How Many Former Elders/MS Taught What You Wanted & Ignored The Rest?

Seeker4

This was prompted by the thread on whether you enjoyed being an elder or MS. Some mentioned they taught what they wanted when they were an elder.

That was personally true of myself. There were some things I stopped teaching over the years, and would refuse to counsel the friends about.

Some that come to mind that I would not teach:

oral sex in marriage is wrong

don't talk to disfellowshipped people

anything about "proper" dress

resumption of sex negates fornication as a grounds for divorce

I would leave some of the WTS's more outrageous statements out of my talks, whether public talks or parts at the assemblies and conventions

anything that I couldn't find a scriptural basis for

How about you? Did you teach what you wanted, or follow the party line?

S4

poppers

Huh?

Seeker4

Sorry, Poppers! It sent itself before I was ready. Try again now.

S4

zeroday

Our PO was an old time JW. He was a congo Servant in the 50's. He ruled the congo with an iron fist and keep all Elders and MS in line. We had one Elder, very caring and kind. The friends would flock to him because he was compasionate compared to the rest of the elder body. Well this just would not stand. He eventually stepped down as Elder and I can imagine why...

R.F.

As an MS, I gradually ceased to mention the "faithful and discreet slave" in my talks. I always tried to have the audience focus on the Bible and them putting their efforts into reading it. I didn't even mention reading the publications much.

thepackage

I would leave stuff out of my talks at the Cong. I did not agree with. The highlight of my talks was that I'd sneka in a curese word once in a while.

Open mind

Yep Seeker4, that describes me to a T.

In elder's meetings I'll spew "F&D Slave" crap right & left as part of my theocratic subversive warfare. They're big boys and I don't feel the least bit bad about doing that around them.

But I rarely let "Slave Class" pass my lips in talks or comments around the congregation. Just a little now & then to keep up appearances and allay suspicions.

If I happen to be assigned a part that I just cannot bring myself to spew, I'll cancel at the last minute. ( That helps add to my "flaky elder" personna.)

But in general, I'll play up the portions that I like (those are getting harder & harder to find) and either ignore or quickly blow through the other stuff. Haven't gotten "counseled" yet, but I'm sure that day will come.

Open Mind

Seeker4

I've known quite a few elders over the years that would admit that to me privately.

I remember new elders coming in and at an elder's meeting they'd be eager to bring up the need to counsel brother so and so about the style of his haircut, and whether he should lose the privilege of sign language interpreting in the congregation.

"Matt," I said to him, "you wear a mustache, and not so many years ago brothers with mustaches were told shave them or be removed as an elder or MS. That lasted about a year, and then was dropped. Here we've got a young brother doing something of value in the congregation, and you want to shoot him down because you don't like his hairstyle! Personally, I've got no problem with how he looks."

The brother turned bright red, and the body dropped the discussion.

There was so much ridiculous shit like this among the elders.

S4

flipper

Seeker 4, good topic! Mr. Flipper here. I was an ms for 6 years gave public talks, and generally stuck to the outline but would spice it up a bit with my own thoughts, but never controversial or debatable. There was one elder in our circuit in the early 80's who when showing a slide presentation he had , played Neil Young's "Old Man" song with the presentation to talk about the effects of aging and how we won't go through that in the paradise!! I like Neil Young's songs , thought it was kinda cool, but the elders and co found out and well, you guessed it, no more talks allowed with Neil Young music. Gawd!, I should have tried to play Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" during one of my talks while I had the chance! Oh well! I'll be content to listen at home on the stereo. Peace to you, Mr. Flipper

garybuss

Here the presiding overseer is called Most Holy Presiding Over Other People and the acronym is HOLY POOP. Most of us just call him POOP. He told us he only wanted to teach what he understands but he said then he wouldn't be teaching much, so he said he wasn't going to let not understanding something keep him from teaching it.

We don't like the meetings much but it's the only place we go with an indoor toilet besides the bus depot and we have a commune of wasps protecting our outhouse so we have been the first ones to get to the hall for a few weeks now. You might way we put up with POOP so we can poop.

How Many Former Elders/MS Taught What You Wanted & Ignored The Rest?

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