Saturday, 11 September 2010
As previously noted, today I delivered a presentation in front of the Maple Grove Critical Thinkers’ Club. The turnout was good; the club’s president told me there’s typically about 15 people at their meetings, but today there were 21.
It’s funny, whenever I give a presentation, I’m never quite sure what sort of questions people are going to ask. Perhaps I’m just not used to this; after all, when I performed public speaking at Witness meetings, the audience was not permitted to ask questions. So, you know, it throws me off guard a little bit.
For example, one woman asked who Jehovah is. Oops. I guess I should’ve mentioned that during my presentation. Someone else asked about how the local congregations are arranged and funded, and what sort of schooling the ministers have. There was particular interest about voting and birthdays.
I casually mentioned that Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays and, in mid-sentence, I was cut-off by someone asking, “Why don’t they celebrate birthdays?” My response was: “Yeah, that’s a great question. And I’m gonna answer it by saying that if any of you ever comes across a Witness that gives a coherent, logical reason why they don’t celebrate birthdays, then please tell me. Because, in all my years as a Witness, I could never find a reason.” I even admitted to being embarrassed about this rule back when I was a Witness.
But then a man raised his hand and said: “You know, my daughter’s been a Witness for a few years now, and she told me why they don’t celebrate birthdays. She said that they don’t want to draw attention to the individual.”
I tried to respond to this as tactfully as I could. Specifically, I said, “Yes, I’ve heard that one, and it’s complete bullshit.” I explained that Witnesses hold graduation parties, funerals, wedding receptions, retirement parties and even baby showers…so his daughter’s reasoning is only effective on people without the ability to reason.
At another point, I noted that Witnesses shun their ex-Witness relatives, and a woman (the only person in the room younger than me) said: “Well, one of my patients is a Witness and she talks to her gay son.”
Yeah… I said she probably does…but I guarantee she keeps the matter secret. And, besides, if her son was never baptized, then he’s technically not an ex-JW since he never was a JW in the first place.
All in all, a good time. Some of the questions were very thought-provoking, and there were some laughs, particularly when I reviewed “What to say and What not to say when a Witness comes to your door (assuming you don’t want them to come back)”.
A few people came up and thanked me for my presentation, a professor of religious studies at St. Cloud State gave me his email address and we’ve been in correspondence. Another man said I was doing the world a great service, and another man said that when Witnesses came to his door he asked them if Jesus ever got an erection. When the Witness woman said: “Oh, of course NOT!” The man asked her, “Why, was he impotent? Then he wasn’t perfect.” Ha!
The club’s president, meanwhile, enjoyed my presentation so much, I’ve been invited to speak again in January. Stay tuned.
Sunday, 12 September 2010
So what’s the deal with the word “grey?” Or is it “gray?” See what I mean. It’s a conundrum that, normally I would simply find interesting for academic purposes, but now my wife is creating a birth announcement (did you hear we had a daughter a few weeks back?) and she wishes to quote from a song. Problem is, the song uses the word gray/grey.
I called up the lyrics to the song online, and the site spells it G-R-E-Y, but I don’t know how trustworthy lyrics sites are. For one thing, they always get lyrics wrong. For this song in particular, they misspell “yourself” as “youtself” and the put an arbitrary apostrophe in “gets.” They also put the word “or” when clearly the singer says “and,” which happens to be grammatically correct as well.
THIS SITE says to remember that grAy is American and grEy is European. Very clever. Even cleverer is THIS SITE which says that “gray is a color, while grey is a colour.”
Additionally, both of my dictionaries (American through and through) do contain entries for “grey,” but only to direct the reader to “gray.” They also have entries for “grayling,” “gray matter,” and “gray wolf.”
That seems to settle the matter; but Wikipedia directs all inquires regarding “gray” to their “grey” page. And those dictionaries? They both have entries for “greyhound.” Meanwhile, though the song was written by an American, it wsa performed by a Brit for a film that was created in New Zealand. Hm. Further, Jennifer is using the lyrics as they were performed live at the Oscars back in 1999, and not as they originally appeared in the film…so it’s not as if the booklet that accompanies the CD soundtrack is the end of the matter. Also, I don’t own the CD soundtrack, so I don’t even know what the booklet says.
I think I’ve convinced my wife to stick with “gray.” After all, we laugh at wedding invitations that “request the honour of your presence.” Sorry…my presence as no honour; only honor.
I already switched it to “gray” for you so you ca now start sleeping again at night. For the record, I prefer “grey”.
Funny, I have asked questions and been asked questions during public discourses at a Kingdom Hall. It is an amusing occurrence, especially during student talks, but it is no more than a breach of protocol. There are discussion type presentations at least once a week, so I don’t understand how you could be unfamiliar with the process.
Matt,
During my ~30 years as a JW, I never attended a meeting wherein the audience was permitted to ask questions. The only questions asked were by the speaker, and he would ask questions that were written at the bottom of the page, and the audience would answer from the paragraphs or the cited scriptures. So when I say I’m unfamiliar with the process, I mean that I’m unfamiliar with giving a presentation, and then having people in the audience ask me questions – questions that are not predetermined by Watchtower Society.
Did you notice that the link you put up about grey vs gray was written by a Bernie Zimmermann? Is this subject a family concern? Although he has a extra “n” in his last name than you do, I found this funny.
In doing a google search for David Gray (the British musician) it also came up with David Grey (the American poker player). It is the opposite of the American/European versions of gray/grey in this case being used as a proper noun.
@matt
The only time I ever heard questions from the audience at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting (in for ~25 years) was when an unbelieving husband of someone studying with the Witnesses came to a few book studies.* He only came a handful on times, but would always ask questions. The room would get very quiet and uncomfortable. The conductor of the meeting started out seemingly happy to answer, but as the weeks went by got more and more agitated. After he stopped calling on the guy, the guy stopped coming to the group. I don’t know if he was asked not to come or if he just got fed up with being ignored.
Oh, I also remember someone asking a question at one of the main meetings, but it was during a congregation resolution/vote when the guy running the show asked if there were any “questions, comments, or concerns.” It only happened once that I can remember even though they asked for questions every time we took a vote. The guy who asked the question was fairly new to the group at the time which probably explains his lapse in judgment.
But I do know that there are differences between congregations across the country (and would guess even more around the world). Perhaps having the audience ask questions is more typical where you live.
*For those unfamiliar with the lingo, a book study was a small group meeting (a few families) that would meet together in a member’s home or a small area of the Kingdom Hall (JW church).
@Cory-
Yeah, I noticed that, too. No close relation that I know of. The “Grey” vs. “Gray” matter doesn’t really apply when it comes to proper names (for example: Earl Grey Tea IS Early Grey Tea, regardless of which side of the Atlantic one lives on), but, otherwise, yeah, that’s an interesting observation.
@David-
I recall, one time, a woman raising her hand and asking a question at a WT study. She was not a Witness, and she didn’t wait to be called on, or to have the microphone brought to her. She just raised her hand and said: “I have a question.” The conductor (my grandpa) looked befuddled and, looking down at her, she said: “Are JWs a cult?” My grandfather just said, “We can talk about that after the meeting.” Afterward, many people congratulated my grandpa on handling the ‘situation’ so deftly.
@Lady who asked that question-
Yes.