District Overseer put out to pasture with no $$$ - sad

by Dogpatch 167 Replies latest jw friends

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  yesidid

  However, there were just as many assholes among the non-elder publisher ranks. Just as many people duped, who should have known better. , neighbors and relatives Just as many people on autopilot, spewing intolerance and hatred towards co-workers. Just as many fools who lapped up the lie and spread it in the door-to-door work. Just as many people hoping to catch the express train to paradise, despite the overwhelming evidence the train wasn't coming. Just as many people trying to fill some empty place in their soul by giving themselves over to a high control organization that appeared to have all the answers.

  It's nice to see so many of you have found your way here.

  Willyman, You said what I was thinking, only better than I could have. There has been been more hatred in this thread than I ever saw in the organization. No wonder JW's are taught that

  many exJW's leave all goodness and kindness behind them. For some it's true. That is of course if they ever had those qualities even as Witnesses. It seems to me that the average quality of Witnesses would have improved when they left.
• 

  ronin1

  IP_SEC:

  You are correct about this statement: "You are also responsible for subjecting yourself to that authority. No one had a gun to your head. You werent shackled to those kingdom hall seats. The only real victims of the JWs are minor kids as they dont have choice. The adults can pick up and leave any day they are ready too. If you consider yoursef a victim of the mean elders, you made yourself a victim."

  ===============================================================================================

  That is why once I and my husband came to a full realization of who really had power over us- only Jehovah God and Jesus Christ, we took our stand.

  On many occasions when elders, bethelites, and bethel elders tried to tell me something, I would ask them this particular question:

  Can you give me good health, everlasting life, or raised me from the dead? When they would answer: of course not, then I would reply- then the society cannot tell me anything.

  Point blank- we can only be dupped if we allow ourselves to be dupped.

  ==============================================================================================

  Still, persons' sentiments are very strong about the hurt they suffered by the decisions of ones in authority. I do not believe their feelings are of hatred.................just still very angry and hurt.

  Ronin1
• 

  outoftheorg

  I was an elder for roughly 2 years. I never served on a Judicial interrogation because the local hardliners didn't trust me.

  The more kind and helpful I was toward the publishers the more the other elders would look on me like I was not strong enough. Like the accusation that I was not "service minded enough". "I am not yet ready for judicial meetings" and so on.

  This and other mistreatment by the more arrogant elders caused me to resign from that position.

  As far as I am concerned Willyman just about said it all.

  The world is full of good, bad, indifferent, and evil people in every position in society.

  I can see and understand, the two different feelings held against those jw's that were in charge.

  I don't have an argument with either side and both sides experienced what may have been very different treatment in this cult.

  However I have found that as I shed the jw cult teachings on how to treat our neighbors and others in need, that the general public are much more forgiving and helpful to strangers and those who may have hurt them than I ever was.

  I began to admire their willingness to help almost any person in need. Then it began to worry me, that I wasn't that kind of person to readily give help without using their past against them.

  I am not saying that I would readily give help to known pedophiles or killers, but the ignorant or duped or especially the older people unable to support themselves.

  I am not proud of the hate I was raised in toward those that were not jw's. I am not proud of the way I looked down on most of the worlds people as evil persons that Jehovah was soon to kill. The lack of love and caring I grew up in.

  It has taken a while for me to clear my mind of the old personality and adopt the worldy persons feeling of responsability for the old or sick or injured or those without the training to hold a good job.

  The really big job is to not feel constant hate for those who may have hurt me. I may not forgive them but I will not hate them if they fall into a situation where they need help.

  Outoftheorg
• 

  just2sheep

  do you feel my hate? do you feel my disgust? good. everything said on this thread needed to be said. it all needed to be said when you were elders but none of us seperate but equal dubs were allowed to do so. poor elders. something you all need to realize is that you are in the real world now. if i hate you i can tell you so. if you disgust me i can tell you so. that is certainly different isn't it? the answers from some of the exelders on this thread exhibit the borg's circle the wagons and crush the riff raff attitude they learned from their wt teachers. hell we wouldn't even be talking about this except the man was an elder. as for being duped, we aren't talking beliefs here, we are talking actions. are you saying that by being duped and going in service and finding people who need help and, being duped, lead them to what i believe is a safe enviroment but is actually a pack of wolves in sheeps clothing; are you really saying that i'm responsible for the abuse you heap upon them? or are you saying that because you were duped into thinking you could mentally, physicaly, and spiritually abuse people and noone would ever know that none of that matters? did you really think there would be no repercussions?

  the two biggest hypocrites in the world are elders lecturing you on love, and elders lecturing you on forgiveness.

  j2s

  and to those who agree with me,either a little or a lot, doesn't it feel good to be able to express yourself without fear of being called on to account for your attitude to a group of loving, kind, and forgiving elders? you really don't get figs from a thornbush do you?
• 

  LDH

  Knowing that we all need mercy, Jesus said that "with the same judgment we judge others, we will be judged."

