I attended the Regional Convention (District Convention) over the last weekend, and thought I would spend a few minutes putting down some thoughts, for your amusement. I will bounce around a bit, as my notes and thoughts were a little craaaaazy.
We met at one of the smaller venues on the West Coast, with attendance around 7,000. (28 baptized.... <.04%) We were tied in to the International Convention in Arlington, TX.
My first thought, only about 2 hours in, was how much this sounded like a plain old sales meeting! Part after part, the brothers trotted out some OLD brothers and sisters, telling about how they have been in the truth for soooo many years, how much they sacrificed, and glossed up and topped off with their WONDERFUL experiences of SUCCESS!! (Each part really started to sound like a sales meeting, where the top producers tell the lowly peons how much money they can make, if they just TRY HARDER.)
We had the "honor" of having Bro. Loesch as the main tied-in speaker. OH.....MY......GOD...... is this man BORING!!! I dont think he EVER graduated from the Theocratic Ministry School! I think they passed him, and moved him to the next grade! He wore a JW.ORG pin, anyone else catch that? Anyways, I digress....
One of his parts he mentioned that we are SUPPOSED to go over the Daily Text every day with our family. SUPPOSED to, COMMANDED to. (sorry, since when was that a commandment???) Family Worship evening is NOT ENOUGH! We should be having seperate studies with each of our children, in addition to the FW night. And then, we should be reviewing the ENTIRE convention program with them too.... (All these made-up rules really chap my hide).
There was the part about not associating with DF relatives. His wording was that we could associate with them and show them respect, as long as we were discreet. (open-ended and non-commital language).
There was a very poorly acted Drama on Friday, one fella said "The bible says we arent supposed to miss meetings!" No, it doesnt. But if we say it does, then it must.
Loesch's talk mentioning the 3rd Paradise, he repeatedly used the phrase "likely this means...." Likely, as in, just guessing, probably, evidently, etc etc. You get the idea. He said that Jehovah tells us to read the bible DAILY. Skit showing brother about to go to bed, forgets that he has not read his bible today, gets out of bed to do the bible reading, because "Jehovah tells us to". No, he doesnt. But if we say he does, then he must.
Loesch said that if our children are too young to read, then we can play the bible recording for them every day. Ok sure, that's gonna happen. This will "prevent them from leaving the truth later." In other words, if your children leave the "truth", it was your fault for not playing bible tapes, you selfish bastard parent?!
All this from a guy that has never had kids, and didnt even grow up with a father. He was a Boy Scout, remember?
The RC Program was full of the ever-so-dull "do more, do more" "pray more", "sacrifice more" give more".... on and on and on. Each day you felt that if you werent a full-time pioneer, or learning a new language, or moving house and home to serve in the jungle or the desert, then you werent sh*t on the bottom of someone's shoe.
And for the great GHOVAH, SELL ALL YOUR STUFF and SIMPLIFY!!!!! You dont need a big fancy house (like in the movie preview they show). Oh by the way, we NEED YOU to come help us build our NEW MCMANSION!!! GHOVAH NEEDS YOU!!
And why must we harp on PORNOGRAPHY and HOMOSEXUALS in every part? It started to get a little embarrassing. Porn this, Porn that, Homo this, Homo that...... someone have a little fettish????
Then there was the other main speaker, Brother GB HELPER. Oh my goodness. Good speaker, but a freakin CYBORG! This guy didnt blink, didnt even hardly look at his notes. Even my wife Vic looked at me and was like "wowzers!" He reminded me of the cyborg cop in Terminator. Genuine A#1 Company man there.... every time he was introduced, they made sure to mention that he was a GB Helper.
Loesch had another talk, the one on 100 years of History. Mentioned the talk entitled "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". He said specifically that the brothers back then did not really mean THAT... what they meant was that millions of our BROTHERS in the FUTURE would never die.. ???? huh??? No, they didnt. You just made that sh*t up, Garrit. They said what they said, cause they meant it...ok they were deluded, but they still meant it. Dolt.
Interestingly, the new publication released, as a kind of soft-cover Proclaimers Book, never even mentions that talk, but it does go into great detail, with illustrations, on the 2-part overlapping generation theory.
All in all, a depressing waste of 3 days. I took just a few notes of the really stupid stuff that was blatantly ridiculous. Vic took absolutely ZERO notes, which is a first for her. She said it was soo hard to stay awake and pay attention, that she would rather walk around and talk to people!!! Truly, it was mind-numbing. They kept it lively with videos, dramas, and tie-ins, with SHORT talks of about 10 minutes to keep the attention of the audience. As I looked around, I saw SOOOO many people sleeping, staring into space, talking, browsing stuff on their ipads. It was hilarious. Packed, stinky bathrooms, uncomfortable stadium seats, sack lunches. UGH!
edited: I forgot about the 3 jumbo-tron screens. Looked SOO much like that scene in George Orwells 1984... freakin scary.
So glad its over, now I can get back to idolizing my pets, hobbies, and a money-making business that takes me away during the week!
Yours, Jack Harper,Tech49