Just a couple of gripes from the Theocrappic School and Sourvoice Meeting last night.
1. A new elder was announced. The announcement was phrased as follows: "Through the Holy Spirit and the Governing Body, Brother ---- has been appointed an elder." They are really laying it on with the whole authority-of-the-elders thing, huh?
2. There was a whole part on "young ones praise Jehovah." I just find it painful to listen to parts like that. (At the DC, I walked around in the hallways during the youth part, trying to get away from the PA system if possible.) There was all the usual talk about how we have to set goals for our kids, or else the world will, yadda yadda. One sister appeared to actually have some common sense. She started out her comment saying: "We may feel that our children are already stressed, with the need to do well in school, pressure from their peers, and so forth; so we may feel that we shouldn't stress them out further with theocratic goals." But after making such a sensible point, she of course has to try to disprove it, so she says: "But we shouldn't hesitate to set goals for them, because setting and meeting theocratic goals is the greatest happiness they'll ever know." I sure hope not. *gag*
3. There was a part about offering literature in multiple languages. (Apparently the Society believes dubbies aren't intelligent enough to offer literature in multiple languages without 20 minutes of instructions such as "If there are people who speak a foreign language in your territory, stock literature in their language. If there's none in stock, order it." ) Since I speak a foreign language, I got dragooned in for a demo (I really don't mind, helps alleviate the boredom of the meetings). The only bad thing is that now, if someone finds a person who speaks that language, I will of course be asked to conduct a study with them...
I do have one good thing to say. The removal an elder was announced, and they asked the brother to give the closing prayer. Since the removal of an elder often produces rumor and speculation as to whether he's committed wrongdoing, it's nice to set those to rest by showing that he's not under restrictions.
Of course, the flip side is that if an elder is removed for "wrongdoing", everyone will know, because he won't be asked to give the prayer after he's removed...