Just curious--do all GB members profess to be "anointed?" Are they all claim to be members of the "Faithful and Discreet Slave class?"
Last night at my KH we had a "local needs" part. It was about the Faithful and Discreet Slave:
- How we should trust the FDS.
- How the FDS is represented by the Governing Body.
- How a Governing Body is necessary becuase they can't consult all the FDS all over the world for each decision (this is why my question above came up in the first place.)
- How the original Greek text of the scripture about "those taking the lead among you" proves that in the first century they used the term "governing body" and how it's appropriate to use that term today. It's hard for me to believe that the elder saying this really believed it. He asked the question "does the term 'governing body' occur in the scriptures? Well, not exactly, but..." and then launched into that explanation.
- How if they are good enough for Jehovah and Jesus, they should be good enough for us
- How if we don't understand or don't quite agree with something that comes from the GB, we should do it anyways and trust them implicitly and obey and not lean on our own understanding
- One elder commented "there is no way the Governing Body could do all that they do if they didn't have God's backing."
It upset me so much--SO MUCH--that I was practically in tears by the end of it. I'm getting little residual shivers of revulsion right now just typing this out. It was everything I could do not to raise my hand and ask some very pointed questions, like "DO YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WORD 'REPRESENTATION' MEANS?!?!?!?!?!"
I have been making these posts lately that make me seem right on the edge of losing it, and maybe I am, I guess. The insanity is really getting to me. I wish I could take my wife's brain and dump everything I know into it--break the bonds of indoctrination and get her out. To mine own self be true, you might say, and rightly so, but perhaps because of my upbringing as a witness I'm terrified of being in a religiously divided household.
Sorry for spazzing out.