I caught the entire session today, and strangely, it was the first time I was able to stay completely alert for an entire DC program. I'm guessing the reason for that is that I was looking at the program with a critical eye for the first time in my life and was not being hypnotised by mind-numbing repitition (see Steve Hassen's Combatting Cult Mind Control).
The program wasn't THAT bad. The afternoon drama started off slightly realistic and then steadily got more over-the-top as it went along. My wife and I got a good laugh out of the fact that the voice-over for the youngest kid (Nick?) sounded like it was a 5 or 6 year old. The kid they had playing the part looked to be about 12 or 13. I bet he felt rediculous.
The rest of the program was mostly the same crap about materialism and "us vs them" propaganda...the world is in darkness, the world is lost, the world is wicked and dangerous...etc.
Two things stood out to me today (besides the mention of JWs being a Cult in the drama, and the Symposium part about Apostates, both of which have already been heavily commented on):
1. There was a lady who gave an experience about being an Atheist and then converting to being a Jehovah's Witness after studying with a co-worker who was new in "The Truth". She said she realized it was the truth because once she started studying, she started having problems with the demons. She didn't give any details regarding her demonic experiences, but she referred to them as "attacks". And she said that she assumed there must be a god if there are other invisible creatures that could influence her.
BULLSHIT. Demons are a figment of the imagination. What are the chances that she started having problems with "demons" because she started hearing about them from her Study Conductor, and had never heard about them before from her family (who she said were atheists as well). I have never in my life heard a story about a demonic encounter from anyone who wasn't already off their rocker . She looked pretty messy on stage for a District Convention. It's pretty rare for a sister to get a "privilege" like that, and they normally dress to the nines. She definitely had a few ounces of crazy running through her veins.
2. There was a sister who griped during a demo that her teenagers were not yet baptized.
This is obviously rediculous. By the way, there were 19 baptized out of 6500ish today. Only 4 or 5 of them were adults from what I could see.