by JH 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Come on now, is it really posssible that everyone at the hall gets along well together? Maybe during ideal conditions..
Were you aware of any friction or bad blood amongst members in your congregation?
In my case, there was a brother thatI didn't want to be around. He was extremely serious and liked to dominate the conversation in every way. He didn't have many friends.
You bet Ya. There was a PO in my old hall that ran the congregation his way. The CO asked me and another brother to covertly investigate this PO we found two DFing Offenses he was guilty of. It divided the hall into fight fractions. Because our investigation was found every one know what we were up to. The CO was not going to be there for months, then the CO had a personal crises to handle so we received a substitute CO for the next visit that would not touch any of it at all. So for almost a full year the congregation was a place of war until the CO made it. This PO was not FD'd but was put on reproof and was able to remain an Elder by name only. He could not pray for the congregation nor conduct meeting for field service. This went on for over a year, then the he was given all his privileges back and is now running the congregation once again.
Never have I seen a pitiful group of people in all my life.
Oh yes - an elder was removed and his family still bears a grudge to this day
Their were a few of the original Russell follwers at my KH when I first started attending. I see now that they were still mad at being forced out of control by Rutherford supporters. They came to the KH together, sat together and then had another WT study together later that afternoon . The elders told me ( I was new) to not associate with them outside of the KH meetings. They had some interesting stories to tell, I'll bet.
There was always an undercurrent of jealousy and resentment at my Hall, as those with money who were able to donate plenty to the congregation funds seemed to be better thought of than the poorer members, and would get away with minimal service or participation in meetings. I sometimes seemed that, with some people anyway, the size of your bank balance determined how spiritual you were.
The less well - off were well aware of this of course, and some were very resentdul and highly critical of the better off ones, even if they were zealous JWs.
Oh definitely.
I wouldn't know where to start.
"Bad blood" is such a common thing that happens in any group of people - it would be highly unusual to find a group where some hard feelings, animosities and grudges didn't exist.
But this is one area where JWs fall short, isn't it? That they claim to be different from the rest of the world, and that they claim to be the only people on earth who show that they are Jesus' disciples because they "have love among themselves", yet they are in reality no different from any other group of people on the planet.
And yes, in every KH I ever went to, there were cliques and people that were each other's mortal enemies. In fact, a rumour got back to me that one Sister™ despised me because I tried to get along with everyone. Go figure.
Does gossiping about other brothers and sisters count as "Bad Blood"?
There was plenty of that going on.
Bad blood was absolutely forbidden at my congregation. Bad blood fractions were a conscience matter.