  Speaking for JUST MYSELF, this principle is not a Christian principle only. This is a standard of all decent people.

  I don't hate elders, COs, DOs, Bethelites, ex or otherwise. My attitude and belief is that regardless of their intentions, they will live with the results they spent a lifetime to create.

  How is this any different from the rest of us? Don't the rest of us also live with what we created? Why are these "older men" immune from criticism?

  I do not enjoy the victim mentality from any perspective. Truly it was said best, the only VICTIMS were the children who had no choice (what else is new?) All of us, at some point in our lives, are victims of something bad, or hard, or evil. The question is--do we allow it to continue?

  Victims of the WT are different from victims of spousal abuse, as an example. "Victims" of the WT are in that situation because at their core they choose to believe that out of 6 Billion human beings, Jehovah chose them to be his special chosen few. 1%. That's laughable, even from a mathematical perspective.

  If it makes you feel better, I believe that most people living in the United States RARELY think deeply about their lives and the effect they have on other human beings in the world. JWs are not special.

  Lisa
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  LDH

  there has been absolutely no evidence that this unfortunate man has turned away from the watchtower. Every evidence is that he remains a loyal JW. So he has received his measure in full. Who am I to question the spiritual joys of poverty and an uncertain future? He isn't asking for any help from the apostate community. Let his brothers help him. I'll worry about him when I hear he has repented; so far he has not.

  Amen. Until then, he is just another sad, demoralized Jehovah's Witness. He wouldn't listen to me if I called him right now to tell him about the Org.

  It will take him time to wake up. Hopefully that's sooner rather than later. Then he can get on with relying on charity from REAL organizations and churches.

  Frankly I wish the "Society" would dump ALL of the older ones. I couldn't think of a better catalyst for change than each congregation having to absorb the living expenses for a retired sales man!
• 

  Dogpatch

  wow, I really started something here, didn't I?

  :-))

  Randy
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  thecarpenter

  you certainly did randy... Honestly, I think that for me to move on, I have to forgive people, even elders, CO's, DO's and even governing body members. Jehovah will judge, not me. (And many will pay a dear price)
  
  As for causing pain, I sometimes feel guilty of all the people I helped into the borg. I hope they can forgive me one day when they realize they were duped by the borg as I was.
• 

  thecarpenter

  As for Don Emshoff, well I do feel bad for the guy, it is immoral what the society is doing to him but unfortunately, he is reaping what he has sown. When you put your trust in men, especially a corrupt fanatical organization, bad things will happen to you unfortunately. I don't wish bad things to Don, I also don't wish bad things to happen to anyone, but my wishing is not going to change the situation. At least Don is still alive and lives in a rich land that can provide him with something of a living, although he will have to live a spartan lifestyle and none of the adulation he may have been used to. Don should count his blessings he wasn't on the outs with the Catholic church a thousands years ago. They would have just tortured and killed him as they did to so many.
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  tough time

  I've been checking this website daily for 3 years and have never responded. Now I gotta. Emshoff served my congregation when I lived in the Palm Springs, California area. He was by far the most disliked DO I had ever been in contact with. Very arrogant. He was also very demeaning to the friend's. We literally dreaded his visits. Thank God he wasn't a CO - so we had less contact with him. I was not the PO at the time, so I had very little Organizational contact with him, but I was assigned to stage duty for circuit assemblies, and he was extremely antagonistic to the brother's working the stage. Looking back, I can't believe how we bent over backwards for him. No matter what anybody says, the DO was feared like a CEO or something. We were so out of balance!

  I'm still sorry that he will have to suffer at his age. Even though he caused so much heartache. I have to remind myself that most of these guy's KNOW that they are not in The Truth. The hang on for the prestige (?), and power that they have over people. It's very intoxicating.