NEVER, EVER. Because a jwi is under its authority.Even a fellow elder. Right or wrong is not the isssue but whether an elder a cop a teacher an emplyer a parent or anyone having authority should be traeted with respect not because such may deserve respect but for my values. Telling an elder off even if I feel he deserves it, is not the proper thing to do. Of course when an elder acts inapropriately, he looses respect.But one should not stoop to a low level telling him off. That is wrong in my opinion.
On one occassion I felt that there was a breeh of confidentiality.with a cetain matter. In my opinion the privacy of the bros is not the business of the elders and it is not the right thing to do for an elder to give a listenning ear to the wife of a fellow JW who wants to reveal to the elders any marital privildege information about her husdband. THe elders have no business or authority to give an eager listenning ear to any wife who wants to complain against her husband or vice versa. The elder should simply tell the woman to work it out with her husband and refuse to give ear to gossip. If the elder does listen to that information and learns information that he has no business knowing that defames a fellow jw or the non beliveing husdband of a sister, that elder has disqualified himself from office in my opinion because he has violated the privacy of his fellow man. I will not view that elder with respect and I will not view that elder seriously.
But I will not tell him off. Sometimes an elder that has access to files even those files that are sealed and the elder may without authority "to help the brother" but actually to satisfy his curiousity look at the file or secretly probe other elders for details on matters that are non of his business. This causes harm to the brother who's privacy has benn violated There is no good reason in my opinion to keep a written record of sins that have been covered over by the "ransom" or to keep informing other elders about matters that have been adjudicated by a Judicial commitee and settled. A brother who has commited a sin and knows that there exists a written recoed of it can nver feel at ease, alwqays feeling uncomfortable around elders who know about his sin and fearing that such file may become public
Sometimes an elder will have the audosity to insinuate something to a brother with a past history of sin about his sin. This is not proper conduct for the elder, again in my opinion. But under the guise of oxgoads such outrages are justified..
The role of the elder is to assit indivuals spiritualy, physically, emotiomnally, mentally and financially and not to cause harm in any way to the sheep.Mny times though sheep don't want the help but stubbornly persist with their insuborditaion. And also many times the elder is incompetent or unqualified for the position. and there you have a cong.
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