Did you ever see a brother so keen to be a CO that it was painfull to watch

jambon1

Climbing the JW ladder is so important to some of the zealous, childless, JW couples. To reach the goal there seemed to be untold amounts of political intrigue, arse licking & generally being a pious knob end. Loved by few, hated by most. Any experiences of such conduct?

cognac

Not that I've heard of... But, I did hear that one of our old CO's committed suicide and from what I've heard he was bedridden for 2 years because of depression... Not sure if that was true or not... I don't remember his name, but he was a CO in MA about 15 years or so ago. He was very tall with dark hair... Anyone remember what his name was???

Mary

Not for the position of CO, but certainly for being an elder. There was a pimply faced, arrogant little twirp in my old Hall who kissed ass for years trying to work his way up the ladder. He was arrogant, rude and two-faced----a very strange combination as the rest of his siblings were really really nice.

He wasn't liked by too many----even my dad disliked him. I was good friends with a couple of the elders at the time and they had serious reservations about recommending this guy as an elder simply because of his attitude. However, with the shortage of elders and with enough ass-kissing, he eventually was made one, probably because they couldn't give him a viable reason why he shouldn't be made an elder.

The end result is that I gather he's an even more arrogant idiot than what he was before. Truly evidence that he was appointed by the Holy Spirit.

WTWizard

I have seen a few that became hounders, and then they started making things miserable. We had one that expected me to be perfect (even though the Bible blatantly says that no one is perfect). This one would enforce every rule to the letter, especially the white dress shirt rule. He wasn't all that bad until he became a hounder--and he was wondering why my field circus time was one hour a month. He ended up moving out of the congregation shortly before I quit altogether--and I seriously doubt he would ever come to this board except to check up and accuse everyone of posting nasties.

I wonder what he would do if he would have seen the Christmas tree in my window.

OnTheWayOut

There was this one elder who had two kids. He wanted to be a CO after he got the
kids out of the house. He leaned on many in the congregation to pioneer, so he
could say he made many pioneers in the congregation. That blew up in his face
when he got a single sister to pioneer and she would leave her little boy (past
baby but young) home alone in the early morning so she could do "street work"
before getting him ready for school. Then she went to work.

A DO visited the cong. to find out some of the things wrong with the pioneers.
Further discovered, this same guy told many pioneers to preach at work. They
got the impression that "preaching" was more important than productivitiy, and
some were counting the time they were supposed to be working simply by
placing literature on desks of coworkers.

The guy moved to another congregation just outside the circuit, but still in the district
and started again. He got his children to marry as they approached 20 years old so
he could get them "out." Apparently, word about him came through the DO so he
moved out of the district. I think he still is "just an elder."

cognac

a single sister to pioneer and she would leave her little boy (past
baby but young) home alone in the early morning so she could do "street work"
before getting him ready for school.

tijkmo

To reach the goal there seemed to be untold amounts of political intrigue, arse licking & generally being a pious knob end. Loved by few, hated by most

haha..if you are from edinburgh i know who you are talking about..lol (cant remember his name - star trek fan)

i wanted to be a c.o.

i'm quite sure there are people who would say that i was too keen..if by keen they mean being enthusiastic genuinely loving it and being good at speaking preaching shepherding counselling and forgiving.

my problem was i really really couldn't play the game..i was useless at political intrigue and worse at arse licking..i could be pious on occasions but only to knob ends not as one..worst of all i was loved by most and hated by few. unfortuntely for me the few that hated were generally those who were in a position to make the recommendations and they hated because i was perceived as a threat to their position. and to think i used to believe that it was all guided by holy spirit..

which is the really sad thing - since i was unaware that politics arse licking etc etc were factors then i was left thinking that jehovah and the holy spirit were telling me that i did not qualify.

cue beakdown..and wrongdoing..and df-ing..and disillusionment..and suicial tendancies........................

and freedom..which is just another word for nothing left to lose

OnTheWayOut

a single sister .....

Yes, Cognac. I was horrified to learn this. I wasn't the first elder to learn it and someone
had already told her what a "crime" that was.

The problem was that Brother Ambition leaned so heavy on publishers (mostly sisters)
that they felt guilty. He would tell them they had ideal circumstances to pioneer, and
Jehovah recognized that they could do more, yadda yadda. Many pioneered just to
appease Brother Ambition. (I think that's why he leaned on sisters- the brothers would
not appease him.)

He tried it on my wife and she just laughed at him. "Ha, I have the right circumstances?
Sorry, but no." She was a full time student and part time worker, and my wife. If she caved
in to his pressure, she would have had to drop out.

I knew people at the hall he moved to. He put the same pressure on their members
to pioneer. I guess that's why he had to move out of the district. It didn't work there, either.

stillajwexelder

Oh hell yes

Seeker4

We had a Special Pioneer couple move into our congregation in the 1970s. The brother had been at Bethel one year also.

His name was Claude Burkett, and he was young, not even 25 yet, I don't believe, and wanted to be a CO so badly he could taste it.

Claude would later become a very close friend of mine, but he was a total company man and very much a JW hardliner, one of the worst I've ever seen. He did untold damage to a lot of the friends, some of whom are still JWs, but who ended up seeking help in therapy!

One elder in the congregation refused to sign a letter of recomendation for Claude to become a CO, despite the fact that the CO and DO were really pushing for Claude to get the appointment. This one brave elder refused to compromise, knowing the damage Claude could have done as a CO.

I'm not sure if Claude ever really forgave that elder, but Claude's wife got pregnant shortly after all of this, and circuit work got put off for a few decades. Thankfully!!

S4

Did you ever see a brother so keen to be a CO that it was painfull to watch

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