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​I fear that this method of reading Ellen Whie still persists.

Interesting graphic on the sex and age of the delegates. I also wonder what the age breakdown of the women delegates is (unless I missed it, the article breaks down the delegates by sex and by age, but not both sex and age. I've never been involved in church politics, but I have been involved in provincial and federal politics. In my experience, the "youth" delegates to conventions usually had an even 50/50 split between men and women, while "senior" delegates were often 90%+ men. Some of this is generational (we'll see about this is 30 years or so), some is the metaphorical "glass ceiling"; some is attributable to the fact many women, once having children, have little time and energy for such pursuits. I'd be very interested to see how many mothers of young children are delegates at San Antonio vs fathers of young children.

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There was a small church in a small town (pop. 13,000) it shared it's pastor with two other small towns, so it only got a pastor once a month. The congregation was made up of the very elderly and women, if everyone showed up it had maybe 10-15 members. When the pastor wasn't there, they didn't have an 11:00 hour, they would just have Sabbath School and go home. Had one of the women been allowed to conduct services during the 11:00 hour, then maybe there would still be a church in that small town.

(FWIW, I got to my present comfortable position from having two parents who were low paid factory workers. They worked and sacrificed, my great aunt sacrificed, and I worked hard, to get here. And nothing stopped me from doing that in social democratic Australia. Indeed, government funding for healthcare and education and a number of other things helped me up the ladder... and I want to keep extending those opportunities to the generations that follow me)

Whereas I'm in the top 10%, in income if not assets. And still argue that those like me who are more comfortable should be willing to pay enough taxes to fund the services we all share, and some to help out those who are struggling through no fault of their own. The thing is, you seem to have been sold the lie that there is not a continuum, just two options: the current model of robber baron capitalism or soviet-style centrally planned communism. But there are dozens of social democracies around the world. Australia, the UK and Canada all have socialised healthcare but are clearly not communist. There are points along the continuum. No-one is arguing for communism. You have been sold a lie in terms of equal opportunity: it is very obvious that the current model of robber baron capitalism is very heavily slanted to give even more to those already advantaged, and keep those already disadvantaged in their place. Opportunity is *not* evenly distributed, but as long as you believe it is you will continue to vote and advocate against your own interests.

me too.

I'm not sure how a desire for fairness gets misconstrued as 'rabid hatred'. No hatred of people, business or otherwise, on my part. Some anger at ideologies, sure. Jesus taking up whips against unfair traders is an example I take to heart.

I am only just now reading this. Dwight was indeed one of the "good guys" for some years we communicated frequently but life gets in the way. Not long ago I was wondering what happened to him ... now I know. He was too young