Okay I just returned from the assembly in historic Amherst, Mass. I justlove the old houses in that town very nice. Anyways to recap the good parts, first off obedience. I must say, wow. They were really pushing this theme. I wish I would have had a tally going each time they either said obey, obedience, or obedient. There were times when I think it was like every 10th word they said. So the theme had been established in the first 10 minutes.
Now they run down the order of theocratic appointment, and how we need to obey the setup as we do jehovah. As we were walking in, a parking lot boy was waving a minivan to park. As he stood in front and waved the van to come forward, it crashed into the cement beam in front of it, and made a small commotion. I could only think did jehovah make the van crash through his theocratic appointment?
Ok so now we have a father and son sitting at a table on the stage. Dad is asking his son how will he deal with peer pressure in school? His son says he will stay away from the bad kids and all ya-ya, but dad says but what about when your friends ask you to be in study groups, and organized sports? Dad goes on to explain why these things are bad. In the first part there was heavy emphasis on not mixing with worldy kids, they had a skit with 2 young boys which addressed this. The boy decided not to play with the other boy because if he didnt serve jehovah, then they really have nothing in common.
Then a man comes on stage and says his wife was baptised in 1973. He said he was baptised just in 2002. He said that her actions were witness to the truth, and thats why he finally got baptised. I highly suspect she was holding out on him for 30 years and he finally needed to get some, but thats just me. He also said that he forbid his wife to preach to his 2 daughters, but they became dubs anyway. He said later he found out when he was gone all day at work his wife was breaking out the bible studies with his daughters. So I guess the wts says it is ok to lie and disobey your husband only if it furthers thier cause. I guess it is encouraged now.
I noticed on a couple of occasions when speaking of divorce and bad associations the speaker admitted that these problems exist even within the org. How humble.
I dont know if this is new but there were several references to being "deep into the last days" and calling the new system "the real life".
There were 3 occasions when the speaker was introducing people on the stage and thier occupations, one owned a painting business, one owned a carpentry business, and one was an electrician by trade. You can see what that says.
Then the baptism. Interesting when they ask you if your yes means yes, they ask if you are ready to be dedicated to the org. I asked my wife where in the bible it says anything about being baptised into an org or publishing company. It doesnt. Of almost 6000 in attendance, I would say there were less that 25 baptised. 80% were ages 12-18 I would say, so again I am guessing they were raised in the religion. I watched the baptisms while eating a home-made roast beef sandwich that I brought in one of those insulated food packs. I fit in quite nicely, except that I kept yelling obey!! every time we started clapping. My wife was not amused.
They had a speaker talking about graphic violoence on tv and video games, and how evil it is. I recalled in my head the graphic pictures of bloody corpses laid out in the street in wts publications. I guess when jehovah slaughters billions of people it is love, but when you slice a video game guy in half with a sword, that is evil, and jehovah hates that. Maybe hes jealous because he wants all the killing fun for his own enjoyment. Then they talked about pornography for a while, such fitting food for a family event I tell you.
They talked about how the fds gives us our food at the proper time. To support this fact, they used an event in history. They said in 1939 the watchtower said people should have neutrality towards the war. According to them, this is proof that the fds gives us the food at the proper time in the watchtower. Thats all I can say about that.
Then at the end there was a speaker talking about how everyone should obey the elders and all. The elders give us the proper guidance. They had an older gentlemen get on stage to tell them how its not easy, but obeying the elders works out for the best. His example was that one time the elders decided he should have parking lot duty. He was scared, for never before had he attempted such a daunting task of parking attendant, and he was unsure if he would be able to handle the assignment. After many sleepless nights(he didnt really say that part but I added it) he decided that if jehovah felt he was ready to handle the job, then by golly he was ready! So he went that day and he handled his parking lot duty like a pro! So this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the elders know whats best for you,and to always obey them!
So to sum it up, the obedience theme almost made me vomit after the first half hour, the wts uses lame examples, and just because people almost have a convulsion when the new book is revealed, it doesnt make it true. It was truly a painful day, because the seats had no padding, just hard plastic.