What told you that no holy spirit was moving the BOE? (page 2)

flipper

Crumpet, Mr.Flipper here.What told me that no holy spirit was moving the elders was when I started getting personal opinions as counsel from them instead of what was written in the Bible or even their own gb's publications. In my second marriage, it lasted only year and a half, because of her substance abuse, (meth). But I was picking up alot of accounts and work in my janitorial business, because of helping provide for my then teenagers and ex-wifes kids too. 5 kids in all living at home. I was making all the meetings and service at the time and when telling this "influential" elder off hand that I was picking up more accounts in my business, he immediately warned me, " You don't want to get materialistic here. Be careful about picking up work". I said, "It's not like we're buying lots of stuff, this is to pay the bills and feed kids. Jeez, dumbass elder. Then when this same druggie ex-wife chose to leave me, even though she posed a danger to my teenagers, that same elder and other elders tried to convince me two months after the split to take her back, saying to me,"Well if your ex-wife does'nt get along with your kids, just visit your kids without her while trying to live with her and make the marriage work." (we had already been through marriage counseling). I told the elders," I'm not going to sacrifice my kids welfare just to have a relationship with a methamphetamine addicted psychotic wife because you guys say I should, just because she hasn't committed adultery, yet!!!! " So I was put on their shit list because I disagreed with their insane counsel. That was the last straw for me 4 years ago. I've never been back since.Holy spirit my ass. Peace out to you. Mr. Flipper

minu

When I saw how things went down in the "back room". Totally disorganized and personal opinions being thrown everywhere. Them telling me that I should still stay with my husband (now ex) who was verbally and physically abusive because that's what Jah wanted. WHATEVER!!!! I was already on my way out but they gave me the shove I needed.

SnakesInTheTower

Crumpet..

I have seen this to be true since I was appointed MS back in the late 80s and then as an elder back in 2000/1. I experienced both sides of a JC (once as private reproof as an MS, but really a kangaroo court, set up to remove me as MS/pio "troublemaker" ....read that one who did not put up with the games. Having served on 15-20 JCs as an elder, I seen how the Bible was not used hardly at all and it was the Flock book (elder book) being used more. When I served as chairman of these JCs, I insisted we look at scriptures, which was usually met with harummphs.....except for the 2 or 3 "token" scriptures used to "reprove" the erring one, whether it was reproof or D/F. Scriptures were not mentioned in the private discussions of the elders on the JCs or at regular elders meetings...except as an opening ~~Theme~~ Token Scripture to "set the tone" of the meeting.

I once was on a BOE where the elder used the F word multiple times in great anger. (later dismissed as "Righteous anger"... I cant imagine Jesus using the Hebrew equivalent fu' ckh)

This, along with an elder in another congo who was busted for looking at porn (and allowed to remain because of his past "record of faithful service as elder/reg pio...what about the 2 years of looking at PORN! while serving as an elder!) , told me there was no Jehovah or his holy spirit involved in the appointments.

The local BOE uses ~~the Scriptures~~ their own personal standards to decide who is recommended. The CO looks at these recommendations and rarely overrides it...it is sent to Service at the Branch where it is LITERALLY rubber stamped with an "appointed by the GB" stamp....and I am certain Sam Herd is not sitting there with a stamp pad and stamper praying while doing this....can you imagine? (hmmm, looking skyward, "Jehovah, should Brother X in Timbuktu East Congo be appointed?...you say yes?..OK" STAMP! next...

As it was explained to some brothers at MTS, the GB is only directly involved in appointing two groups: 1) Branch Committees and 2) Circuit Overseers. Even DOs are appointed by the Service Dept, since they are taken from the pool of GB appointed CO's. They will never see the appointments of regular elders, pioneers, MS, etc. At no point is holy spirit involved.

Yet, I went along with it because it was the only game in town. No more.

SnakesInTheTower (of the "not playing nicely with BOE" Sheep Class)

ninja

thank god you're feeling better crumpet...I was thinking of putting a radiohead cd on to cheer myself up...no wonder women blame their hormoans....did I spell that right?

gymbob

It took a few years....

