C.O.'s - A WBTS Love-Hate Relationship?

by metatron 6 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  I have sometimes wondered about what appears to be a love-hate relationship between the Watchtower Society and its itinerant field agents,

  the Circuit Overseers. I observed many C.O.'s who were treated like $hit in various ways, especially if they weren't popular with the Service

  Dept. for some reason. Perhaps they got moved to a circuit in Alaska, unexpectedly.

  Then there's the matter of financial support: Some years ago, they sent around a Body of Elders letter that shocked me as to how cheap

  and uncaring the Society could be about paying for Circuit Overseer expenses - as if they expected a man and wife to live indefinitely out of

  a couple of suitcases.

  I once heard a rumor years ago that the Society wanted to dump C.O.'s in Europe and replace them with Ministerial School Trainees

  who could live in congregations - and rat out local brothers. Maybe they wanted to save $, too.

  Today, they offer a car and health insurance and maybe a small apartment - because they have to. Still, I gotta wonder about the future

  of these Theocratic KGB agents: if they cut Bethelites because of cost and liability, what about these guys? Now that would be a real

  significant change!

  metatron
• 

  Dogpatch

  hi Meta!

  Having been at Bethel I was always under the impression that the Society didn't trust the COs and DOs. Kept them on a short leash maybe? They trudsted the Bethelites more than them, as they could "spin" them better. :-))

  Randy
• 

  metatron

  That lack of trust is also shown by the way they monitor C.O.'s talks at assemblies.

  metatron
• 

  yesidid

  Are recordings still made of CO and DO's talks to the congregations and sent back to HQ?
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  C.O.'s are generally totally "Yes" men. They do the bidding of the Borg. If they can't do it anymore, they
  have to quit. There really is no room for remaining but not following the company instructions.

  Some cannot quit for the financial reasons. They sold their house (if they had one) and don't have
  enough money to retire on for decades, so they need to keep visiting congregations and getting the green
  handshakes. They have to become fairly popular with the crowds to get the green handshakes, and they
  have to maintain the company policies to stay on the job in fairly decent circuits that give green handshakes.

  Some do not quit for pride. Most do not quit because they got their heads so far up WT's butts that they
  enjoy elders doing the same to them that they do to the WT butts. They realize that they are highly
  important in the eyes of many.

  Today, they offer a car and health insurance and maybe a small apartment - because they have to.

  NO- they do not offer the apartment very often. Occasionally, the apartment is available at an Assembly Hall.
  Other times, it is available alongside a Kingdom Hall. These halls are paid for by the people that use them, so
  the apartments are provided by the local brothers, not the Borg.
• 

  jwfacts

  Dad's has been a CO for 18 years, and I used to always encourage him to push for Watchtower reform, particularly regarding the disfellowshipping policy, which he acknowledged as being unscripturally harsh. He would remind me that COs have no power and are far down the food chain. At first he used to be intimidated going into Bethel, considering Bethelites to have more power than COs.

  I do wonder how long they can keep the CO/DO arrangement for practical reasons. I don't even know how they justify the two positions Scripturally. The Bible simply describes travelling missionaries, not the Watchtower structure of DOs, CO's, Ministerial Training Graduates, Special Pioneers and Missionaries. Possibly, to cut down on costs, they will eventually do away with CO's and just have a single yearly DO visit.
• 

  jaguarbass

  and uncaring the Society could be about paying for Circuit Overseer expenses - as if they expected a man and wife to live indefinitely out of

  a couple of suitcases.

  I think the malfunction with the program is that they were only planing on them living out of suitcases untill 1975.

  They need to go back to the drawing board and create a whole new religion and business modell.