I title this part this way because I was, over the course of the next couple of years, involved with so many committees (one way or another) that, even though I wasn't an elder, I almost felt like one...as subsequent parts will show.
In any case, it was inevitable that my smoking would be found out. To his credit, the brother that approached me did as the Bible says he should do: he approached me privately, inviting me to voluntarily broach my error with an elder. Of course, as much as I respected, and still have no reason to disrespect, this friend, there was the clearly implicit threat that "if you don't, I will have to."
So, I did. After a book study, I told the conductor that I'd been using tobacco, and things went from there. Interesting how things played out.
One of the first things that happened was that the (physical) brother of an elder (an elder about whom you will soon know much more), who, as being part of the "inner circle," knew straightaway that what I was "up for," approached me privately and said: "Jesus Christ, Craig, if you wanna have a smoke, why don't you just grab a cigar and go smoke it out in the grass field, like I do? Why make such a stink about this?" (That's pretty much a quote). Well, that was an interesting suggestion!
But the real issue with the elders was my "apostate thinking." The first meeting started off with my smoking, and I laid out my objections, based on the Biblical Greek, and within minutes the cross-examination turned to my opinion of the WTS. My smoking became almost a non-issue: it was that I disagreed with what the FDS had dictated that became the focus of every question thereafter.
Another interesting point: I was the only one at those meetings who ever bothered to crack the back of his Bible. As we went through, point by point, every issue about the end-times, and the supposed authority of the WTS, those brothers left their Bibles untouched on the tabletop. They didn't give a howling hoot about what the Bible said, in the context of our discussions; all they cared about was my opinion of the WTS.
If I did anything honorable in that confrontation, it was simply that I stood my ground.
After a few such meetings, the inevitable decision was made to DF me. I fully anticipated that decision, and actually, in a sad way, I welcomed it. I was finally (or so I thought) finding the strength to stand on my own two feet and rid myself of this pestiferous malign upon my soul, and drop the hypocrisy; finally become a MAN.
The afternoon before the meeting, when my DFing was to be announced, one of the committee elders came over to our house and pled, begged, and cried with me, wishing that somehow I would see my way clear to just let it all go, and stay with God's Organization. I gave him a genuine hug, and said that I just couldn't do that; my mind was made up.
I didn't go to that meeting, though I watched the clock and knew, as per WTS Service Meeting SOP, when the "announcement" was made; I felt like a huge load had been lifted off my shoulders.
My wife came home, with tears in her eyes, and we hugged each other.
I was so sad.