Ok I have to get this off my chest.
I know a soon to be former elder who is a really good guy. We can discuss anything and he never looks down his nose at me. Nor does he take any of my very candid discussions any further than between us. What recently happened to him though just solidifies my thinking that this is just a legal corporation with little regard to it's individual members.
He and I joke alot because we are white and we both have wives who are African American. (Actually I'm Mexican Amercian and he's half Italian and Half Mexican but we are both very pale skinned) We share alot of stories in comman ranging from funny looks from people to straight out racism. In and out of the congregation. Well one day he makes a comment in service that was not directed at anyone or any person, but rather the part of the territory they were in. The sister runs to her inactive mother and now the Mom wants to sue the society because he is a racist. What next occurs is quite interesting.
The CO visits and gets together with the elders. My friend states that he's obviously not a racist since everyone can look at his wife and child. If he stated something that may have been misconstrued well he's sorry. He looks around the room and states: "Anyone can see by my reputation here that I am not the person this woman is describing." The response he receives is dead silence. The CO recommends he step down and the elders agree. My freind states that if it was between the woman and himself, he would fight to the end. The CO states that they spoke with the "legal dept" and that is their recomondation. He objects because to him, it's an admission of guilt. In the end though they prode him until he agrees.
This is what I see. A legal issue is brought up and what does the legal dept say? They say make him step down and state in a letter that he agrees that this is the best thing to do. It makes him admit guilt so, the WTB&TS is off the hook because he, as an individual admitted guilt. And where does it end? If we laugh at Dave Chappelle are we now racists? If we laugh at poor white trash jokes are we racists? Are we now subject to committe matters? And how does his stepping down remedy this? None of the brothers are allowed to speak with the sister. She isn;t backing off because he stepped down. She can proceed now because he in effect, admitted guilt.
My wife and I are both sick about it. We just witnessed a great brother left to the wolves.