We just had a huge international convention here in Romania. At least huge by local standards. 22,000 in attendance in one location and around 44,000 throughout the country. I went two days to make my parents happy and because they had no ride and it was far away. For some reason, you can only stay at borg approved hotels. The brother in charge of the accommodations in our congo said that it should be clear to everyone that the hotels on his list were approved by Jehovah himself and the rest were absolutely not, which I just found preposterous.
Then it was the convention itself. Almost every talk and video seemed to be about giving up your job. They've vilified having a career to ridiculous extents which I honestly don't understand. It's almost an obsession at this point. I know they want people dedicating their lives to the cult but who's going to donate when they're all going to be poor? Such great advice. My parents both followed it and now after a thankless life of pioneering they're in their 60s and depend on me financially.
Although, to be fair, almost everyone else seems to be ignoring this. One of the brothers that gave one of the talks against putting career first drives a 100 grand brand new BMW X5M. Living such a simple, bare necessities life. The cognitive dissonance must be strong in that one and in a bunch of the brothers and sisters that seemed super rich and yet very approving of this teaching.
I guess the Gibberish Buddies love them either way. The rich for their donations and the poor for their life of servitude. Another interesting thing was a talk about watching out for pedos. Basically, it was all about watching your children closely because there are many potential pedos. Nothing specific about pedos in the congregation, about ACR or how they refuse to report pedophiles to authorities. Interesting.
The new songs are ridiculous. One of them almost felt like something you'd hear at the end of a Disney movie and people almost started dancing to it. My life-long brainwashed JW mother was like "WTF is this song!". She couldn't believe they would make such a pop sounding song official.
The good part was that everyone has electronic devices now, so you don't stand out if you spend all the convention time on one. I played games all day, fell asleep in my chair a few times and almost finished reading a novel. Another highlight was the young, beautiful women at the convention. Too bad they're going to waste their youth and beauty slaving away for a cult.
Overall, the convention and the teachings seem to become more and more absurd. A brother was talking about how we need to follow anything the borg says, even if it sounds irrational and demands our death. It was very much a "WTF!" moment. It's absurdity, piled on more absurdity, in a "religion" almost unrecognizable from what it was even just a few decades ago.
Anthony Morris gave a couple of talks. They were pretty idiotic and he looked like he was about to have a heart attack. One was about a new indoctrination book for children, of course only available as a pdf because they don't bother publishing stuff anymore (first summer convention I attended in which no new physically published materials were offered) and another tried to convince that the end is here but was quite self-contradicting and irrational. Anyway, that was my weekend. How was yours? What do you think? Is this religion getting more absurd or what?
Thoughts from the International Summer Convention in Romania
by cookiemaster 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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cookiemaster
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steve2
Very informative. How many attended the convention you attended and how many were baptized?
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OUTLAW
The brother in charge of the accommodations in our congo said that it should be clear to everyone that the hotels on his list were approved by Jehovah himself
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cookiemaster
Steve2 - About 22,000 people attended the convention I was at and around 280 got baptized.
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steve2
Thanks cookiemaster. That's less than 1%.
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nowwhat?
Looks like the absurd B.S. wasn't lost in the translation across the globe!
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freddo
Err ... no, it's 1.27%.
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berrygerry
About 22,000 people attended the convention I was at and around 280 got baptized.
Exceptionally high.
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jookbeard
thanks for the summary, lets hope its a warning to lurkers to miss next years ass'embly
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stuckinarut2
Ah yes!
"It is "faith-strengthening" to see the UNITY in teachings worldwide"
Which actually means:
"Nothing says CULT more, then when exactly the same propaganda material is dispensed with no variation all around the world"
Thanks for your summary. I can add this to my knowledge, so if asked by still-ins, I will know the content of the program and can bluff a response.