It must have been very hard to sit through that meeting Brother Mike.
I didn't listen to much, I just can't manage it. The first thing that hit me was the singing, it is shocking and there is no harmony there at all.
The second thing I noticed was how they were introducting each other and your post makes this stand out.
They kept introducing each other by name and referring them to their titles, such as being a Governing Body member or a Branch Committee member.
This is just so hypocritical of them and highlights the fact that these meetings were just a grandstand for the Governing body, which has only recently grabbed all authority to themselves under the title of Faithful & Discreet Slave. They were bragging about the fact that the meeting would be heard by about 1 and a half million people, or at least that was there aim. That is no small number.
This is what they have had to say about religious titles in their publications
Watchtower 2000 6/15
"Do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers.”—MATTHEW 23:8.
“WHO deserves more honor, a missionary or a Bethelite?” a Christian woman in an Oriental country innocently asked a missionary from Australia. She wanted to know who should be respected more, a missionary from another country or a local minister serving in the branch office of the Watch Tower Society. That innocent question, reflecting a class-conscious culture, took the missionary by surprise. The question of who is greater, however, stems from a desire to know where people stand in the ranks of power and influence.
This concern is by no means new. Even Jesus’ disciples had an ongoing argument about who was the greatest. (Matthew 20:20-24; Mark 9:33-37; Luke 22:24-27) They too came from a rather class-conscious culture, that of first-century Judaism. With such a society in mind, Jesus counseled his disciples: “Do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers.” (Matthew 23:8) A religious title such as “Rabbi,” which means “Teacher,” “tends to engender pride and a sense of superiority in those who obtain it, and envy and a sense of inferiority in those who do not; and the whole spirit and tendency of it is contrary to the ‘simplicity that is in Christ,’” noted the Bible scholar Albert Barnes. Indeed, Christians refrain from addressing overseers among them as “Elder So-and-so,” using the word “elder” as a flattering title. (Job 32:21, 22) ."
Then we have this message in the Watchtower 94 2/15 mag
" It is precisely because of this close adherence to Bible teachings that the veneration and idolization of human leaders so characteristic of cults todayis not to be found among Jehovah’s Witnesses. They reject the concept of a clergy-laity distinction. The Encyclopedia of Religion aptly states about Jehovah’s Witnesses: “A clergy class and distinctive titles are prohibited.”
They follow Jesus Christ as their Leader and as Head of the Christian congregation. It was Jesus who said: “Do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers. Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your Father, the heavenly One. Neither be called ‘leaders,’ for your Leader is one, the Christ.”—Matthew 23:8-12.
It is clear that Jehovah’s Witnesses are as far from being a cult as Jesus was from being a glutton and a drunkard...."
