Most of the elders I knew were pretty decent men. I only went to one congregation where there ended up being some jerks, but boy did they make up for the rest of elders I met who were intelligent, kind and decent.
The cong. was in Cartersville, Ga. Not all of the elders were mean. The problem is that North Georgia culture tends to be very clannish. There were two families that made up the bulk of the congs. in that area. Because of that there was resentment and division in the cong.
Then they brought in this one haughty, young elder who aspired to be a circuit overseer. His wife and him were regular pioneers. He gave a talk once telling the weak that if they want to hang out with the strong, they better get strong. He also told the strong not to associate with the weak. Who were the weak? Well, he made that clear in another talk. If you are only putting in less than 10 hours a month, those are garbage hours. He was a huge flirt and he ended up being deleted and knocked off the pioneer list. Why? Because he took one particularly beautiful, bipolar married pioneer sisters and counseled her alone. He told her that if she would follow his mentoring, he could help her understand the bible and god and herself and she wouldn't need her prozac. He tried to romance her and she asked him to turn himself in. He didn't so she did. The elders were reluctant to handle this, he was one of their own after all. So she took it to the circuit overseer. She was removed from the pioneer list and reproved, too!
What did his wife have to say about it? She told the sister that she should have kept her big mouth shut. The plans to go on the road as overseers had backfired. This same lovely sister told my daughter to keep her mouth shut about her stepfather's abuse. She told her not to even share it with me. My daughter needed protection. My daughter went to her for help.This woman stopped her from getting it. To this day, my daughter is not okay.
