Hi Apognophos,
Here is another experience posted on this particular thread, that's a little more closer to "home" [USA].
Experience related below:
JUST TALKED WITH MY OLD CIRCUIT OVERSEER [By Seeker4]
A former CO that served my congregation when I was an elder was visiting the area and looked me up - despite knowing I was no longer a JW. He serves as an elder in a congregation on the other side of the country (US) now, but we were very good friends when he was my CO about a decade ago. Went out of circuit work about five years back.
Thought some might be interested in a few things we talked about in a long, three hour conversation.
He says he's working to overcome a deep and intense anger against the Watchtower Society for the way its misled so many for so long, and that he feels the organization is accountable not only for that, but also for the hundreds of lives damaged and lost due to following WTS policies that have now changed (alternative military service, blood, transplants, dialysis, etc.).
He said he no longer has faith in much of anything that the F&DS prints in the literature. His experiences in the traveling work and with over 50 years as a Witness has convinced him that the Society has very little concern for individual friends, and is mainly focused on keeping itself going, a sentiment that he said was shared by many of the DOs he worked with, including one who told him that "the Mormons treat their members better than we do!"
In recent talks with a couple who were formerly missionaries, and who now serve in a US congregation, the couple told him they feel that the Organization is floundering, that it is essentially a "rudderless ship" without any leadership. He talked freely about the "liberal and conservative" elements at Bethel who are struggling against each other to make some sort of sense about where the WTS is headed, and how it will handle the mess it's in. This is from a Brother with lots of organizational responsibility as an elder and mucho connections among the traveling brothers and at Bethel.
Though my views would be considered apostate by a lot of JWs, he essentially agreed with me about the problems in the Organization that drove me away, and went on to assure me that many, many elders he's been able to talk with recently in his area and in mine, have feelings not that far from my own, including brothers who are in the traveling work. He said he has consistently been cautioned by traveling brothers in recent years to be careful about anything he writes to the Society, as the WTS is, in his words, "terribly afraid of apostates."
Quality of meetings and assemblies have really fallen off, he said, with brothers just dryly repeating the same old cliches, fearing to vary from WTS manuscripts and outlines, and fearing to say anything that could begin to be viewed as controversial. He made the comment that "no one" in the congregations any longer believes that the End Is Near, noting that the Society's attempt to boost field service by lowering pioneer hours was an abject failure. The friends have lost any sense of urgency in the work. He said that at a meeting of traveling brothers with reps from the Gov. Body in the mid-90s, the brothers were deeply concerned then about the drop off in meeting attendance, field service, etc. He said the Bethel bros. told them at the time that meeting attendance nationally was running at about 60%! (Can you imagine what it is now?) The brothers wanted the COs to tell them what was happening among the friends and what they should do, but when some COs suggested the need to drop the idea of handing in time, back off from making rules in areas not specifically covered by Scriptures, emphasizing Scriptural principles instead of making rules, coming clean on mistakes and screwups, etc., the Society ignored them. It was felt that any loosening of control by the WTS would result in many Friends leaving, or the WTS itself losing credibility. The comment was made that if the Society stopped having the friends hand in time, at least half would no longer go out. My CO friend said that the WTS is so used to using coercive measures like handing in time, talks about the need to do more, etc. etc., that they cannot see another way of operating. He says he thinks the Society will soon drop the handing in time requirement and make other changes, and that it will mean literally millions will leave the Organization, but they will have to do it or die out. I told him I didn't think the Society would ever reform, and he told me that other elders he had recently talked with told him the same thing. I think he hopes it can, or feels that it has to in order to survive.
Then he mentioned a couple of really interesting things. He said that if it weren't for the growth among the Spanish speaking, the work would essentially be dead in certain parts of this country. He said an English congregation in his area had just been disbanded because there were no longer enough going to the meetings to support it. It was combined with another English congregation nearby. He said he doubted if the growth among the Spanish in this country and others, and the growth in the third world, would continue for much longer as the people in these lands gained greater self-sufficiency and intellectual freedom and moved away from the idea of needing to be told what to do.
Then he dropped this bomb. He said that he felt the problems in the WTS had reached "critical mass" and something dramatic would have to be done by the WTS very soon in order to salvage the organization. Either way, he said, he felt we would soon see a mass exodus of literally millions of Witnesses, because under the present course, the Society has been totally unable to maintain any sense of urgency in the preaching work, and has failed to focus the friends on the Bible principles and Christlike way of life that would give them the foundation to want to remain an active Witness.
Until the last few months, I had felt that it would be years before things came to a head with the WTS. But in the past few weeks I've had conversations with several active Witnesses, all of whom have expressed feelings similar to this former CO. Somehow I think that the jump into the new century has also created a psychological shift among many Witnesses, and more and more active Witnesses, including elders and others in responsibility, are becoming less and less afraid to talk about what they see as serious organizational problems that are just getting worse.
It was strange to hear this brother, an active elder with years of full-time service under his belt and a lifetime as a Witness, saying essentially the same things I'm hearing here on H2O. He said he felt there was a "flood" of people leaving the WTS for essentially the same reasons I had, and that this would force some sort of changes and reform. Anyone else getting any of these same vibes? I know reform is a lot to ask, but anyone else hearing about this wave of discontent in the Organization from people in the know? Frankly, I'm surprised - I didn't expect this much this soon.
By Seeker4
Sargonsaid:
GodsWordisTruthsaid: