Theodore Jaracz was the keynote speaker at my convention...

by under_believer 45 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mary

  this 19-year-old girl who went against her parents' wishes for her to go to college, spurning the money that they'd saved for her out of their want--they were not a rich family but scrimped and saved enough to send their daughter to school anyways, obviously foregoing pleasures and comforts for her. She "prayed to Jehovah for a month." Then she told her parents that she wasn't going to college, she was going to pioneer instead. When her parents objected, she moved out with roommates. Jehovah has since provided employment (she didn't elaborate but one can imagine that she's a shelf stocker at a grocery store, or maybe does house cleaning.)

  Ya....what an ungrateful, self-righteous little Dub. I hope they interview her in 50 years time to see if she's still glad that she threw her parents' gift in their face, or if she's still real happy to be doing menial work with no savings, no benefits, no pension and no future.

  
• 

  ozziepost

  Mary:

  you beat me to it!

  One particularly galling interview took place with this 19-year-old girl who went against her parents' wishes for her to go to college, spurning the money that they'd saved for her out of their want--they were not a rich family but scrimped and saved enough to send their daughter to school anyways, obviously foregoing pleasures and comforts for her. She "prayed to Jehovah for a month." Then she told her parents that she wasn't going to college, she was going to pioneer instead. When her parents objected, she moved out with roommates. Jehovah has since provided employment (she didn't elaborate but one can imagine that she's a shelf stocker at a grocery store, or maybe does house cleaning.)

  I find this especially offensive to the dear parents who had raised their daughter and sacrificed that she might be given the 'best start in life', only to have their daughter reject what she's been primed for in favor of.....well, we don't know what but I think you're not far wrong.

  UB:

  Thanks for sharing this. Surely it's yet another of the warnings to those who are honest enough to examine their JW faith.
• 

  ozziepost

  His closing prayer lasted for at least ten minutes--afterwards my wife was like "does he not get to give enough talks or something?" It is the height of arrogance and self-importance to stand up there and pray for ten minutes. It was like another talk--he covered the main points from the assembly, mentioned various scriptures, and gave warnings and corrections to the audience.

  Teddy's own Bible condemns him!

  "But when praying, do not say the same things over and over again, just as the people of the nations do, for they imagine they will get a hearing for their use of many words." - Matt. 6:7 NWT

  "They are the ones devouring the houses of the widows and for a pretext making long prayers; these will receive a heavier judgment." - Mark 12:40 NWT
• 

  Nathan Natas

  That's the dinosaur from the back of the old NWT right?

  No, it's his identical twin brother.
• 

  WTWizard

  So much for praying in private. I understand the use of prayer in any religious service to open and close them. But, you do not need to summarize the whole *$&^ing program with the prayer: that is supposed to be for the final talk. You don't need to take the time to hound people to do ever more with the prayer. And taking half an hour is excessive. Prayers lasting more than about 90 seconds are usually too long for something like this, since all they really need do is ask for the blessing to return to normal activity and to thank for the program.

  Perhaps someone ought to intercept the program so Ted Jaracz's microphone will not work. What they will do instead is offer a prayer directly to Satan: a prayer that Ted Jaracz will get disfellowshipped soon, that the misery will be a total flop, that people will ignore the whole program and go on the Internet (and find a balanced viewpoint on this religion) and to college, that the numbers of publishers start dropping, that Nigeria leaps into the 22nd century unexpectedly (taking the US off guard in doing so), that the US leaps into the 23rd century, that the Internet and better information explodes, that value-sapping institutions like the Watchtower Society collapse, and that man is ultimately liberated. Since the prayer will be addressed to Satan and it will come from Ted Jaracz's microphone, they will probably blame him for it. Who knows? Maybe someone will succeed in getting that slime disfellowshipped!
• 

  ozziepost

  As a sidepoint on this:

  At our church, and others I have attended, the Pray-er says beforehand what he/she will be praying for, as in "Let us pray for the world, (a prayer for the world follows) let us pray for our community, (a prayer for the community follows) let us pray for those who are sick or grieving, etc etc Then at least people's minds are focused with the one giving the prayer. Not only that but if there be one prayer you are not in harmony with, you will not be saying Amen - that's rather difficult with a lengthy, wide-ranging prayer.
• 

  flipper

  Hello Mr. Flipper here. If Mr. Jaracz thinks saying 10 minute prayers will make up for his "alleged" offenses against kids, and you all know what I'm talking about, he is sorely mistaken! I think if anything, he is not qualified to pray on behalf of other humans on this planet. If anything, he needs to be saying "hail mary's for himself and hope to God that he won't be smited with a lightning bolt before he says amen! Peace out, Mr. Flipper of the "Help all the children of the World class".
• 

  Open mind

  LOL @ Restrangled:
  
  "I use to give them 1 to 2 minutes for a prayer and watched the clock. After that marker, I made a huge deal of sitting back down much to the dismay of those around me......and no Amen from me by the way!
  
  r."
  
  *Open Mind tucks that away for possible future public display of "bad attitude" *
  
  Thanks Restrangled.
  
  And, of course, to under believer.
  
  Open Mind
• 

  Arthur

  Oh, how I do miss those invigorating, refreshing pep-talks which inspire mental numbness and a robotic allegiance to an organization and it's leadership. It sort of reminds me of . . . .

  The more things change, the more they remain the same.
• 

  truthsearcher

  I have been advised that another convention also had a 10 minute closing prayer--maybe it is in the script?