C.O.'s: Why Are Elders Such Cowards? (page 2)

cantleave

The other thing to bear in mind is that it is 2 weeks a year. Once the CO has gone back to normality. Typical seagull management, Fly in, Make a lot of noise, shit all over you, and fly off again.

The hounders are trained to respect the hounder-hounders in the same way the publishers are to respect the hounders. If the hounders do not uphold whatever stupid decision the hounder-hounder makes, they are likely to be in for a trip to the back room. And, they feel doing so would make them unfaithful.

LongHairGal

Metatron:

Your description of them as being itinerant predators is absolutely correct and very literal. You are also correct in your description of them as broke-ass, tin-pot dictators. Everybody should call these wishful thinking paper tigers on their bluff. Bottom line: all that these wanna-be dictators would care about is losing their perks and their cushy situations!

Happy Guy:

I was sickened to read this account about the elderly sister about to be homeless. This is the absolute antithesis of christlike behavior.

This is why all religion really has to GO because it ultimately degenerates into something like this.

JeffT

A thought that occured to me as I was reading this again, and back to my middle manager scenario.

I never was anything in the JW hierarchy, so I don't know this. How much of the CO's behavior is actually sanctioned by the people above them, or perhaps even ordered? The WTBS is backed into a corner, they're loosing money, the timeframe has failed utterly and they need to do something. I've been in businesses caught in something like this, and frequently the response from the top is "beat the slaves harder until morale improves."

If this is going on in the WTBS I can see the complaint letter being filed under "somebody bitching about a CO doing his job" and forgotten. The "rogue CO" also gives the WTBS a fig leaf to cover its ass with if needed.

Elsewhere

My experience is that most elders are not emotionally or intellectually prepared for the responsibilities of being an elder of a congregation.

daniel-p

Elsewhere is spot-on, but I also think the CO-elder relationship is just another form of the alpha-male phenomenon. The CO knows he is the boss--even the most "humble" know they are the boss where ever they go (except the real world), and that fact shows. All the other elders naturally fall in line, because they know they are not the boss. There are no ambiguities of rank in the JW religion... and that says a lot.

moomanchu

Typical seagull management, Fly in, Make a lot of noise, shit all over you, and fly off again.

love that!

dissed

freddo

Similar with me. Standing up to a CO cost me all my priviledges at the Circuit, District, and RBC. Very discouraging at the time but look what it led too?

My family left the WTS. My daughter hasn't a clue what the JW's are like, being raised with a normal life, and several others in my extended family gained courage from our experience to leave. At this point, almost the entire family from my wifes side and mine have left except two.

Not to mention all those we didn't help into the truth since leaving. We always had 1-2 being baptized at each CA.

When we address Xmas cards, I always tell my wife to send one to that CO and thank him profusely for what he did. We and all those owe him a deep gratitude of thanks for being such a jerk.

compound complex

The binding, restricting effect that this concern for organizational submission can have on person's minds was illustrated to me by an experience related by Robert Lang, then the assistant Bethel Home Overseer at the international headquarters. He had been transferred to a different congregation in the New York city area and he said that at one of the first meetings he attended there the elders approached him for advice.

It seems that a young woman, the sister of one of the ministerial servants, was disfellowshiped and was still attending meetings. She had a small baby and brought it with her to the Kingdom Hall in a baby carriage. The Hall itself was on the second story of a building and the stairs were long and steep. The young woman would back up the stairs, pulling the baby carriage - with the baby in it - up the stairs as she went. The question the elders asked was whether it would be proper for the disfellowshiped woman's brother to assist her in getting up the stairs! Some thought so, others said, no, being disfellowshiped she should be considered as if she were not even there. To his credit, Lang said, "I don't know what the rule is on this, I only know one thing: if I'm around when she starts pulling that carriage up the stairs, I'm going to help her! When I think of what could happen if she were to stumble and lose control of the carriage ....'

The most frightening thing about this is that adult men did not feel they could be guided by their own hearts and minds in a circumstance so obviously calling for human kindness. The pressing concern for them was - not the danger to the infant's life - but WHAT THE ORGANIZATION POLICY ALLOWED in such cases [emphasis: RF]. They gave evidence of having become emasculated men in matters of ethics, of right and wrong.

Franz concludes by stating that Robert Lang was for him "the kind of person he was, not because of the organization, but in spite of the organization."

IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM, Ray Franz, pp. 404, 405.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/142719/1/A-Man-in-Spite-of-the-Organization-ISOCF

truman

I was "just a sister" without the requisite body parts to "show some b@lls", but I did stand up to one CO at a meeting for service.

As usual for such special occasions, three times the usual number of witnesses were in the KH. They had scattered themselves around the available seats in comfortable clusters, taking care to orient themselves toward the stage rather than the back of the hall where we normally met for mid-week service.

That was not good enough for this CO. At meetings for service, he would announce that everyone should pick up their belongings, move to the front rows, and leave no empty seats. This display of micro-control over personal preference irked me deeply, not to mention that I hate being crammed into crowed seating arrangements-especially when more than enough seats for generous spacing are available.

That morning, I got to the hall just as he was preparing to begin. The rest of the dutiful sheep had bunched themselves into the first three rows as instructed. I slipped into a seat two rows behind the bulk of the pack, and prepared to stand my ground...er...sit my seat.

The CO opened his booklet for the morning text and looked out over the group to begin. His eyes landed immediately upon me.

"Come on up here and join the rest of us," he said in a tone that was inviting on the surface, but commanding in its undertones.

"That's OK, I think I will stay here," I said in return, trying to keep my delivery light, despite the fact that my heart was racing at my rebellion.

He repeated his 'request' and I my refusal. I could see a of micro-burst of anger, even rage, sweep over his face at being publicly defied. He quickly covered it with smooth jocularity, pointed his finger at me and said, "We'll talk later."

I said, "Yes, we will." But we never did. No one ever said anything to me about the incident. But I did not move.

It felt like a victory to me.

C.O.'s: Why Are Elders Such Cowards?