Even when I was in my teens, I realized that the elders had no qualifications for having oversight over the sheep. All you have to do to become an elder is work hard doing everything the organization requires. These men have no training except in how to enforce and carry out the rules given to them from WTS. I have seen men who've been in the organization a short time become elders. The majoriety of these men are nobodies in the community at large. When they become elders they become somebody: get puffed up, and become much more important in their own eyes than they actually are. Yet, they exercise power and influence over the flock. They hold their lives in their hands and can make the life of the flock a nightmare. I have seen this dozens of times. One of my lifelong friends married an old man, more that twice her age, but an elder. He was overbearing and a know-it-all. She became a elderess, she told him everything she ever heard anyone else say or do and he was always getting into everyone's personal business. He was so stupid that he quit his good-paying job, took his retirement, which was about 30K, and told everyone he had enough money to last until Armageddon. That was in 1961! As for gossiping, everything that happened in the congregations, spread like wildfire through the district. There are no secrets in the circuits, except it seems, that there are pedophiles among us. This same elder, when he was looking for a wife,and we were in his car alone, (the others were out of the car), asked me, a 15 year old, what I would do if he put his arm around me. I answered that I would slap his face. He left me alone, but got lucky with my friend.
