Draconian Rules for Attending "Special Convention"

by BluesBrother 137 Replies latest jw friends

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  zeb
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  cedars

  zeb, try posting using a different browser. If you are using Internet Explorer, click the "Compatibility View" button on your address bar.

  Cedars
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  St George of England

  Bobid...I assure you that it is genuine - straight off the K/Hall noticeboard...That's why I could only get page one. The elders were arriving and it was getting tricky since they would not like the letter being copied .

  This is genuine Bobid, it was read to all the congregations here in the U.K. about a month ago.

  Several in my congregation are signed up to go.

  George
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  Room 215

  has all the appearances of a casting call for a propaganda movie!
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  WontLeave

  I never stayed at their hotels. I never even consulted the list. When I heard the prices, I checked online and always found a much better deal. It was obvious to me that the list was some sort of backroom deal between the Society and the hotel. Someone was getting a kick-back or some other deal and the congregation was sacrificed so they could get their palms greased. Definitely something rotten in Denmark with that list. The elders gave me grief about it, but I gave them the prices I got online and said the list was a crock. I rejected the "he who is faithful in little is faithful in much" garbage with "A man-made list of hotels? Faith in that is misguided."

  In my area, another thing upset me to no end. The annual convention is held 2.5 hours away, even though I live in the largest city in the state. This was because the Society got a better deal somewhere else. So, roughly 13k people have to trek 150 miles, stay in a hotel (which I already ranted about), eat out for 3 days, etc. Wear and tear on their car, gas, kids cooped up for hours, having to get up early and get home late... All to save the Society a few bucks, which I'm sure doesn't even scratch the surface of the aggregate cost to the people who have to make the trip.

  And all this is done on the measly income of JWs. One way you can tell you're in a cult is how little the leadership cares about the members. The Society likes to claim "love among themselves" and - in some congregations - a case might be made about the congregation members, but I've never seen anything remotely close to love shown from the Society to the congregations. Their idea of a "loving provision" (first of all, will be claimed to be from God) is a book they're trying to sell you, an opportunity to blow a trumpet in front of you with fewer hours invested in the cause that month, or adding/eliminating a meeting. Never would they lift a finger or even make a policy that actually helped anyone but themselves to gain more power or get their hands deeper into your pockets. The leadership are sociopaths and if that doesn't scream "cult", I have no idea what would alert a JW to the fact their religion is false.
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  Magwitch

  What if a pimple appears on your nose minutes before departure? Is there going to be a oversight committee inspecting all arriving witnesses for suspicious malaise or physical irregularities?
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  ziddina

  BUMP!!!
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  truthseeker

  Cedars,

  Thanks for the information.

  I wonder why they are doing this? In a global depression where people are losing their jobs, homes etc, why are the GB hosting an expensive "special" convention in Dublin? What is the point? What will be said there that regular dubs don't already know?

  Truthseeker
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  cedars

  Thanks truthseeker, the whole thing has an awful "smell" about it. How can a gathering of only 1,500 delegates (handpicked according to rigid criteria from only 3 "affluent" countries) be billed as a "special convention"? A gathering that small being hosted entirely in hotel facilities strikes me as being more about networking and corporate brown-nosing than any genuine attempt at imparting spiritual truth to congregated throngs of fellow worshippers.

  Rather than reflecting Jesus' words when he said "come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down...", the Governing Body seems to be sending out a very different message - namely "come to us, all you who are loaded and have no physical impairments or spiritual weaknesses".

  It has already been mentioned on this thread that many publishers will happily part with exhorbitant amounts of money simply for the "honour" of sharing a function room with a member of the Governing Body. If that isn't cult-like veneration of human leaders, I don't know what is. I wonder how long it will be before Governing Body members allow their gawping admirers to start kissing their hands. They already have the pope's relative position, it wouldn't be a huge stretch for them to start receiving similar levels of veneration.

  Cedars
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  steve2

  Catholics have their mumbo-jumbo incense sticks and candles and public displays of pomp and cermony, JWs have their mumbo-jumbo "special conventions" and public displays of apple-pie, buttoned-up, smiling wholesomeness. No difference in intent: It's all smoke and mirrors.