witnessing unjust treatment by elders and seeing others unjustly treated by such - had a big impact on me seeing through the facade that was the organization called jehovah's witnesses.
being raised in it 44 years i observed many times congregation elders operating their crew of " fellow elders " like a good old boys club in which although it was called a " body " of elders ; nevertheless still one elder dominated others and the lesser elders fell into line with what the " chief " or prime elder said would go down.
when leaving the organization in late 2003 - i questioned my own father, an elder for over 50 years about the unjust treatment i had received at the hand of such men.
WT Wizard: Right on point. .
White Dove: Yes. They will know who I am at that point if they don't already know. But thats okay. Wow! How could those so-called elders have been so cruel in your situation? I would have been just as pissed off as you were. All of us have so many amazing stories of our experiences in the borg.
Worf
witnessing unjust treatment by elders and seeing others unjustly treated by such - had a big impact on me seeing through the facade that was the organization called jehovah's witnesses.
being raised in it 44 years i observed many times congregation elders operating their crew of " fellow elders " like a good old boys club in which although it was called a " body " of elders ; nevertheless still one elder dominated others and the lesser elders fell into line with what the " chief " or prime elder said would go down.
when leaving the organization in late 2003 - i questioned my own father, an elder for over 50 years about the unjust treatment i had received at the hand of such men.
Thanks Mr. Flipper.
The experiences I had which started me on the road out of the borg are similar to what happened to Richard Rawe and his wife in the late 60's.
I feel that what happened to me is a story (true) that needs to be told, and I am slowly putting it together.
BTW, your threads and post are always so insightful and interesting. I read them all the time.
Thanks.
Worf
witnessing unjust treatment by elders and seeing others unjustly treated by such - had a big impact on me seeing through the facade that was the organization called jehovah's witnesses.
being raised in it 44 years i observed many times congregation elders operating their crew of " fellow elders " like a good old boys club in which although it was called a " body " of elders ; nevertheless still one elder dominated others and the lesser elders fell into line with what the " chief " or prime elder said would go down.
when leaving the organization in late 2003 - i questioned my own father, an elder for over 50 years about the unjust treatment i had received at the hand of such men.
TLR,
I appreciate your interest. I'm still writing it and I haven't yet decided on a title that will best describe it. I'm also very busy with some other ventures in my life. But as I progress, I will keep all of my friends here on JWD informed.
Worf
witnessing unjust treatment by elders and seeing others unjustly treated by such - had a big impact on me seeing through the facade that was the organization called jehovah's witnesses.
being raised in it 44 years i observed many times congregation elders operating their crew of " fellow elders " like a good old boys club in which although it was called a " body " of elders ; nevertheless still one elder dominated others and the lesser elders fell into line with what the " chief " or prime elder said would go down.
when leaving the organization in late 2003 - i questioned my own father, an elder for over 50 years about the unjust treatment i had received at the hand of such men.
So did you notice this attitude in congregations of each body of elders doing things the way they wanted ?
Absolutely!
Here are some gems from the body of elders that I was on:
They told a brother (who was not even an MS or Elder), that he could not bring the son he had from an adulterous relationship, to the KH. They told him to just deal with his son "through the mail", that is: send money to the childs "worldly" mother to help financially, but don't bring him around to the KH. This edict was told to him a few years after the adultery, a case in which the decision had been to forgive him and not DF him. This brother was already back in "good standing" in the congo.
Another gem: They had a secret meeting in which they decided to remove me as an elder. When they informed me they refused to discuss the situation with me even though there is a WTS letter that specifically directs elders to discuss the matter in detail with any brother whom they want to delete from being an elder. (Side note: Every Gb member,about 10 total, that I contacted personally went along with this injustice, including people like Daniel Sydlik, and of course Jaracz, Lett, Herd and a host of other officials like JR Brown and Robert Pevy, and David Sinclair, Pellechia).
Another gem: This elder body told the JW wife of the above mentioned brother that children born out of wedlock have no hope of life in the "kingdom". (The events described are included in the book I am in the process of writing).
The above circumstances started me on the road "Out" of the borganization.
Worf
how far we've come in just the last ten years.. just ten short years ago, the term jw "apostate" still carried a stigma of held-over shame to most ex-jws and they rarely called themselves by that term.
i wore that badge proudly, but i had already been out of the wts for over 20 years by then.
slowly, but steadily the term went from shame to neutral to a badge of honor!
Unfaithful and Indiscreet Slavemasters.
Jdumbs.
Worf
this could be veryyyyyy interestinggggggg.
Mariusuk,
Your comment is true for some dubs, but not all. Three of my sisters still feel that you cannot question or disobey the gb in any form or fashion.
Worf
this could be veryyyyyy interestinggggggg.
1988: Circuit Overseer Tom Meekins says while giving a talk in our congregation: "If the governing body tells us to jump, we should say: "How high?"
Such crap!
Worf
this could be veryyyyyy interestinggggggg.
Here's a couple of things:
They would try to kill apostates and all so-called "worldly people", if the gb told them to, according to the 1953 watchtower question from readers.
They would drink koolaid laced with cyanide if the gb told them that this would cause them to wake up in the "new world".
when i first read about wts having "new ligth" on the 1914-generation issue in the newspaper i was shocked.
(some evil apostates had been helpful and informed the paper weeks before i got my november issues of the wt.).
my thoughts was.
aSphereisnotacircle,
Your story gave me a good laugh. She was an example of a good drone.
Worf
when i first read about wts having "new ligth" on the 1914-generation issue in the newspaper i was shocked.
(some evil apostates had been helpful and informed the paper weeks before i got my november issues of the wt.).
my thoughts was.
I was also the watchtower study conductor at the time and I conducted that watchtower study. Having been born "in", at the time I was still loyal, and just figured it was new information. However while preparing that study I understood the implications of the change, but there was so much injustice going on within our body of elders with the way many of them were treating members of the congregation, as well as disagreements among the members of our body of elders, that I just didn't focus on that information at the time. Also my personal battle with some of the elders and the then circuit overseers and wts officials was just heating up at the time, therefore my attention was more toward that. In addition our congregation had split around that time even though we didn't want to, so attention spans were short.
So I can attest to the fact during that watchtower study, the congregation basically had no clue as to the implications of the generation change. It turned out to be just another meeting that the majority wanted to end so they could get home and eat dinner.
As said by another poster on this thread, for me it also took another series of events before I realized the watchtower is nothing but a scam.
After I left in 12/99, I realized by talking with other exjws, that the 1995 generation change had made hundreds of thousands leave the borg. So it is interesting hearing your stories here attesting to the fact that the 1995 generation change was the last straw for many here also.
Worf
