Circuit Overseer Celebrities?

by Delboy222 51 Replies latest jw friends

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  blondie

  Reasons to suck up to the CO

  Do you want to be a MS

  Do you want to be an elder

  Do you want to be a regular pioneer

  Do you want to go to Bethel/Gilead

  Do you want to have a part on the assembly or convention

  Do you want an administrative position at the assembly/convention

  Do you want an administrative position on the regional building committee

  Do you want to be a substitute CO

  Do you want to get a different answer to a "scriptural" question than the one the local elders provide

  Do you want someone to referee a personality conflict in the congregation

  Do you want preferential treatment or pressure brought to bear on a judicial matter involving you or a family member

  Do you want as an elder to advance your agenda over another elder's on the body

  And so on

  Then you need to spend time around him, wine and dine him (and his wife), toot your own horn, get your friends to do the same, cash donations work wonders, show him what a wonderful preacher and teacher you are, get your wife and children to pioneer, take off from work during the CO visit and auxiliary pioneer (even though you only get in 7 hours/month otherwise)....

  Blondie

  (I will add that I have known of COs who know that they are being patronized and don't like it. By the 2nd trip around the congregations, they have everyone figured out)
• 

  gumby

  Anyone heard of Paul Smith? He served Arizona and California that I know of. He was an archie bunker if there ever was one.

  Harry Snow was cool.......cuz he was my uncle

  Gumby
• 

  Undecided

  I have forgotten the names of the COs except one. I was looking through some old pictures yesterday and saw one of Bro. Demon. That was his real name, don't know if it was spelled that way, but I do know it was pronounced like that. I was a kid then but remember that name.

  Ken P.
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  luna2

  Hi, Delboy. Welcome!

  but now I boycott the meetings when he is in town

  I would do this too. It started with a CO that I couldn't stand in my first congo. He was arrogant, he told ugly, graphically violent stories (which may or may not have been true...truth seemed to be optional with this man), he'd joke with people and seemed to enjoy embarrassing them in front of others by mangling their names or making fun of them. All in all, a total prick. I detested him. I could never understand why he was such a celebrity. You'd have thought that Jesus or at least one of the apostles had come down from on high the way most of the congregation behaved. I would just shake my head and leave as quickly as possible. Later, I would avoid all meetings during his visits.

  When I moved to CT, the CO and his wife were a lovely, sweet couple. Still didn't care for the atmosphere around their visits and still didn't make the effort to attend all the meetings when they were in town, but I felt better about CO's in general with them. Of course, the time came when they had to go and we were assigned a new CO. Guess who we got? Yup, yup, yup...it was Brother Prick, the CO we'd had in IL. I was stunned in a horrified kind of way.

  I went to one meeting with this jerk, just to see if I still found him to be so awful...and he was. The congo was all into mega suck-up mode too, just like the IL congo had always been with this guy. There was apparently something about this hideous man that caused people to idiolize him...maybe it was his evangelist hair-do or his perfectly taylored suits or his stuck-up, I'm-better-than-you attitude. Who knows, but I always boycotted the KH when ever he was in town.

  I think some human beings have a natural desire to hero worship people who seem to be better than they are...like athletes, actors, or people in leadership positions...the rich and famous. JW's aren't supposed to get overly excited about these terrible worldly folk, so many of them seem to channel their capacity for adulation towards prominent men in the WTS.... "Oooo, a Bethel brother is coming for a special talk!!! How exciting!"; "The CO's visit is coming up...He was a rude SOB when I had him to dinner last time, but this year I have a new recipe for organic fish guts that I know he'll approve of."; "My uncle knows a brother, who knows a sister, who has a cousin who is a slave assistant to one of the Governing Body!" ...And they are different from the "world" how? LOL
• 

  minimus

  Once JWs realize that one is no better than another, it is pretty simple to ignore COs, DOs and elders because they all crap the same.
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  serendipity

  Hi delboy, welcome to the forum! I've been very amused about this phenomena as well. I don't change my habits when the CO is in town.
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  simplesally

  A lot of the old timers feel they are getting a visit from "Mother" when the CO comes to visit. Might there be some 'insider' information released? Is there any new light coming down the pike?

  I know some elders were anxious to have him come visit in "a corporate" sort of way --- they felt he could straighten out situations on the body of elders. Maybe the PO was running things 'his way' instead of the way the Society said.

  We had one CO who used to sell things out of the back of his car! I could not believe it --- he had a camara he was trying to sell to people. I mean who is going to argue about price with a CO? Plus, I thought, did he really even pay for it? It was probably a gift in the first place, just like he would get airline miles as gifts all the time, he was the most travelled CO I had ever met!!
• 

  willyloman

  (I will add that I have known of COs who know that they are being patronized and don't like it. By the 2nd trip around the congregations, they have everyone figured out)

  
  

  
  You're right, they figure things out pretty quickly. By their second trip around the circuit, they have handicapped the congos and prioritized them into "Oh, goody!" and "Oh, God!"

  I found they fell into two camps as far as recation to being patronized. A few disliked it and made that clear. But most not only liked being patronized, they expected it. Some of these men were extremely shallow individuals. A few had more spiritual meat on their bones. All of them were company men to the core. Virtually every one of them was idolized by the host congo.
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  divejunkie

  One of my biggest beefs with the organization, way before I decided to fade away, was precisely what you are talking about.
  
  All my life I was inside the organization as the daughter of one very reputable and known elder. And I remember 25 or 30 years ago the CO's and DO's were humble and friendly, and with great senses of humor. They would come and it was a big deal because everybody had such a good time.
  
  But as time passed, I noticed the shift towards a "cast society". Only some people are worthy. And many of these CO's and DO's think the sun doesn't shine unless they wake up in the morning. That's not mentioning their wives - stuck up, arrogant, nosy and bossy like nobody's business. They come in and everyone has suck up to them. If you don't have a title or are the wife of a "suit" - don't bother, they don't even take the time to meet you.
  
  These are a few of the "diva/celebrity" demands I've seen first hand:
  *only be paired in service with pioneers, elders or ms
  *making special demands with the food - and I'm not talking about health issues, you know "I'm allergic, or diabetic or high blood presure so I can't eat this or that" - that's reasonable. I'm talking about:"I only eat Chiquita brand bananas" or (you are not going to believe this one)"We are sick or lasagna, all the sisters think they make the best lasagna, so if you're planning of doing lasagna we are going some other place) this was actually said from the platform, etc.
  *controlling who can be invited to lunch with them at someone else's house
  *telling lunch hosts to get a babysitter elsewhere during the time they were going to be at their house, cause they don't like to be disturb by kids when they are eating
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  stillajwexelder

  Hey it was even worse when a District Overseer visited the congregation - they were treated like Gods