If Jehovah's Witnesses want to have a centralised, governing body that oversees their massive world-wide preaching campaign, then so be it. A spade should be a spade; the Witnesses are centrally governed, get over it.
That's the attitude the Governing Body should take, isn't it? "This is what we do, so suck it up."
However, in my opinion they should open up the partaking of the bread and the wine to all that attend. Thus they'd make themselves a teeny, tiny bit more Christian. And I tell you what, they'd win back some of my respect.
It's fine if you want to control your membership as to how you direct your organisation; that's how organisations work, so let's put aside the whole (valid) argument about whether God is interested in using a man-made organisation today. However, no organisation has the right to meddle with what Christ says, and Christ says "keep doing this in remembrance of me", and "unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life in you". Everyone should be allowed to partake of the bread and wine without mystically associating themselves with one group or another.
It shouldn't go unnoticed that the "anointed" and the "other sheep" are both now in the same category; they're both under the control of the Governing Body. That's the two distinct groups - the 9 men of the GB and everyone else, "anointed" and "other sheep" alike.
So, the next logical step, should be that everyone partake of the emblems regardless of their 'hope'. Completely level the playing field. If everyone's taking the emblems, then the 144,000 finite number isn't an issue anymore. It's very easy to argue from Scripture that the 144,000 are actually the 'chosen ones'. Everyone partakes, but only 144,000 are chosen. How do you discern who's chosen and who isn't? Pifff, who can tell asides from God, so get over it already; nibble and sip.
Two problems are sorted in one go. The ever-increasing number of partakers (doesn't matter anymore, everyone should partake, it's not directly related to the 144,000) and the "how near are we to the end" (well, only God know who the 'chosen ones' are, so it's anyone's guess, let's hunker down for another 40 years).
Remember the end of 'The Life of Brian'? "I'm Brian!", "No, I'm Brian, and so is my wife!", etc etc. If everyone's partaking, the issue of the anointed, the "faithful and discreet slave" (now actually the Governing Body), the "other sheep" is so blurred that no one will be able to pick out one group from another....apart from the Governing Body.
And that's all that matters to the Governing Body, after all, isn't it? Identify them for salvation.
