OrangeBlossom - I apprecated your thought here:
Sometimes I wonder what the organization would be like if the good elders would have stuck around and tried to reform things.
But I'd have to say. . .
From my perspective at the time – I’d say there is no possibility for any single elder, or group of elders for that matter, to effect reform of even the slightest magnitude in the WTS. The most that one could do, at the congregational level, was to try and mitigate some of the bullshit pulled by the various idiots on the local body.
In my experience, elders were constantly scrutinized by their own, with very few deviations going unnoticed for long. Eventually, if you persist in going against the groupthink, you are branded a rebel, castigated by dip-shit CO’s, isolated, and then removed under some imagined or contrived pretext. Or you simply give up in disgust and step down of your own volition.
For instance, I often had serious misgivings about presenting certain material forced upon us by the WTS (many public talk outlines and KM parts are notoriously questionable). After making my feelings known, the only reaction was to dismiss me from presenting the offensive part(s), and then assign some other mature elder (read: Society ass-kisser) whose more “flexible conscience” would “allow” him to do the job. This scenario applies across the board in all instances when handling congregational matters.
I’ll also never forget how while out in field service, discussion would often come up between us over the need to “shepherd” so-and-so. Perhaps they were sick, or in some other type of need. The reluctance to break away from completely unprofitable door knocking to tend to the “flock” was a sure sign of an elder who had missed the boat – in my opinion.
It’s very sad really. We often had opportunities to actually HELP some people, but the focus just isn’t on it. Only during the CO visits was there any real interest in visiting ones missing in action, and then only to bring the weight of the CO’s authority to bear upon them. Very sad indeed. But in the org, you’re only as good as your last time slip.
Oh well. . .
