Body of Elders...

Quentin

I’ve been on the board a little over six months. Before coming here I would tell people: I can be surprised, but never shocked. That’s no longer true after reading through the topics and comments. I left the WTS thirty years ago, my choice, no one chased after me, spied on me or made “friendly” unexpected visits. I left and never heard from anyone until years later when I DA’d and a couple of suits came for a visit that lasted about three minutes, which is a story unto itself.

I make no defense for the Society past or present and do not suggest that the WT has never been anything than what it is, a life and family-destroying cult. What shocks me is the Body of Elders arraignment. What I have read on this board about the BOE is mind-boggling. To me that one thing alone should have rank and file JWs thundering out the front door in droves. I’m shocked and don’t get it. How can anyone one voluntarily live under that kind of physiological brutality?

kls

All in the name of their God and everlasting life in paradise. With out the wt for many ,they are nothing and the wt feeds their egos.

AuldSoul

Quentin, I know what you mean. But when you are in deep sometimes it is hard to comprehend what you are looking at when it comes to abuse of authority. If we just keep stripping the blinders off and ripping the drapes down to let light in, these soul vampires will see the sun and turn to dust.

But there are always going to be Organizations taking advantage of people's trust and desire to find something to believe in. MLMs do it. Religions do it. Political parties do it.

AuldSoul

tall penguin

From the outside looking in, it's now totally inconceivable that anyone would allow a group of men to dominate their life the way jw's allow the elders to. When you're in it though, it's not so easy to be objective. If you believe it's "the truth" you're willing to put up with any inhumane treatment, even thinking that it's "Jehovah's will" that you be tested in some way. It all seems crazy now. But then hindsight is always 20/20.
tp

crazyblondeb

By the time they have you "really" believing, and doing everything from reading and studying the literature, service, meetings, etc. --most people are taught to be in "awe" of the elders. It isn't until they actually insert themselves in your life, usually because you are doing something to displease them (not necessarily the organization).

I know the elders in Moberly, MO were just like the gestopo/nazi's. ANYTIME I got in trouble at home (i.e. valentine card from a boy in Jr. High, lying to my parents....) an elder's meeting always followed. It's like they raised me and handed out punishment. When I found out I had a biological dad and got to meet him, finally. My parents told me it was up to me if I wanted to get to know him or not. After I decided I did, my stepdad and the elders decided that I COULDN"T. Several years later, I went one step farther and ran away from home and went to him.

My mom would go to the elder's because of the way my stepdad treated her. They NEVER gave her encouragement...always ran her down. Several yeard ago when she got reinstated, she refused to meet with the original DF'ing elders. And they didn't make her.

JW's tend to put the elders on a pedistal and never challenge them. Most let the power and prestige go to their heads, and thrive on making examples of anyone that does question them.

For some reason,DUH, this subject gets me blood boiling.......they destroy lives and families on their OPINION!!

shelley

Ticker

This is the way a indoctrinated witness thinks "Elders are put into their position by God through the Governing Body's channels. Since God is supreme then they cannot argue with the ones he appoints, and they reason like mentioned that it is a test or else they are going to meetings not to serve men but to serve God." I find that hypocritical because true christians are marked by love but Witnesses quickly forget this and use any excuse as to why they are treated harshly. Even if stumbled by hardline elders many use circular reasoning to make it all fit into place. If only they could see how un-Godly it truly is and that they are in fear of men not God. How they cannot see the "pyramid structure" is intriguing but again they have cloudy vision due to the constant onslaught of Watchtower indoctrination.

Ticker

jgnat

I think it is no accident it takes six months or more to get someone ready for baptism. It takes that long to have the original personality subsumed and the "put on" personality of a compliant congregation member. Here are some necessary ingredients:

God is to be obeyed and the bible is to be obeyed as God's book.
JW's understand how to interpret the book better than anyone else.
Expect opposition and difficulties. These are from Satan. Resist them.
Invest much time and effort because things of value take effort (Cognitive dissonance loop. To admit you were wrong would to negate all that hard work and study).
That there is nowhere else to go (block the exits).

Now, the person is primed to accept any abuse from the society.

Bryan

This brings up a very good point that has been discussed before, I believe. The people, the R&F, believe so strongly in this system of "the way to paradise" and "the way to please God", I sometimes wonder just how far they would go if the Tower said it was "God's instruction".

Bryan

Have You Seen My Mother

willyloman

The poor quality of leadership in virtually every congregation was one of the reasons I ended up leaving. I say that having "served" on BOEs in a handful of congos over a 20-year span. Like many elders who believed and took the whole "patterned after first century Christianity" lie seriously, I spent a decade waiting for the quality of elders to "catch up" with what I then thought was God's organization and his "perfect" standards. I spent the next decade trying to be a force for good within, hoping I could somehow change or improve an organizational structure that was full of holes.

In the end, I came to conclude a couple of things:

1. The problems could not be fixed; they are systemic.

2. I was the real "problem" because I didn't fit in; I was trying to get people to move in a direction I wanted to go when all along I was the one swimming against the tide.

There was one elder who epitomized what I thought was the main problem with the elder arrangement. He was inept beyond belief when it came to what are supposed to be the "qualifications" for elders. He couldn't deliver a talk, he was totally ineffective at teaching, he was inhospitable, in short he should have (in my view) been removed a long time ago. But month after month, there he was on the platform passing out "accurate knowledge" in a way that I was sure must have embarrassed Jehovah no end. It didn't seem to bother anyone else nearly as much as it did me. One day, while he pontificated from the platform on a topic he clearly knew nothing about, it hit me: It's HIS house. These are HIS people. He "belongs" here. The dysfunctional one in this "family" is me! All this time, I thought he was lowering the bar. He WAS the bar.

It was a lightbulb moment and it wasn't long before I planned and implemented my exit. I am sure he's still there, happy as a pig in poop. I can't tell you how restful it is not to have to worry about that.

Quentin

I agree with all comments. I've been away so long perhaps that's why it shocks me so. Also, I simply walked away, back then there was no BOE up everyones tail pipe. Seems to me, with the elder system in place, the WT simply tightened their grip on the rank and file. Ironic it was done pre 1975. Don't suppose the GB anticipated the fallout and knew they would have to exert ridged control over the flock? Naw, not the GB there a buch of befuddled old men. Nothing smart about those guys.

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