Thought you might like to hear about a programme on UK TV (Channel 4) yesterday in which JWs featured.
It was a light-hearted and quirky programme called Junk Mail Britain where the presenter who has hoarded all his junk mail for the past 5 years, went out into his community (Willesden, NW London) to meet the people behind the various businesses and companies who were trying to get his custom via leafletting.
http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodBrand=junk-mail-britain
It was fun and much more interesting than you might think from this brief synopsis. He met everyone from taxi drivers to pizza takeaway firms to find out how much business they got from junk mail and then interviewed some of the people who trailed from door to door dropping unwanted leaflets through letterboxes.
The best item he saved to last. He was in the bath reading a book on a Saturday morning and there was a knock at the door. He went down stairs in his dressing gown to find two demurely dressed ladies offering him a little booklet to read. (Cue backgound chuch organ music!). I'm not sure if these were actresses but I don't think so.
His voice-over comment was that out of all the hundreds of pamphlets he receives, there is only one group of people so polite that they actually ring his doorbell in person to deliver theirs. No obvious disrespect was shown but I think there was irony in his voice.
Various different Watchtower magazines were displayed on screen with the comment that they have the largest circulation of any in the world. Not sure if he was trying to suggest they are the greatest producers of junk mail, but possibly.
He decided that since the JWs visited his house several times a year, it was only fair that he should go to theirs. (I shouted at the TV "don;t go!" but nevertheless I was very curious as never having been a JW, I had never seen inside a Kingdom Hall and now I have).
The presenter interviewed someone who talked blandly about not just dropping leaflets though letterboxes but trying to engage people in conversation, and about people living in fear in the modern world, and how many were scared to open thier doors to people or show hospitality to others for fear of what might happen.
The presenter then dons a suit and tie and attends a meeting. He comments that church attendance has dropped over recent years but the JWs have gone forth and multiplied and their membership is now 130,000 in the UK. This congregation was attended by over 20 different nationalities.
Then a speaker was filmed giving a talk from the platform. He spoke about real freedom being an elusive goal and drawing attention to 'the hundreds of millions of people who have enslaved themselves into harmful addictions, slavery into alcohol, drug abuse and the viewing of pornography".
The camera cut at this point to the face of the visiting presenter which was a picture of puzzlement.
The clip would not be interesting to most of you, as this stuff is or was what you lived with regularly, but to me it was an eye opener. Having read on JWD a little about what happens in meetings, the one thing I was surprised at was that the speaker's voice was really patronising with a slow delivery as if he was talking to 5 year olds. I would have personally felt insulted by his tone if I was an adult there!
Was this speaker unusual or do many of them talk down at the congregation?