I have always felt that requiring sisters to wear headcoverings was ASSININE. I remember I had a bookstudy I conducted and we really didn't have any qualified brothers around at all or who COULD READ. So I had a sister read. The first week this happened she couldn't find a headcovering so decided to use a napkin. A GOT-DAMN NAPKIN. I said that's OK, "take the napkin off. Jehovah won't strike you down for not wearing a headcovering". From then on I really didn't even require that sisters wear headcoverings at all. Word gets back to the CO on his next visit that I don't let sisters wear headcoverings at the bookstudy when they read and he reams me out for it. He states that there are more parties involved. The sisters teach the angels submissive respect for the organization by wearing a headcovering. At the time, I just nodded my head all the while thinking that this is complete and utter BULLSHIT.
Before I went to Bethel, I pioneered with a mature group of sisters and found that they were really at the pulse of the congregation. They knew the territory, were more adept at the doors than most of the brothers, and knew the appearance of the flock. Sure you had a couple of gossipy sisters and some that were married to moron elders and assumed an unofficial elderette status, but for the most part the group of sisters that I pioneered with were very mature and would have made excellent elders if they were men. Very practical and down to earth. Whenever I went on bible studies with them I would open and close with prayer and intersperse MEANINGFUL comments in between but I always recommended that they conduct, especially if I didn't know the student well and I would never insist on a GOT-DAMN headcovering.
Pioneering with these sisters made me more compassionate of people's needs and more approachable. Even years later at Bethel many approached me because they felt comfortable and that I would listen. I often wondered how my previous congregation would've been if sisters were given more of a voice. They would keep the ball rolling until the weekends then the elders would come out and bark commands, micro-manage everything and just fuck the place up. I would have loved to have seen a couple of these mature sisters give talks from the platform or sit on judicial cases because they were so well-grounded and adept at using scriptues more than the brothers at the hall.
I remember another experience wherein we used a sister to coordinate and collect parking tickets for the district convention and collect the monies (when we used to do that). She was good with numbers and very dilligent. Enter the CO who comes in for his visit and is livid that we're using a sister behind the counter "where only brothers should be" to collect money and take parking ticket orders. He ends up reaming us out and making us assign a brother to the job. The brother later completely FUCKED THINGS UP and me and another brother had to come behind him.
Brothers were always encouraged to reach out for positions but what of sisters? Unless you married a CO or a DO, the pinnacle was the pioneer work or serving where the need was great. At Bethel you would have sisters trying to do what they could to help propel their husbands up the corporate ladder. Many however lamented that they felt empty and unfulfilled. Many of their talents went to waste.
