by oompa 20 Replies latest jw friends
Of course it's ALL confidential!!!
My wife, a JW sister told an Elder something,
he told his mother, his mother told my son
My son told me, so I told my wife!
And she still believes 'elders keep confidentialities', they are unbeatable!!!!
fokyc
That is just too funny fokyc!! BB
Did you tell them you found that most here felt they have been abused, stumbled and treated badly, by "evil slaves" and that you were researching the best way to bring us back into the fold. That not all are DFd. Did you keep record of your time spent here (so you can report it). Did you remind them that the WTBS has been telling us for years to expand preaching avenues. Mass mailing, cold calls, storefront/ mall witnessing and the very rare impromptu witness. Certainly in an age of Information reaching out to such stumbled souls should include the various media outlets. Did not the early FDS use phonographs. Why not start avidly expanding the preaching medium to include the internet, ads that run before the previews of movies, TV commercials (Damn the LDS they beat us to that one!) , maybe another documentary or a sit-com (after all the legal dept wants us to appear mainstream anyway) etc etc.......
Did you explain that fishing for men is easier if you know where a stocked pond is located. That you felt you could get such ones to contact their local KH so as to start studying again! That you were "following the Christ" by looking to call on the unrighteous. Above all this, to assume such awful things about you shows a lack of faith in you and their sheparding skills.
I strongly suggest you arrange a meeting with these blabber mouth elders as well as at least 2 more elders from your congregation. Explain how disappointing and stumbling such behavior is to any sheep. Defend yourself with the above arguements.
If of course none of the above is your actual feelings...then consider it "Theocratic Warfare", telling only those who deserve to know the truth.........(if Eldums are are going to slander you....are they deserving to know the truth?)
Finally I have posted it many times but.....
Paul said in 1Cor 7:23 "to stop becoming slaves to men" surely no elder could refute such fine Biblical counsel from one of the Original FDS!
I once confided in an elder about problems I was having in school with the other JW girls spreading false rumors about me and he turned it into a "local needs" talk that very week that spelled out the rumors in exquiste detail but with "Person A" and "Person B" standing in for me and the other person. Of course, all the "youths" had heard the rumors and all their eyes locked to me and the other person immediately, amid giggles. Probably the most embarassing moment in the KH.
At least I got an apology the next day tho.
"Note: Reports have been received where elders have revealed confidential matters to their wives or others in the congregation." (Pay Attention 1977 p.65)
Not every elder is like that, only the insecure ones.
This is true, some can keep there mouths shut.
But when you have three elders on a JC, and mutliple brothers in a BOE, there is just no way they will all keep there mouths shut. All you need is one or two big mouths, and every BOE has at least one, usually more.
I had several elders in my family, spread over three local congragations, I heard all the juicy gossip. Sometimes straight from an elders mouth but usually they told my hubby and he told me.
The society is very sexist, they like to promote the sterotype that all women are gossips. It alwasy appeared to me that the elders had that monopoly.
BTW, has anyone ever heard of an elder getting in trouble for not keeping his mouth shut?
Anyone else had elders blab about them? I guess it is human nature.
How else would the elderettes get their weekly dose of gossip? I remember an elderette who once told us that she asks her husband outright to identify those from the "local needs" parts. Her excuse? She didn't want to go around "marking" the wrong person!
Nope.
Some can, some can't.
When I decided I was going to fade, and stopped serving as an elder, I let the Body know during one of our meetings that I needed to step aside. The PO reminded everyone that it needed to stay confidential til announced from the platform.
The next TMS/SM, imagine my surprise and shock when one of the elder's wives comes up to me, in front of several others, grabs my hands and says "I'm SO sorry to hear you're no longer going to be serving as an elder... we will SO MISS YOU!"
Elders usually don't tell anyone except their wives. The wives usually only tell their best friends. The best friends usually only tell their....
And so it goes.
Love the way you break it down, willyloman.
