Miseryloveselders – “…he goes on to say, "brothers, do you know that someone posted the contents of the book on the internet!" All the brothers in attendance with gray hair simultaneously gasped. It was hilarious! I heard brothers go, "what!!" I looked to my right, and saw two older brothers who reminded me of Statler and Waldorf from Sesame Street, look at each other in astonishment. The contrast was evident between the older brothers and those my age. Those my age didn't even bat an eye. In this day and age, nothing is private. Nothing is confidential.
The fact that the powers that be in Bethel and the older brothers in this organization where shocked about the Flock book leaking online tells ya a couple things. One, there's a tremendous lack of awareness on the part of seriously indoctrinated JWs regarding the real world. I mean seriously, in this day and age of Wikileaks, leaked music albums, leaked movies, did the GB and Writing Department really think their precious handbook wouldn't end up online?”
Oh, sweet Jesus, that was funny.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, thse poor guys have been nostalgic for the 50s since the 50s…
Miseryloveselders – “…When it came to education, the grand puba made the statement that if any elder, or anyone in his immediate family was attending a university, his qualications were to be reviewed. Here's the real kicker. If the other elders on that body did not review his qualifications, they were all culpable. That was the exact word he used, and in that context. Culpable. During that part, you could have heard a pin drop even on a carpeted floor. It was shocking. I'm sitting there thinking to myself, ‘did he just threaten us?’
The most offensive part about it was this guy is criticizing us for our choices in education, when his entire livelihood is based off of our employment and paychecks! On top of that, the guy is overweight. He's fat! I'm thinking to myself this fat greasy mother f#$# who's getting the best of it all, has the nerve to threaten us for our secular education choices. That's when it hit me. This grand puba has a tremendous stake in the rank & file. He makes his living by traveling to various congregations giving talks, and by doing whatever it is that he does at Bethel. If it’s true what they say that those receiving college educations are leaving this organization, it goes without saying that him and others like him are having their way of life threatened. They respond by threatening us…”
Author Frank Schaeffer (who years back helped start the Religious Right political movement and has since utterly repudiated it), called guys like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell “Professional Christians”; I’ve never forgotten that, but only just lately realized that the term arguably applied to anybody who worked at Bethel, particularly the guys who’d travel.
You mentioned Wikileaks; I’d brought up that very subject in another thread (yeah, I know, I’m not the only one) - I’ll reiterate it here:
Regarding Julian Assange's agenda for Wikileaks, Assange's theory is that in order to stem the tide of confidential information flow, authoritarian regimes can't help but implement increasingly draconian restrictions on all lines of communication. At a certain point, however, this ultimately has the effect of preventing the regime from conducting vital internal communication, which, in turn, fatally cripples the regime's ability to function.