I had been counselled by elders a few times over the past 20-30 years, all of it was stupid opinions, no holy spirit involved. But the counsel I was given about school sports was the worst!

My daughter was just starting high school and she wanted to play on the school volleyball team. The elders counsel to me was how dangerous school sports were because of drugs (?), bad association (?), chance of getting hurt (?), etc. It was so obvious they were out of touch, plus, I work at the high school in the sports department! They didn't know what they were talking about, and that really got me thinking....

minimus

I knew elders. If HS was responsible for their appointment AND for keeping them on---then I KNEW that something wasn't kosher. Some elders were basically good men. Others though, sucked.

keyser soze

During a tract campaign once, our service overseer gave a suggestion from the platform as to how to present the tract. All of a sudden it became more than a suggestion, everybody had to present the tract that way. Anyone who didn't was counseled by the elders, even if they were following the suggestions in the KM. People were afraid to report how many tracts they had really placed because then the elders would know they weren't following their direction. That's when I finally realized that these men were just making up their own rules, they were "teaching commands of men as doctrine" like the pharisees.

Grammy

I was only in one congregation the whole time I was a JW (26 years) it was one of those congregations where 90% of the members are related by blood or marriage and there was a lot of things told to the elders that immediately became gossip spread by the elders wives...I was the recipient of such gossip when I insisted my husband and I talk to the elders about something he had done, he was put on private reproof for it but by the next week what he had was done was the talk of the kingdom hall, when he demanded to know how that happened he was told that a "sister" who reads lips read my lips telling some other "sisters" about it at the front of the hall, She couldn't identify these "sisters" however because all she could see was me and the back of a "Black Sister's head" but she knew there were several "sisters" there! I would never have told anyone what he did and he knew I wouldn't...I was furious and let them know that I knew one of the elders we talked to told gossipmonger wife and she spread it around...that convinced me once and for all God's spirit was not directing anything about that cult!

38 Years

This is a great question! For me, in my own mind, I set up a separation between the BOE and Brooklyn. I continued to feel that Brooklyn was being directed by holy spirit, but the Elders were making up their own rules when they could get away with it. I guess it started when I was 12 or 13 when the Elders wouldn't believe that my father was nice at the KH but horrible at home. He was never very religious, but to please my Mom, he made all of us go to the meetings and get baptized as a family. He forced us to answer at meetings and go out in service. He was always nice at the Hall, but would come home and curse and swear about everything and everyone at the meetings. He worked with some brothers from other congregations, and some were Elders. I think one of them was his boss. Apparently, these brothers were quite hypocritical and my father would come home enraged. He would drive with terrible road rage to and from the meetings, taking it out on worldly people but never when he saw one of the brothers or sisters driving. It would terrify me to ride in the car with him. By the time we got to the Hall, I was a wreck. I was also very upset because I knew how bad things would get when we got home. I tried to talk to the brothers about how bad it was and they didn't believe me. I could tell that as long as he attended the meetings and met all the requirements, they would never believe me.

After a couple of years, my father showed his true colors, his temper and all. He stopped coming to meetings. The Elders would take me aside and kept telling me they needed to come over for a sheparding call. They asked me repeatedly. I told them that if they cared at all for my Mom, my sister and I, they would leave him alone. I also told them they should fear for their own safety too, because he would tell us he wanted to physically harm them. Those Elders still acted like I was lying. I think some of them ran into him once or twice in public and his behavior was scary. When they finally accepted it, I started hearing comments like "I don't know how you endured it". My sister and I were "fatherless children". I was crushed that for all that time, they wouldn't believe me. I asked for help and all they could do was tell me I was exagerating. I never had any respect for Elders again. They weren't operating with holy spirit. I knew I was on my own and needed to take care of myself.

nvrgnbk

Easy.

The fact that I was on it.

LMFAO!

What told you that no holy spirit was moving the BOE?

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