bytheway wrote:I think I've stumbled on the answer: . . .
by not putting them online there is no real restriction of availability, just ease of getting the content.
This is just my opinion, but I think the latter is more likely the reason--the ease of getting the content. With priesthood responsibility comes additional obligation. Yes, the only way to hear general priesthood meeting when it happens is to be "present" at the meeting, which in our day includes attending at one of the authorized broadcast points of the meeting.
In my younger days, it meant riding with my father for over an hour and sitting in a chapel listening on a tin-can sounding phone line attached to the PA system. Still, when it worked, I got to hear the voices of prophets, seers, and revelators in a setting with other men who had been called and ordained as I had been.
Those memories have stayed with me over all these years. My experience and understanding of the priesthood is different because of that. It took extra effort to participate. It was not just an ordinary meeting. It was special. That growing up experience has always meant something to me and causes me now, even as I think about it, to remember what a special privilege it is to be entrusted with that authority.
I am aware of only one time when general priesthood meeting was broadcast to the general public. The prophet felt that the message was important enough, so they did. At the other end of the spectrum, I listened to an apostle give a talk at one of those priesthood meetings that was never printed in the Ensign. It was as if the talk were never given, as far as the general membership is concerned.
But, it was. And it is available in print. And bishops use it all the time in their work with Young Men. This would never have been possible if the meeting had been open to the general public.
Yes, it takes a little extra effort. Personally, I believe that is part of the reason they do it the way they do. Just my opinion, of course.
