This reminds me of the scene in "Coming to America" where Eddie Murphy has taken a job at a hamburger joint. Wanting to impress the proprietor's daughter, he proudly tells her with gleeming pearly-white smile, "I have recently been placed in charge of garbage!"
The Privilege of Handling the Microphones
by minimus 41 Replies latest jw friends
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neyank
I could never understand why they called these things privileges.
I guess that's why I never reached out for them.
neyank
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ozziepost
A certain brother, now a sometime poster, was barred from patroling the Kingdom Hall car-park because of his failure to put in a field service report!!!!!!!!
Yep, that's right, he had his privileges taken away from him. It was a shame really, because he was a very faithful man. The pity is that he's still attending the meetings even though he knows the organisation is "corrupt" (in his words).
So, dear friend, if you're reading this, Hi mate, and we're still standing!
Cheers, Ozzie
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Simon
It did seem strange ... I once got took off the mic's but they would not tell me why. When they did tell me (cause I kicked up a fuss) two elders told me two different things:
1. I had refused to help put the chairs away at the old hall (this would have been several years earlier as we had moved to the new hall years ago). I have no idea what they were on about.
2. I talked to my father who was DF'd. At the same time as this I was also having 'Apostate' written on my car at the meeting. Such love.
Our hall also went through a phase of the elders and MS's doing mic duty (I think it may have been after a CO visit). What a shambles! They were not too spritely on their feet and didn't seem capable of paying attention or remembering peoples names!
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caspian
Nice post Ozzie.
One of the last little straws, that irritated me was last week while sitting on an elders meeting, we debated for about half hour whether a brother "qualified" to carry microphones.
His report said an average of 7 hours a month, however one elder decided that as a family head you would knock off 4 hours for his family study hence only 3 hours counted.
Can you imagine the frustration of working with such petty men.
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flunkiejimmy
I like handling the mics. Its better than just sitting there.
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chasson
This is perhaps my last post. I have another work which will take me a lot of time.
I was not very active on JW.COM but i have worked in the underground to translate in french all the ONU's stuff and what i could on the different pedophilic's story as you can see on my website http://www.tjrecherches.org I have translated too some works of Alan Feurbacher, Norm Hovland, Ken Raines.
My microphone's privilege was a big ordeal. I suffered from crowd's phobia (i don't know exactly the english's word). When the weather was hot or when there were a lot of people in the KN, i had anguish's crisis but for Jehovah, i tried each time to fight the anguish, even if my leg were shaking. At the end of the program, i was terribly tired and i should go to home to sleep.
it was the same phobia when i should make a subject on the podium or read the content of the Watchtower.
Unfortunatelly, Jehovah didn't give me the strength to do that each time. Sometimes i should take off my garment, and another time it was my tie that i had removed because i suffocate. Each time, an elder has spoken to me because it was not theocratic. Each time i have explained to him. Finally, after 4 incident like that, they have removed my "privilege".
Thanks to them, they have showed me what "lovingly" they were.
Bye
Charles
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Francois
I was removed as a WT reader during the Sunday study because I grew a beard. And the funny thing is that I was completely unaware that facial hair was a big no-no. And when they made an issue over it, I was appalled. Then that turned into disgust. And the disgust turned into fury. And that led to questioning the authority of the local gestapo to dictate matters of personal taste in grooming, and when they couldn't defend that issue scripturally, it lead to other questions that couldn't be answered, and since I had had one foot in and one foot out all along, I just took the other foot out.
And never looked back.
francois
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Larry
Wow - The was the ultimate privilege. Interestingly, that opportunity helped many male youths stay in the organization. It give us something to do and reach out for. The peer pressure was strong. I remember how parents would praise all the young mic handlers, so of course if you're a kid in ear shot of this praise, you wanted the same thing. We even had mic and stage rehearsal - teaching how to roll the mic cord, how to correctly plug in the jacks, where to stand, etc. It was serious business. I remember when I was a 'sheep dog' and we were debating whether 'so and so' could do the mics and one 'sheep dog' said "No, don't forget 5 years ago he grew a beard!" What a lame reason. When the CO visted, only the best mic handlers were selected. Oh, the mic handlers would have their watchtower lesson highlighted with different colors - for show of course. If your 'Tower was highlighted you were real spiritual. Ah Yes, the politics of being a mics handler :)
Peace - LL
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jaded
Oh the memories...What a joke! When my husband was in charge of the sound he asked a couple of mature brothers to carry the mike's who were not on the "list". Boy did he ever hear about that!
The funniest thing though was one Sunday when the Watchtower study started and who should be carrying the mike but a newly baptized little boy. And I do mean little. Very small for his age. He must have been about ten, looked more like six. OMG, I looked over at a friend and we both had looks of shock on our faces. Then I looked at my daughter and we just about lost it. Of course he was an elder's son. It's all in who you know and how much ass you are willing to kiss.
I am so glad to be FREE!