There will be a different reaction directly proportional to the age and length of slavitude of the person reacting:
1) Old generations will see this as yet another sign of Jehovahs benevolence and kindness and His lightening of the load (and oh by the way didnt Jesus say his load was not heavy so why again is this being portrayed as relief from a load?) and they will see it as a tightening and circling of the wagons of Jehoovers Borganization, protecting his loyal integrity keepers in this time of the IMMINENT end...blah blah blah.... But Im sure "ones" who have no other social life outside their homes who only go to meetings to see and be with other people will be very sad about it. And Im sad for them too. We had a group of older women who stuck together like glue, sat together, sat in the same seats every week, loved to get all dressed up for the meetings...loved all of it...who will dearly miss their book study. Im sure they have all passed away by now but they were the most loving and genuine sisters I knew. I think it may even cause panic in some that this long running tradition has gone away.
2) The family men...the poor elders who have to spend every waking hour outside of trying desperately to support their families preparing for meetings or being at the hall for a meeting or to head field service or do shepherding calls, or away talks or visit ones in the hospital or constantly be on the phone counseling and encouraging and arranging...this will be a HUGE relief to them. I lived with an PO and his wife and we were dear friends, and it just never ever ended for him. There were not enough brothers to spread all that work around and he about drove himself into the ground trying to tend to everything that needed to be done to feed the great MAW of the organizations demands. The phone never stopped ringing and if he wasnt on the phone he was prepping for a meeting or doing research for a talk or we were looking stuff up in the bound volumes for him for the school. My heart goes out to all the genuine hard working brothers out there who were just trying to do the right thing and were losing their marriages and time spent with their kids. I hope this helps even in some small part.
3) Gen Xers - the younger crowd with no families yet who were basically forced into being a JW their whole lives and hate every minute of it will be ECSTATIC to have another night off! They will be spouting the company line about Jehovah providing for them at the hall and at the same time be going YES! Its lady's night at the Blue Martini on Thursday nights!! Yes!! I can finally GO! Or finally I can watch American Idol!
Change is good but at the same time it is very scary for JWs because they are such creatures of habit being honed into patterns of behavior like autistic children. To disturb their routines is to cause a butterfly affect in their lives.
Stay tuned!
