elisha and so on and so forth. Even though the Naaman story is supposed to be about Gehazi's greed, they somehow managed to make it about Gehazi's pride and haughtiness. It never ceases to amaze me how they just make up completely fake stuff for these dramas and present it as fact. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Anyways, to sum up, another three days of weird, controlling, boring, bland, banal, ignorant, superstitious, fearful, prejudiced, incomplete crap, delivered to people in discomfort, primarily designed to validate and preach to the choir.

Dragonlady76

Dude you need this after that borefest.

You should schedule a dr's appt, to check your ears, they may still be bleeding after the assembly.

eclipse

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is right.

Thanks for sharing that, under_believer!

Jaracz has proven himself yet again to be a self-righteous pompous egotisctical blow-hard -

10 minute ''preaching'' prayer? what a tool.

You're right, they are supposed to be talking to Jehober,

so I guess Jehober's hard of hearing, and or too stupid to understand it the first time.

prophecor

restrangled

UB....

I always remembered, the bigger the ego the longer the prayer and like you stated going over every last point along with counsel for the audience. No mercy for the wicked rank and file at their absolute wits end after a long day.

I use to give them 1 to 2 minutes for a prayer and watched the clock. After that marker, I made a huge deal of sitting back down much to the dismay of those around me......and no Amen from me by the way!

r.

OnTheWayOut

I am surprised at Ted being there. That must be his yearly outing.

Your education example- it is sad that they feel it is necessary to
control people and cause them to sacrifice their future earnings and
retirement because they need them to distribute flyers.

I am happy to hear your wife's complaint.

Thanks for the post.

choosing life

If they would turn that story around and have a jw kid refuse to pioneer and insist on going to college and then move out to spite the parents, what do you think would happen? If baptized, they would easily be considered bad association or enjoy the inside of a JC.

Where do they get off telling young ones to disobey their parents. Yes, she was 18, but the parents still raised her and should at least be shown a degree of respect. I always hated when they led children away from their parents.

The 10 minute prayer reminds me of the Pharisees who liked to pray in a public place and make long prayers thinking they were proven righteous by their prayers. How can the jws not see how similar they are to the Pharisees?

I don't envy anyone that has to sit through that drivel anymore. It is so tiring to the mind, body and soul.

Nulite

Thanks for the info. Bloviating, that's Teddy.

The district convention starting line-up: Teenager who happily turns down college. Wife and kids who don't understand until daddy beats their ass. Old huff with 10 diseases who never missses meeting or field service. 10 minute prayer. Kid or women in high heels who falls over balcony and or down 20 flights of steps. Strange worldly man being chased by the attendants. 500 pound baptism candidate. Chain of boring speakers. And the drama where the brothers can't wait their turn to perform in drag.

NL

Paralipomenon

Someone should really really hand these brothers that give the final prayer a baby to hold. When the child starts to fuss, that would be a good queue to end the prayer. If the whole auditorium of sobbing children and "shushing" parents wasn't already enough of a hint.

Dragonlady76

Someone should really really hand these brothers that give the final prayer a baby to hold. When the child starts to fuss, that would be a good queue to end the prayer. If the whole auditorium of sobbing children and "shushing" parents wasn't already enough of a hint.

Para, I was thinking the same thing, however we all know that child loving Teddy would expect that you beat your child into submission.

Theodore Jaracz was the keynote speaker at my convention...

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