by Lee Elder 34 Replies latest jw friends
Lee, you're not alone. I'm personally acquainted with two kind-hearted and intelligent elders in the Tampa area who got pushed out by hard-liners ... especially a retired former CO ... who got fed up with their 'irrelevant' intelligence and compassion.
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Chip Salzenberg: Free-Floating Agent of Chaos
Congrats Lee! You had what we could call a 'Crisis of Conscience'. Pity many do not and perpetuate the deception.
ISP
God, where do I even start? These Taliban bastards I worked with
made certain that kids from out of favor parents got examined
under a microscope and df'd - while elders kids got every
possible allowance (ooops! forgot to tell everyone the bride
got pregnant!) and their hands slapped.
There were sub plots I can't figure out to this day. The reality
is that countless congregations of JWs are ruled by an "inner circle".
You can be an elder for years and never know what's really going
on in the congregation - because the inner circle wants it that
way.
Are you an elder reading this? Try sneaking a key to the congregation
secretary's file (usually kept at the hall). Take a couple hours
to find out what's really going on - judicially and otherwise.
of course, don't make copies of everything that's confidential
in the congregation files , diassociate yourself and publish
copies everywhere....
no, don't do that - it would upset the Society.
metatron
The CO’s report was full of inaccuracies. It was so bad the CO could not get all of the service committee to sign it. So he had to read it to the entire body. One elder spoke up and said the report amounted to lying to the Governing Body. Two elders walked out of the meeting, besides me. He finally got the service committee to sign his lies with the agreement that he would make some changes to it, which he did not.So my last meeting with the body I read the report to them and asked if they support what it said. Answer, unanimously NO! Then I asked what they intended to do about it. The majority answer was NOTHING! I asked the body how they could keep beating the friends over conscience matters while winking at slander, just because it involved the CO.
Now, in theory, you elders should have been able to form a judicial committee and either reprove or disfellowship the CO because of his lying and slander. But it would never have worked, because the Watchtower doesn't even follow its own rules, much less the ones in the Bible.
Tom
"The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan
nytelecom
Exert? Exert? Why don't you try payin' attention, moron?
How many times did Jesus refer to his yoke as easy and his burden light? Words to that effect.
You can just make that bible seem to say any damn thing you want it to say, can't you?
Francois
Greetings Lee Elder,
Your comments reminded me of my last months as an elder. Though most of the elders on our local board were moderate, they were also followers and didn't like to speak up. We had one fascist elder with whom I was always battling. He was often on the phone to the Service Desk back at the Vatican to get support for his totalitarian proposals.
In the spring of 1984 I had read Crisis of Conscience. And by the summer of that year I was going through my own crisis of conscience. Though I kept my reading material a secret from the other elders, I knew that I had to resign. My official reason was family obligations but the reality was that I no longer believed in an organization that caused so much hurt in the name of God. But when I informed the PO, an easy-going moderate, of my intention to resign he tried to discourage me. He looked at the fascist elder who was standing at the other end of the KH. The PO had a worried look on his face when he said that my resignation would upset the balance of power on the board. Couldn't we work things out? We both looked in the direction of the local fascist and I said that he was the future of this organization.
I was the TM School Overseer at the time, and the next Thursday would be the last school that I would conduct. Earlier I had read a biography of John Henry Cardinal Newman. When Newman left the Church of England to become a Roman Catholic, his last sermon as an Anglican was "A Parting Of Friends." I wished that I could do the same, to give my congregation a similar kind loving message, but with the Witnesses that would be impossible, it would only cause bad feelings and resentment. So I just told them I was leaving due to pressing family obligations. With the Watch Tower is is impossible to part as friends.
Sincerely,
Athanasius
All of these experiences brought back a lot of memories to me. I served as an elder for about 15 years. I worked with a lot of "good" brothers, but I think we all understand that a "good" elder NEVER really rocked the boat.
Then I think of some of the other elders I knew, so cocksure, so arrogant, so positive they were doing God's will, so condescending and controlling - and still serving. Oh, the damage they've done. They will go to their graves seeing themselves as saints and saviors.
S4
I was not an elder, just a MS. But when the CO wanted me out, he had the elders sign a blank report, then he filled it in later.
Dan
Judicial committees =
man dominating man to his own injury
Exert? Exert? Why don't you try payin' attention, moron
booohahha
you antis area as predictable as my next bowel movement
when you cant think of a reply........."call him a name"
aaahh........................"call him a troll if i have too"
wait that didnt work..........."proofread his posts and
check for grammuuur and sIntax"
