Hi my friends, Mr. Flipper here to report on the alleged "encouragement" meeting with elders. It certainly felt like a jc meeting even though the chairman elder (there were only two) opened it by saying "As you know we talked a month ago and I told you the decision was not to disfellowship you, as we were directed by the society. That is still true. But we are here to encourage you to make a new( clean?) start for yourself in your home town congregation. You need to build yourself up by meetings and prayer."
So, I figured the best defense was a good offense and said exactly what ex elder Snakes in the tower ,On the Way Out, and Wilyloman suggested to say. I said," Well I believe it is Jehovah's organization ( gawd that was hard to say that ) but I've been really hurt at heart and stumbled by these false , slanderous allegations against me and it's going to take a long time to get over the hurt and my heart to trust again. My whole family was told I sinned by my ex-wife and daughter and maligned my good name to them. They did this even before the elders were involved!.These last 11 months this dragged on has been very hurtful."
Then I figured they were listening so I gave them more to listen to. I said," I don't want to charge my ex-wife with slander or my daughter but I feel there needs to be some concern on the elders part about their practices of slandering people. This was not the first time they did this to someone. My older daughter when leaving her mothers home went to live with a sister and her 23 year old daughter. The sister and her daughter worked at massage therapy and at times had clients, men come over for a legit professional massage. My ex started gossiping to others in her congregation that she felt it was immoral and wrong to have men over at her house, and that my daughter would be tempted to commit immorality with them if she was there or the men would take advantage of her. The massage therapy sister was incensed at my ex for spreading this rumor about her and her daughter and the p.o. in their congregation had to give a local needs talk about gossiping, my ex wife being the perpetrator." Then I told these elders," Shouldn't we be concerned for the peace of the congregations?" The chairman said," Well, there's nothing we can do to change that situation now and everybody is imperfect and says wrong things. The thing we are mainly concerned with is that you move ahead spiritually, forget the past and look to the future." I think I grunted some unintelligent babble to that idiot remark.
Then this chairman elder went on the offensive. This was like a damn chess game believe me. I like chess,too! He said," when we met with you 2 months ago, we had some concerns you were reading apostate literature." I said," How do you figure that?" He said," Because of bringing up your concern for the child molestation issue." I said, I read about the molestation settlements in a associated press newspaper article, and yes I was concerned about what it said because they seemed to be hiding information and forcing the victims to be quiet by putting a gag order on them saying anything about it. So yes I was concerned." Then the elder said," But you had a negative attitude about it." I said," Well I disagreed with them covering it over, I think that was wrong to do." Then the elder said," Well, that's where we need to have faith that Jehovah's organization is handling it the best way possible." I said,"Oh", feigning stupidity, but too tired to debate him.
Next up to bat was elder #2 who had been listening to everything. So he starts in on me. He says," You know if there had been better communication right from the start last August when this started, then it wouldn't have had to drag out 11 months." I looked at him and said," Are you saying I didn't communicate well enough and wasn't clear about everything?" He said," Well, had you allayed your daughters fears better and the elders concerns by being more open about things it wouldn't have stretched the time out so long!" I said," I feel I was very clear from the beginning that there was nothing to talk about, and I made clear that I had not done anything wrong. I even expressed that on the phone when telling the original jc committee chairman that I didn't want to meet because there was no substance to any charges. Then the next thing I know is 2 months after that conversation 2 elders come to my door and say I'm disfellowshipped!" I continued," I really feel they disfellowshipped me because they were mad I did not show up at their first jc meeting. It angered them so they made a show of their power by disfellowshipping me, that's my take." Chairman elder stepped in and says," Well it may appear that way, but they just wanted better communication is all. They thought you were hiding something." He continued," You know brother Flipper, when we join the organization we agree that the body of elders has authority. And if we are accused of a sin we have to cooperate with the elders as they have been appointed by Jehovah's holy spirit to take care of it. We show humility by cooperating. Even if myself as an elder were accused of something I'd even have to meet with the elders." Once again I grunted unintelligible babble.
Then Elder #2 steps in again and says," Well Br. Flipper, hopefully you can work on restoring your relationship with your daughter and improve communication with her." I said, " I have tried to talk with her on the phone, but she just disses and condemns me for not going to meetings, she is not an easy person to talk with, aggressively opinionated." I continued," I have some family that treats me good in the witnesses. Mom and dad support me, one older sister, son and wife. But my elder older brother and ex gilead sister don't. "Then he read me Hebrews 10:24,25 about meetings, blah,blah. So it was over.
I left them after 45 minutes of this mind numbing experience with a parting shot though.Elder #2 said," Oh, one of the elders would like to talk with your son about the bible sometime as he mentioned before. I said, "yes, I'm proud of my son, he has a good heart, an intelligent young man, I'm proud he's going to a university furthering his education, and also even though he does not go to meetings or isn't in the organization, I'm still proud of him and love him." Then I walked out the door while both the elders mouths were hanging open, and said," You guys have a good one." No peace out for them!!! LOL Thanks for all your support and now I will never have to face them again and can continue my incredible fade to the "inner light" which indeed is much brighter than the light the witnesses have