Last week I was caught off guard when a Brother asked me to close the meeting with prayer. (I have been deleted from all my assignments and so-called privileges without a spoken word from anyone-not surprising) I used to pray all the time having served as an elder for 12 years until I stepped aside, although I still pray; my prayers are the not usual fare you would hear at the Kindumb Hall. When I delivered my prayer I asked God to be with all those going through hardships around the world and was very specific, such as the unrest in the Middle East, earthquake survivors of Turkey, under privileged children and victims of injustice. I did not specify that God only consider JW's, rather I included everyone and did not mention the brothers, the GB, faithful slave rather just "all sorts of men".
After the meeting I had quite a number comment that it was so refreshing that I included all these people and not just JW's. The one exception was an elder that questioned my prayer and asked why I generalized instead of praying for my "related to us in the faith". He is nothing but a pompous ass. He has been removed as an elder three times and yet these idiots continue re-appointing him. When I told him about the positive comments I received by some in the congregation the only thing he said was "who said this to you". (How loving)
I told him that nowhere did Jesus teach us to pray this way. His model prayer does not include this feature of praying which in my opinion has slipped into the congregations and is not scriptural. I told him to the contrary the scriptures tell us that we should pray "for all men" and challenged him to do show me a scripture to the contrary. He said, "Show me this scripture". I said "you first, you are the one offering me counsel without any scriptural backing" Then I got in his personal space and said, "show me from the bible, any translation why I should only mention fellow JW's then I will show you my scriptural grounds." This moron is obviously not familiar with1 Timothy 2:1-5
I highly doubt he will challenge me and if he does he will hand pick scriptures where we are encouraged to pray for our fellow believers however the scripture in 1Timothy says; "I therefore exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, offerings of thanks, be made concerning all sorts of men" NWT
I can practically write the script of what bible texts he will read but 1Timothy will trump all of them. Typical elder; does not know his bible, just scripted clippings from the WT and the secret elder's owner’s manual. (I should know I was exactly the same; however since my awakening I now know the bible better than I ever have!)
Cheers!