The elders in my cong. were ok till I was molested, at which point they gave me the second degree (did I scream?) Jesus Christ!
One of the best elders I ever knew was an elder at whose home we had a youth WT study. At the 1975 study (remember in the early 80's when they did the study about the 1975 expectations?) he told us all his own plans to 'beat the system.' He told us how convinced *He* was that 1975 would be the end. He actually did some kind of sleezy things, but i don't remember the details-it was one of those 'the worldly people are all gonna be destroyed in armageddon anyway' kind of attitudes that prompted his rather unethical behavior. In any case, he was very honest, let it all hang out and told us frankly his impressions of the time. Now, we were all teenagers and had a pretty good memory of those days too-only most of our expectations were nightmarish and frightening. I was 9 in 1975. So my problem is with all the other elders who thought he was out of line for being honest. And the fact that he stepped down and then moved out of the area soon after-though he had been in the same house for over 20 years and had businesses in the area-told me that he was run out of the congregation. I don't know what ever happened to him, but he sure got me thinking. I love that guy. The youth WT studies on Sat. nights ended a couple of weeks later. Which worked for me, I spent more time with my worldly friends since us JWs were not supposed to discuss spiritual things anymore.