Your body of elders - were they liberal, conservative or moderate? (page 2)

New day

In our hall the sisters bring a scarf to drape over their legs for a talk if the skirts rides above the knee when they sit down!

Divergent

Many of the elders in my cong are judgemental, with one them in particular being an exceptional hard-assed self-righteous prick. So glad to be fading!

millie210

cleanideas
Another one is no dancing. An elder would walk up to all the young kids in the hall and tell them dancing is "nothing but shaking your sex organs at each other".

Huh, thats funny, The shake your vagina dance never made it to my neck of the woods. I wonder what that elder is talking about?

In the two bodies I sat with, most were liberal to moderate ... however, there was at least one conservative that would bring out the rule book when he felt the need. One conservative and a rule book trumps a majority or moderates, if not, Mother's representative will set it straight on the next visit.

blondie

I knew of one BOE that was still demanding that public talk speakers wear white shirts....

or the BOE that was so lax that all the young jws 18 to 25, streamed there to live a life apart from WTS rules.

And of BOEs that had 3 hour meetings and yelling matches.

stuckinarut2

"our" cong used to be liberal...the elders were mostly business owners with money and busy lives...hence they were NORMAL (as normal as elders can be)

But recently, new ones have moved in, and those older ones are now nearer retiring and have become "super spiritual" and overrighteous!

Hence now the atmosphere is extremely harsh and judgemental.

It is amazing what a few years and a few influential men can do to the spirit of a cong!

Doubting Bro

generally conservative, I was the liberal guy on the BOE and was at odds with the Taliban

Wasanelder Once

It was old men who were weak who submitted themselves to the younger men. The level of ignorance was deep. From old to young I think they would have reached no higher than 6th grade. It was a prison camp till the damn broke and a few of we upstarts were appointed. Then the fan was hit by the proverbial poop. Was fun to stir the pot and get people reprieves from their BS.

minimus

I don't miss those elders meetings.

traveb

I have to say that most of the elders I encountered were liberal to moderate. Sure, there might have been the occasional uptight a**hole, but that was definitely the exception. Of course, this was my experience in various congregations in the SF Bay Area. I've heard that California congregations tend to be more liberal. I can't imagine some of the crazy conservative policies I've heard through the grapevine would ever fly here. Publishers would either just ignore them, or move to one of the numerous neighboring congregations where they would be welcomed with open arms.

My overall impression was that these were just normal guys doing their day job, then struggling to get through all of their elder duties on top of that. I hardly ever got a pretentious attitude from them, but I was always fairly friendly and social around them, and never caused any waves, so they probably liked that. I've had more then one on occasion admit to me that they disliked being an elder, but felt a responsibility "to help the friends". Most of them loved to drink as well!

Your body of elders - were they liberal, conservative or moderate?