![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Respect your Elders, Part the Second
Feb. 14th, 2006 07:47 pmI'm sure you've all been on tenterhooks waiting to hear about Alan and the outcome of his mad complaint about calling people "Elder". Well, we had our readers' meeting today and it very nearly became an all-in brawl.
Alan has one supporter, Bernie (another beardie too - I'm beginning to form a theory about Bearded Men And Their Dislike Of Mormons). Alan is quite agitated about this and Bernie is belligerent at the best of times, so the meeting got quite heated. Sanity prevailed, of course; the formal directive from head office in Melbourne was that people are entitled to be called whatever they wish and "Elder" is not advertising the Church of the Latter Day Saints, end of story.
After all that, Liz and I had, yes, the current Elders as our producers this afternoon. Callow youths, the baby-faced pair of them. They don't look old enough to be out of the nest. There had been talk about inviting them to the readers' meeting to explain about their names, and maybe if it had been some of the past Elders - older and more articulate - we would have done. The incumbents, though, are very young and extremely polite and achingly shy, and have already been upset by one meeting with Alan. They would have been overwhelmed encountering two shouting bearded fools together. Far better to let Alan and Bernie do their venting on unflappable, voice-of-reason types like Chris and me (and even I was getting tempted to tell them both to shut up and get a grip by the end).
Deb the Volunteer Co-ordinator phoned to thank me later, and was going to phone Chris too. She'd already spoken to Alan and Bernie and their options are: (1) call the boys "Elder" like any sane person would, (2) officially request that they not be rostered on the same day as the Elders or (3) leave. We think they might choose option 3, which would be rather sad; but rather them than the blameless baby Elders.
Alan has one supporter, Bernie (another beardie too - I'm beginning to form a theory about Bearded Men And Their Dislike Of Mormons). Alan is quite agitated about this and Bernie is belligerent at the best of times, so the meeting got quite heated. Sanity prevailed, of course; the formal directive from head office in Melbourne was that people are entitled to be called whatever they wish and "Elder" is not advertising the Church of the Latter Day Saints, end of story.
After all that, Liz and I had, yes, the current Elders as our producers this afternoon. Callow youths, the baby-faced pair of them. They don't look old enough to be out of the nest. There had been talk about inviting them to the readers' meeting to explain about their names, and maybe if it had been some of the past Elders - older and more articulate - we would have done. The incumbents, though, are very young and extremely polite and achingly shy, and have already been upset by one meeting with Alan. They would have been overwhelmed encountering two shouting bearded fools together. Far better to let Alan and Bernie do their venting on unflappable, voice-of-reason types like Chris and me (and even I was getting tempted to tell them both to shut up and get a grip by the end).
Deb the Volunteer Co-ordinator phoned to thank me later, and was going to phone Chris too. She'd already spoken to Alan and Bernie and their options are: (1) call the boys "Elder" like any sane person would, (2) officially request that they not be rostered on the same day as the Elders or (3) leave. We think they might choose option 3, which would be rather sad; but rather them than the blameless baby Elders.
