One of the local elders in my town, a real go-getter when it comes to all things dub, is apparently the new Service Overseer. Until recently (when I stopped drinking the kool-aid), we were also close friends. He still calls me a couple of times a month. I think to test the waters. (this is the same one who half kiddingly asked if I had "gone apostate"...completely out of the blue.)
This elder informed me that they were trying to get permission from the Society to reproduce one of the tracts to large size (ie, convention booth display size). They are wanting to once a month (or more maybe) set up a display booth at the local mall and staff it with local dubs...have a monitor there playing their DVDs, offer literature, etc. I can tell you this will not go down well in this mall if its approved. AND it has a very good shot at being approved since the Christian Scientists have an entire storefront there. AND ...since the mall is basically a ghost town now, they might allow it...nothing else going on there.
Now, this local indoor mall is dead. I dont know what keeps it open to be honest. The mall has new owners and are renovating it..carpeting all over the place, new lighting, etc.... but no decent stores anymore. I only go to the mall to go to the library and once in awhile I go to a restaraunt there. (Yes, this inside mall has a library...one of the first in the country when it first opened). The library is renovating a much larger space and will soon reverse the roles of the mall and downtown libraries...mall will become the main and downtown a branch). If the new mall management approves this, I am seriously thinking about raising objections with all of the mall tenants and management company. I dont like CS in there either, but they are tucked away, no one from CS is actively trying to get people to come in...its "just there." If the dub popsicile stand goes up, I can always go to the downtown library and I can take my food to go at the restaraunt....or not go at all.
The worse idea is that the dubs also want to set up the same "informational booth" at the local community college that I attend. That would be awful. How do I avoid that? I dont know how the JW employees that work there feel about it. (One local elder is an instructor and another brother is a professor and I think there are one or two other dubs working there.) I dont want a cult coming on campus trying to indoctrinate young people. Maybe I should copy WT articles where it is clear that the Society discourages college education...kind of a conflict of interest letting them on campus,..and forward to administration there?
The Christian Scientists have a small literature holder on a stand outside of the library on campus, but it does not appear to be well maintained. There is a club on campus for Christians of all faiths to associate, but it appears to be more social and that is fine. There is even a Pagan group on campus, but they are not shoving things down our throat either.
What I object to is the overt prosteltyzing, especially to young people. I am hoping this experiment of the dubs is a complete failure.
Even while a pioneer, I did not want to do that kind of preaching work...the so-called "Street Work" (tm) was bad enough...
any thoughts on this potential intrusion on two of my favorite places away from the dubs?
Snakes ()