Recently attended the DC.
There have been mny threads already on this, but here are some random thoughts giving my take on what I saw & heard...
-- Attendance was about the same as last year, averaging around 8000 per session. One weird thing was Friday - attendance dwas 8072 Friday morning, but only 7020 on Friday afternoon. I have no idea why 1000 just up and left and lunchtime, but that is just really weird.
-- Number of baptisms dropped, from 43 to 38. I was pretty far away, but I'd say about 1/4 were 12 or younger.
-- Any "worldly" people who got an invitiation and decided to check it out likely left immediately, shaking their head (maybe that's why 1000 people left at lunchtime?)
For example, thre was a demo on Friday about a "sister" receiving an invitation to go to lunch with her handsome boss. Her first inclination was to accept to show him that, quote, "Jehovah's Witnesses are normal too". Then there was a "retake" of the scene, with a "better way to handle it", where the "sister" tells her boss "Thanks, but I use my lunchtime to study the Bible".
And I'm thinking, what the hey? To any normal person off the street, the "approved" reaction to a lunch invitation from workmates is "make sure you come off as an anti-social loon". How in the world is that an attractive message to someone not familiar with JWs? "Hey, join our religion and you too can completely isolate yourself from normal human interaction".
-- The primary scolding occurred in the Friday afternoon talk, "Avoid Testing God In Your Heart"
A few choice quotes (not precisely word for word but pretty close):
"Never murmur about changes in scriptural understanding or organizational adjustments; they are always for our benefit. Examples are the direction from the organization on how to treat disfellowshipped relatives, and making scripturally wise decisions regarding higher education. If you doubt, even secretly in your heart, you are testing Jehovah in your heart."
"Jehovah provides all the spiritual food that is needed - but some feel it is not enough. Some are studying the original Hebrew and Greek that the Bible was written in, as if to check the accuracy of the New World Translation, then discussing their findings in private groups and online. You should read the foreward to the New World Translation. The New World Translation Committee had Jehovah's backing, these other groups do not."
"Elders, ministerial servants, and circuit overseers are appointed theocratically. We should not doubt their qualifications, even in our heart. We also need be on guard against apostates and their comments. Apostates are nothing but constant complainers, and their outcome will be the same as that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram"
Again, any "worldly" invitation accepter would have left muttering about "paranoid nut cases".
-- Another "JWs come across as loons" talk, on Saturday, "Guard Your Heart Against the Works of the Flesh - Fornication, Uncleanness, Brazen Conduct". A few (again more or less) direct quotes:
"Some forms of dancing are an avenue to flirting. They involve close phyical contact or even imitate sexual activity"
"The Bible condemns all forms of immorality, including homosexuality. Are we homophobic? No. We don't treat gamblers, alcoholics, etc. as 'beneath' us, nor do we do so for homosexuals. Is this cruel and unloving? No: the Bible urges use to refrain from many desires and types of conduct. The world says we must act on all our sexual urges; Jehovah dignifies us by saying we can choose to act on them or not"
-- And another talk in that same symposium, "Drunken Bouts, Revelries, and Things Like These".
"A 'drunken bout' is defined as a lot of alcohol in a short period of time. The world calls it 'binge drinking'. The CDC defines it as 4 or more drinks in a row for females, 5 or more in a row for males."
I thought it was striking that they actually defined how much is "too much". Guess I'll have to cut back to a 4-martini lunch!
"Revelries involve overdrinking, unrestrained behavior, and loud music". There was a demo of the police being called to a rowdy JW party.
And I'm thinking, this is absolutlely not going to fly with the Spanish-language US JWs, who, based on this definition, have "revelries" every weekend.
Those were just the unusually egregious examples of lunacy - of course there were the standard messages of:
-- "Have a problem with [X]? meetings, field service and prayer will solve it"
-- "Give us your money"
-- "Obey us, we are appointed by God"
... sprinkled liberally throughout, as in every DC since, well, forever.
Have not bothered to read the new releases, nor watch either of the videos, yet.
