I have been reading John Bechtel's blog. Someone provided a link recently and it is brilliant. Anyone that enjoys personal experiences including bethel tales will love this. This quote is a great story at the expense of J R Brown. I challenge you to read it without a chuckle. Enjoy!
http://www.johnbechtelblog.com
Although these French-speaking congregations in Brooklyn and Newark were composed entirely of Haitians and a handful of us Bethelites, a black American Circuit Overseer named Brother Brown was assigned as our Circuit Overseer. Brother Brown’s French was considerably worse than mine, which in itself is a stretch of credulity, but I also thought he was very pompous and full of himself. Having completely forgotten my own egregious sins in the arrogance department just a few years before in Oil City, I felt it encumbent upon me to take some of the wind out of Brother Brown’s sails. I approached him after a church service one evening and asked to speak to him in private. Now when a member of the congregation asks for a private audience, you know something of grave concern is about to be brought up. I explained with a solemn expression that my roommate, a skinny French kid named Dominique, had been obfuscating for some time. I had not told anyone about it until now, but it was getting out of hand, I explained. Only this week Dominique had obfuscated publicly, right in the elevator at Bethel. Obviously, I was counting on (a) Brother Brown not knowing what obfuscation meant, and (b) his not being willing to acknowledge that fact and actually ask me what it meant. Brother Brown lived up to my expectations, nodded his head gravely, thanked me for bringing this to his attention, and told me he would keep it in confidence and take appropriate action. Of course when Brother Brown got home and looked up obfuscation in the dictionary, he knew he’d been had. Brother Brown was never able to look me in the face again. I learned recently that Brother Brown today is the Public Spokesperson for the organization. How utterly appropriate. (In explanation to my reader, the word obfuscate means to obscure. This word is perhaps most often used to refer to political speeches where the goal is to use a lot of words but conceal your real position on matters. I chose the word obfuscate because of its double meaning, and also because to a JW elder who is always on the lookout for sexual infractions, it sounded ominous and brought to mind masturbate ??? A triple twist in this situation was that the Latin root words of obfuscate are ob (in the way) and fuscus (dark brown), so my use of obfuscate was also a play on words with Brother Brown. Oh well, you had to be there.)