Richie said:
lets break this down. still a jw, ex elder
Richie, I love ya, kid! ROTFLMAO!
Elise, I get what you are saying, but the fact is elders are imperfect human beings just like everybody else. Most of us, even as die-hard JW's, did things we knew were "wrong" according to the extremely strict code of the WTS. I think we hoped that Jehovah would overlook such sins and forgive us, especially if these practices were private and caused no harm to others.
Frankly, if elders were required to be perfect reflections of the ideal JW and to step down whenever they didn't strictly live up to everything published by the Society, there wouldn't be any....oh, except those idiots who are so deluded that they think they are perfect. Hmmmm, in fact, if any Jehovah's Witness was required to turn themselves in or leave the religion for doing something not sanctioned by the Governing Body, you only have a handful of congregations existing in the whole world.
Also, as Merry pointed out, there are many who do not want to be a JW any more but also don't want to lose all contact with family members by bowing out of the religion completely. Usually, these men end up stepping down eventually as the hypocracy is too much for them. Everybody has their own set of circumstances to deal with. Who is to say what the definitive course of action for everyone should be?