Did The Elders Treat You With Respect & Love???

minimus

I know there's a lot of elder bashing here. Most of it is quite justified. I'm curious as to whether all your dealings with the elders were horrible. Did you ever feel uplifted? Or did they all beat you down???

Dragonlady76

No elder has ever inspired me and I cant' say they ever disrespected me, but they never did anything for me and my familiy. Elders are not in a position to love or respect anyone, just enforce the rules of the WBTS.

Dragonlady76

El blanko

That depends. From person to person, some were ok and quite caring.

We had a mix of 50% carers and 50% 'sledge hammer wielders' in my cong.

One elder was a genuinely warm hearted and caring man, and I had no problems with him at all.

I found most, sadly, to be quite distant emotionally and the ones who simply ' toed the company line ' were very robotic and cold.

They are not all nasty, cold hearted, dim-witted window cleaners

whyamihere

One Elder told me this world was sinking like the Titanic Ship and I was on that boat! Brooke

Gopher

It's hard to lump them all together. Some of the elders were kind and helpful, others were harsh either because they were stressed by all the "responsibilities" put on them or else they were more interested in the position then in the opportunity to be helpful.

Tigerman

The elders instilled the fear of 1975 in my wife ( she came to me in tears trying to convince me I needed to become a JW for the end was near ). Then they came after me , taging me with the name 'goat' after, in good conscience and many meetings with them, I could not accept their Watchtower doctrine and ' design for living'.

undercover

I was raised as JW and have known many, many elders over my life. There are some good elders out there. I can think of a few really merciful, loving, caring, well-respected family men who really, truly believed and wanted to help people. Three or four come to mind by name. They are good men. I respect them despite their being in such a repressive religion.

I also know several elders that I don't trust, like or respect. They more than double the ones that I do respect. They are vindictive, harsh, unreasonable and power hungry. I hold them in comtempt and will no longer play their stupid games. I have faded successfully, I think, but if one of these type elders come back in my life, it will not be pretty. In fact one of the last sheparding calls that I had was by one elder from each category above. It ended badly with the arrogant elder being told that he wasn't welcome in my home.

Those are extreme examples. The vast majority of elders are in neither class. They're just there. Not really bad men, but not necessarily good either. They don't stand up to the bad elders, they don't go out of their way to help the congregation. They're just going through the motions. I don't dislike them or wish ill upon them. I feel sorry for them. They probably wish they could just give it up and be a normal person and not have to worry about it.

blondie

The good ones are not treated well by the bad ones. I have seen 10 good elders in this circuit have the rug pulled out from under them. The ones that remain are hatchet men and cowards. I have heard several good ones just throw in the towel, staying elders but doing as little as possible staying out of the way of the steamrolling ones.

Blondie

Sunspot

I have a few of them that I'll always hold in my heart as pretty great. They were the kind that went out of their way to help, and not just in "spiritual" matters.

They were kind and compassionate and comfortable to be around---at the KH and out. I do miss their friendship. (and their wives and families)

Perhaps given enough time, they will "see the light" of the truth about their religion and AWAKE! up.

Annie

MAHABA

When I was thirty, having been witness for ten years, and married for seven years, my wife(born and reared TJ (JW's), told me "go away",I have someone else in my life.

The very next day,distraughted, I went to seek help by an Elder.

After explaining him the situation, he told me" Une de perdue, 10 de retrouvées!", translated "for one lost, you will get ten!"

No, no, he was not a "procurer", but an Elder, a brother, who instead of giving me advice in a spiritual way, talked me a lot of crap.

one year later I was df'sd by, among others, that guy, who proved to be my "best enemy"

And you now what, I had confessed the "bad" thing which I have done (for-ni-ca-tion whith a sister whom I latter marry), and made steps proving repentance.

Nevertheless, they expelled me and she, and refuse the appeal ,without giving any cause.

I love the elders....Well done with roasted onions.

Ivan

Did The Elders Treat You With Respect & Love???

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