Has anyone met Anthony Morris?

The Real Edward Gentry

He seems like he'd be very stern and a drag to have to be around. Obsessed with tight pants and homosexuals and all. So what's he really like?

sir82

Never met him, but my impression is that "he doth protest too much" about his "concerns" over homosexuality.

I sense some serious repression of something there....not that there's anything wrong with that....

Gorbatchov

Most congregations have an AMIII elder.

With a strong opinion about en against mostly everything.

Conservative and anti liberal.

G.

He doesn't seem like a very pleasant person. Not a big fan of his rants and his comments about his imminent departure to heaven. And of course the homosexuals and tight pants. Thinks he's better than everyone else, including the lowly R&F JWs.

When I was young and the GB members were hidden in secrecy, I would have died to meet one of them. Daniel Sydlik, Milton Henschel, Albert Schroeder... they were like legends and had a mysterious aura of intelligence and maturity that we could only imagine. But the current GB - they are like a bunch of jokers.

zophar

A friend was with Morris in the Traveling Overseer training school a number of years back when Morris was a Circuit Overseer. He said Morris was a real cut up and clown, had great sense of humor.

You can see that at times when he speaks now, but I think the Tight Pants talk and others since have revealed his humorless side!

Diogenesister

I'm gonna go all controversial now.

From what I've read about the old GB, they don't sound very nice *at all*, with one or two exceptions. Nor especially intelligent, when put on the spot. Even Ray Franz I've heard was rarther gruff and could seem a bit rude on occaision.

Now, I can't imagine today's GB getting offered a position without being at least a bit likeable in person. Its just such a big corp now, and as you say so media orientated - with meet-and-greet's - you'd at least have to be a bit personable.

thebrokenkite

FROM MY ARCHIVES:

I once ran into him on our respective ways back from "the Office" to "the Home". He was GB and I was a fanboying 19-year-old new boy. I asked how his day was, and he told me he was writing up the talks for the upcoming RC. The only worthy spiritually-sounding and potentially career-advancing question I could muster was about his creative process. (God, I was a kiss-ass. But only to Jesus' brothers.) He was kind and indulged me but I understood he turned it on, as they all do, when in front of larger or more public crowds. We both awkwardly looked for the nearest "exits", having ended our riveting discussion but still strolling the promenade together. He ducked into 124 and I thought it best to continue, above-ground, to supper. Besides the theological stuff, he seems like a straight shooter and a decent man whom I dislike less than other decision makers for, if nothing else, having had basically a normal non-JW life and making it to GB. His wife was in housekeeping, if I'm not mistaken. In any case, I remember her not having the cushiest of GB wives' gigs. His son Jesse was at Bethel Office during my stint and he was always warm and polite, if reserved. All the young guys were crazy over his exotic-looking wife and she was a highlight of many 107 Evening Deskmen's shifts, though I could not personally see why. His other son Paul was in my aunt's congregation in Wisconsin. My family changed its opinions of him and his wife from one extreme to another, from one week to the next. To be fair, he struck me as a hard-ass and she as a finicky trophy wife. ;)

steve2

I've "met" - hint, hint - Tony tight pants. Say no more.

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

He sounds like someone who can have a chuckle over things in person, so long as he regards you as "safe" (compliant). But woe to he who crosses Sir Morris III...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgmdF-0YGyU

Half banana

No, I haven't had the privilege of meeting TM3 but a few minutes watching him in action on JWTV is enough. He is vain, he is conservative and he sneers.

Ok, no one gets everything right but there has got to be something seriously wrong with a man in authority who mocks critical thinking and discourages education.

TM3's approach is the model position he wants for all of Jehovah's Witnesses. It has to do with the cultic demand to harmonise one's life with an untenable but comforting belief system. Primarily this involves the denial of that reality which would demonstrate that their religion is a fraud and based on fabricated, unprovable and downright wrong beliefs.

TM3 seems to represent the archetypal true believer, one who puts the cart before the horse and for whom nothing is ever going to change his fixed viewpoint. Logic and reason for him do not register, instead his pattern of life is that of enjoying the psychological benefits which come from being a committed patriot soldier in unquestioning obedience to commands whether the cause is right or wrong.

It is the pattern of his own life of black and white thinking and abject obedience which he wants to instill in his dumb followers.

He has no patience with those of another cast of mind and therefore TM3, to the detriment of millions, makes an ideal cult leader.