A comment on the subject of rotation of elders and "specialty servants" (those who conducted the WT meeting, Ministry School Servant):
[Note: You can tell the era I came from (1950s/1960s) because the descriptive title of "Servant" was replaced by "Elder" and "Overseer" in the late 1960s. Those changes alone forever damaged the feeling of equality among brothers within Kingdom Halls. If someone is assigned to "serve" the congregation, his "service" is seen as non-threatening and a positive gift of time and effort to the other members of the congregation.]
But if someone is seen as an "elder" or "overseer," then for the rank and file it becomes "boss/employee" --- "manager/subordinate" --- "owner/slave" relationship.
I remember how uncomfortable my male relative JWs felt having their descriptive titles changed. My father actually went to various friends and told them that he would always consider himself a "servant" in the congregation. "I don't make a very good boss. I want to be able to say to a JW friend, 'have a nice day' or 'good luck in field service' without it being interpreted as an order."
My then wife (1965-1970) - who continued to attend meetings after I stopped going - found it very hard to think of some of the brothers as "overseers." She also shared with me that their attitudes and personal approach to the non-assigned brothers and sisters were quite different.
Even though "ministerial servant" was a new position in the congregation and had not yet been fully defined, it was clear to her that some of those chosen for the "pre-elder" position were already acting like "princes" or some kind of "JW royalty." She left the JWs just before the1975 fiasco finally blew up and I think she was just tired of the false pride being shown by some men in the congregation who had titles - something she never saw when we were dating and were first married in the mid-60s.
It was the same with "Governing Body." Before that, we considered the President and Vice-President of the Watchtower Society as being special men with broader responsibilities. But unlike Russell and Rutherford before them (who were considered to be the "leaders" of the religion with hotlines to Jehovah's throne in heaven), Knorr and F. Franz and Hayden Covington, while admired, were not considered as being particularly "special" in a theocratic sense - at least not in the field. I know that those working in Bethel at the time had differing opinions about the "unique responsibilities" assigned to officers of the organization.
While a majority of readers of this forum will most likely have come on the JW scene well after the early 1980s "massacres" at Bethel and throughout the organization - and are unlikely to have recognized the changes in the "power grid" of the Watchtower, I can assure everyone that with that change in authority, position titles, and implementation of the Governing Body arrangement, everything changed forever. Some JWs recognized the changes and a few rebelled. Others (like they were when attending meetings) were not paying attention or simply did not care - or sleeping with their eyes open - except during prayers when they actually caught some shut-eye.
I saw the changes in my wife and among my family members when those new policies and naming arrangements were applied. That was also a reason for the huge exodus after the failure of 1975. A lot of JWs would have probably let the failed prophecy thing slide by, but the fact that "servants" were now overseers, mass purges were taking place throughout the organization, and every congregation saw more JWs leave or fade away.
Now the "Governing Body" is trying to slip out of the nooses they have placed around their own necks. They are saying that they are nothing special, that they have no special "telephone line" to heaven, that they are capable of making mistakes, and that they carry to responsibility for what the Watchtower organization does.
I remember my father and mother crying on the phone in 1966 when they learned that I had been disfellowshipped. They begged me to repent and "return to Jehovah." My father was so distraught that he could not speak more than a couple of sentences to me before turning over the phone to Mom. That was the beginning of the big move toward shunning. My parents hated the whole thing but reminded me that "the brothers in New York are directed by Jehovah" - leaving them no choice in the matter. My mother then told me that my father even gave up his position as an "overseer" in their congregation - because he could not in good conscience serve and enforce a policy that he disagreed with - but had to live under.
JV
