About 25 years ago, a brother returned to Europe after
living in the USA for much of his adult life, he was almost 70 when he
returned, he wanted to spend the last few years of his life in the land of his
birth. He was quite humble, but unpleasant in his appearance but I liked him. He
started attending the congregation I was in but was not liked by the then PO,
and he was viciously mobbed out of the congregation by this elder. He started
attending another congregation some distance away, but because he was old and
also had a disability he was more of a liability than an asset, and he was not
really treaty very well in that congregation either.
The older ones in any congregation really do need the
support of the younger ones in the congregation, but he received none. I was in
a different congregation and was not fully aware of his needs, and as I was a
pioneer at the time I had little spare time. I did make an effort to visit him
once a month, just to have a chat and see how he was, he never told me of the
problems he was having.
One interested person, a woman 25 years his junior, took
pity on him and went to visit him 2-3 times a week, would clean his home and cook
for him. Well the elders found out that she was visiting him regularly and did
something about it. As she was not even an unbaptized publisher they could not
do anything to her, so they form a JC and disfellowshipped the brother. He told me the
next time I visited him and I listened to his story. Being a member of the bOrg
collective I was obedient and stopped all contact with him. Not long after
being disfellowshipped he died, with a broken heart after serving Jehovah
almost all his life.
Fast forward 20 years (last year), I was at the annual district convention and
sitting in front of me was an elderly man belonging to the congregation where
this brother had been a member. So I mentioned the old brother's name and this
elderly man, an elder, started to explain to me why they disfellowshipped him,
I did not ask why, I asked nothing. This elder demonstrated to be by the way he
talked to me about the subject that the elders 20 years ago had no valid reason
to disfellowship this older brother. What was his crime, he was old and
required help and received it from someone 25 years his younger.
What possible rule did this guy break?