Confession
Your description of all those elders ganging up on your friend makes me sick. To me, it basically amounts to a bunch of self-appointed guardians relishing an opportunity to exert a form of angry authority, while also demonstrating in front of each other how very UN-homosexual they themselves were.
That's my feeling, too. I only heard the details last year. When my friend told me what each of the elders said, as they took their stabs, I was truly shocked and saddened. One of my best friends, the elder who had studied with me was one of the worst behaved in that little room.
Interestingly, he told me another elder had recused himself from the JC. I don't know what reason he gave, but, privately he had told my friend that before he became a JW...he "...had struggled with homosexuality."
As much of a guilty conscience as I had over turning over my friend, I wonder if any of the elders at the JC just 'went along with the flow' of the hard-liners for their own sake and later had 2nd thoughts? I do know they never attempted any of their 'required' annual shepherding calls to check on him. So, maybe they felt nothing but pride in a job well done.
I am so glad I never was an elder, I would be haunted big time sitting in judgment like that with such a biased mind. Justice in a JC is certainly not blind justice.
Rabbit
Here's an interesting article from a Baptist minister: http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20061120/cm_usatoday/whenreligionlosesitscredibility