I just got done listening to that Townsend meeting. They were overly prepared for those elders, and had all materials to back everything up too. Laverne was kind of quiet, but that was ok. I was listening to this in the other room and had the volume just right(the wife would not want to listen to this sort of thing ;-). When Laverne would speak, the ambient volume would jump! You could tell she had the microphone.
For as much preparation as they put into that meeting, it kind of surprised me for them to whip out that letter of DA in the end. Oh well, the BOE would have axed them anyways.
I just listened to the Townsend meeting as well. The elders were predictably suspicious of the material presented to them. They were implying that the information was false and that it could not have come from the Governing Body whatsoever. This was expected, as the thinking of the elders was shallow and they were ill-informed about the deeper things having to do with the prophecies and scriptural references pointing to discrepancies discussed on the part of the Borg. Of course the elders would never dream of "investigating" the articles, but stubbornly indicated that they had faith in the Society and they did not have to look any further. For instance, when proof was given to them about the many statements from the Watchtower that they in effect were saying that the end of the world would occur in 1975 (which they denied), they glanced at one watchtower article briefly but did not dare to check any further. They could not prove from the bible either that 1914 was the beginning of Christ's reign in heaven. Also the fact that the Townsends disassociated themselves was a smart move on their part, since at that time (around 1984) disassociating meant that one could still associate with the Witnesses freely without being shunned... The conclusion of the matter is that the Townsends clearly had the upperhand in knowledge, wisdom and fortitude while experiencing the backing of God's spirit whereas the elders were at a loss of words and even embarrassed themselves to the point of not knowing how to defend themselves. Surprisingly, I actually felt sorry for the elders, since they could not counteract a viable argument from the scriptures to prove the Watchtower's point of view, let alone the bible's. If the elders would have "learned" something from that meeting, then the greatest blessing would have been for them to also leave the Organization and replace their lives with a genuine purpose, which would have made them free as did the Townsends. Bravo for the Townsends for standing up and proving on which side they were on: the side of the real truth of the bible...
