Did the organization become more mean spirited after the Elders were appointed?

by Giordano 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  james_woods

  James, with Elder school the society is able to meet and teach face to face the crap they keep coming up with. Based on posts from Elders on this site some real hair balls have addressed those Elders at the schools and definitely generated/mandated a more mean spirited approach to congreation issues. So too with the CO's. With more Elders it's easier for a CO to find a lackey. Nothing can be private in a KH. It's CYA now.

  For sure that would seem to be the case...I attended the previous school: The previous one for Congregation Servants and Assistant Congregation Servants, but not the one for elders.

  My school was conducted by Al Schroeder and some wishy-washy bethel guy named Randall Davis in Pittsburgh, PA back in 1970...as I recall, there was very little about judicial issues and nothing at the time on "apostacy". Mostly it was a tarted-up glorification of the society history, and various arcane doctrinal issues.
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  steve2

  Good comments all round. Part of it reflects our own experience as well. I agree too with the unpredictability of bodies of elders, including individual elders. Some times an elder can be suprisingly understanding and even compassionate when he is dealing one to one with others but he has to play down those qualities when he is on a judicial committee. Some times it works the other way as well: An elder who has difficulty expressing empathy on a one to one basis cannot afford to come across so emotionless in front if his peers.

  I do not view the elders as "mean-spirited" so much as quite simply often out of their depth in responding to the complex needs of their brothers and sisters. They are often dealing with matters for which they have absolutely no training and competence. For example, how can they assess the needs of a young witness who has a psychotic illness or of a young woman in the congregation who has been pressured into a sexual relationship by one of the elders' sons and is now pregnant? There's so much that the elders don't know about - and that's often just as well because if they knew all that was going on, they'd be well and truly overwhelmed.