Who are these elders???

freakshow

Having only started to study with a JW she has yet to inform me of these elders, the book she gave me says a little, but after reading this board I see there is more I have yet to learn. Who are these Elders? I'm picturing a bunch of old men in velvet purple robes sitting around a circular table. What is there purpose, what do they do? Do they have jobs? Someone please tell me. Oh and why havent I been invited to meet these elders, do you have to have some special birthmark on your right hand in the shape of a star to be one? Or maybe it is just a third nipple. Please clear up this confusion.

All we are is just another brick in the wall.

urkel

Elders are real actual live people, they have (nominally) regular jobs to pay their way as being an Elder doesn't earn them a dime. They're generally recommended by other Elders and then approved from on high. Some are old men, some are fairly young. RUN away from this study. The JW's are a cult.

I think Yerusalyim is the best poster on the board.
URKEL

Stephanus

Don't worry, as you progress, you'll meet them - it's part of the love bombing process. No, they don't wear anything special, just a cheap suit and tie usually. Yes they have jobs, usually employing other dubs - cleaning firms are a common thing in Dub circles (the working hours allow people to do more door to door work); I notice many here in Oz are in the building trade. The requirement to be an elder is simple: you must do whatever the WBTS says and apply their ideas and judgements, no matter what common sense and decency (and the Bible!) may tell you to the contrary.

For your own safety, I suggest you stick around here and have a hard look at the experiences of those who've not fared very well within the Watchtower walls, and think very carefully about throwing your lot in with this publishing company which pretends to be a religion and becoming one of their unpaid sales force.

tattoogrl333

Freak, I also have yet to meet these mysterious elders and have wondered the same question. I picture them being very very old and running around KH in a motorized gold cart, smacking people in the hand with rulers. I also began studying quite recently too, I'm interested in hearing if you have been given the same material as myself and what you think about it thus far.

Francois

Elders?

One of my favorite topics.

Supposedly, elders are the spiritually wise ones in the congregation. Wise, compassionate, empathetic. They are to act in many roles: leader of the door-to-door work; marriage counselors; spiritual advisors; and public speakers par excellence.

However, in reality here's what elders really are. They get to their positions of leadership in the congregation via two and only two methods, at which they must excell - at both. One won't do.

First, they must agree with each and every word issuing from the governing body in New York. Every word without question, without reserve, without any shadow of independant thinking. These men revel in referring to themselves as god's "glorious ones." Humble. Did I mention humble?

Secondly, they must have shown their expertise in the door-to-door work. That is, they must get in at least ten hours a month and preferrably more than that. Much more than that. And they must have something to show for it: book studies (notice I didn't say bible studies. JWs don't study the bible. They study books published by the Watchtower organization.) Return visits by the bushel.

In short, these guys are little more than lock-step automations. And they've got all the compassion of a brick. Mainly they busy themselves prying into the private lives of congregation members. How much do you drink? What kind of sex are you having? What TV programs do you watch; books you read; movies you see?

If your marriage is in trouble and you're the woman, they want to know one thing: what did you do wrong? It's YOUR fault, whatever it is.

They're supposed to be the "servants" in the congregation. Servants. Right. They serve themselves by their public moral preening and their self-congratulatory behavior.

These strutting banty roosters lord it over the congregation like the psychopaths they are. Quite a few are pederasts. All of 'em are jackasses. Their wives are plainly unbearable. Their children should be boxed up and shipped to deepest, darkest Africa. Little hellions.

You don't really want to get to know them. They're really bad people: bad breath, B.O., mis-matched socks, they've got it all. Stay away from 'em, they're trouble.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

Disengaged

they will "shepard" you

IBBEROEAN "Just making sure!"

josephus

elders are just men.

some are good.

some are bad.

they generally mean well, just like everybody else in the world.

sadly they do have a legaslative role, and therefore if you join jws you ARE liable to answer to them
for your actions, regardless of the matters involved.

they dont realize the power they have. the ones that do are the REALLY danderous ones.

good luck.

josephus

hybridous

Wowwww, Franc....I was wondering when you were gonna run out of gas on that last post...'bad breath, B.O., mis-matched socks', was great.

Anyway, Francois is dead on about the children of elders. Typically, they are held up and put on a pedestal for the rest of the congregation's children to be in awe of. They can spit and stammer and trip over their own words in the TMS and door-to-door, but you can be assured that sons of elders will be the first to receive 'privileges' when they're being passed out. Young men who are raised as good JWs, but from a single mom - they don't rate well.

Elders' kids can be dumb like a rock, or smart and sly like a fox, but it doesen't even matter when they're caught being 'bad', because they aren't held to the same standard of conduct that other kids are. If you're an elder's son, you can get caught lying, stealing, fooling around (sexually), and stumbling around in a drunken stupor, and the 'consequences' will be minimal. If you're from less than the ideal JW family, your personal, spotless record of conduct isn't worth piss when it comes down to it. So, don't be expecting much from the elder and elderette parents who are supposed to be raising a household of exemplary children, it simply isn't that way.

edited for grammar

zev

and lest we forget.....

some, i say some of them, are child molesters.

Gramps
__
zev
Now feeling the pain of sitting on the pickets class.

Princess

Hey Francoise, I was an elder's daughter! I was not put up on a pedestal and I have a brother that was df'd while a teenager. Not exactly minimal consequences.

My dad (and Venice's) were among the rare kind elders who really did care and try to help. Unfortunately many are as stated above.

Don't try to meet any Freakshow. Walk away. I did and so did my dad, the elder.

Princess

Who are these elders???

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