A question for ex-elders and possibly x-MS

by Lady Lee 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Lady Lee

  Bear with me

  Where I live I have a large park under my window. The park has a basketball court, a children's playground. 2 baseball fields - (yes 2!!!) and a community centre.

  There are at least 10 poles (more may be hidden by the trees) with banks of floodlights on them to light up the entire park

  In the winter it has a hockey rink with walls to stop the puck from going too far and a skating rink surrounds the hockey rink

  It's a busy busy park.

  Every week night there is at least one baseball game going on. Frequently there are 2 games going on - like right now. It is pouring rain and there are 2 teams out there still palying ball.

  These are not kids. They are grown men playing games in the pouring rain.

  We all know what the WTS says about competitive games and that sports should never ever be more important than peddling WT litterature. The lack of socializing in the cong is severely limited and from what some people have posted the WT is getting worse on that

  So I wonder whether those elders meetings were all so important.

  • Is it possible that they took the place of "games" that nonJW men enjoy?
  • Did they have to take all the time that they did or was there a lot of gabbing going on.

  I clearly recall waiting and waiting for my husband to be finished with the meeting after the regular meetings Some took hours
• 

  inbyathread

  I think the higher position in 'any' corporation/business you are, the more gabbing is allowed. I was a MS. The meetings I attended never allowed for gabbing. The Elders read the letter and we were dismissed. No questions. No discussion. Here is the new instruction from the society. Follow it. Thank you very much. You are all doing such a fine job. Now go back out in field service.

  In my current job there are the

  workers = kind of like the R& F

  group leaders = ms

  foreman = elders

  workers are told to keep busy. No gabbing allowed.

  Meetings between foreman and group leaders were brief then get back to work.

  But everyone saw the Foremen just talking away. Smiling, laughing. Having a jolly good time.

  I guess it depends where you are in the food chain.
• 

  Dismembered

  Greetings Lady Lee,

  As an MS I only got to go to some of those all important "back room" meetings. What they amounted to was equal to a can of re-fried beans. The ones I went to accomplised ziltch, except for waisting time. What was also amazing was that some elders hated each other. It was so phony baloney plastic bannana. You could feel the tension in the stale air. Another thing to LL is those back room meetings wank the "elders" ego.

  Dismembered
• 

  Scully

  Believe it or not, LadyLee, there is a local "unofficial" hockey team of sorts for JWs. They pay for ice time and they have regular games, and include JWs from all over the region. Of course, it's just for the guys - I've never heard of there being any spectators at these games. My JW sibling participates in this activity, and also participated in another similar one in Montreal.

  When Canadian guys want to play hockey, they will find a way, elders meetings be damned. Yet, when the Sisters™ want to have a Tupperware or Scrapbooking party, they have a Local Needs™ talk.
• 

  HoChiMin

  • Is it possible that they took the place of "games" that nonJW men enjoy?
  • Did they have to take all the time that they did or was there a lot of gabbing going on.

  Not for me, I'm more for mechanized sports. I do think some elders thoroughly enjoyed the back room meetings because they would drag on with the most mundane s%&t you wouldn’t believe. Can you picture an extremely dim witted man in a cheap suit acting like CEO running peoples lives? Then you can imagine an elders meeting.

  HCM
• 

  jgnat

  I know what you are getting at, Lady Lee, and I wonder if there is some evidence for it.

  Guys have this weird competitive edge that I just don't possess. Not that I'm not ambitious, strong, or capable. Nor that I haven't successfully tread the corporate ladder over the heads of some of my male colleagues. It's just that, with men, it's like life-or-death. For example, in chess, I am happy with an ingenious play, even if I end up losing the game. But for the guys, every game is a test of dominance. Sports is a necessary outlet for that aggression, I think. It keeps the Neanderthals from beating each other's brains out.

  You are wondering, Lady Lee, in the absence of an approved outlet, where the men in the congregation get their release? Me too.
• 

  Scully

  jgnat:

  This is how men in the congregation get their "release": The Bastard told on my dad

  The spy network and ratting out people who don't conform is truly a sport to some JWs. It feeds the "I'm better than you" competitive streak, and gives them opportunities to "crush" the "weaker" ones.
• 

  Gregor

  I think you're on to something. At picnics or gatherings I've noticed that elders would often stand around and talk shop. Elders meetings are notorious for marathon gab fests.

  I've known many elders who felt playing any kind of game, whether basketball or checkers, was 'foolishness'. Also known elders that loved physical sports activity.
• 

  mama1119

  In our old congregation, the elders got to pick and choose who they allowed to play sports. If the men were related to the elders, they were allowed to. If they weren't, they could'nt. One elder told my Dad if he played basketball he would be removed as a MS, but the same elders son was on the basketball team at High School.
• 

  juni

  Hi Lady Lee.

  I can relate to all that has been said. And those poor elders' wives who have to wait and wait like good little wifies should unless they could hitch a ride home w/someone else.

  For some of these elders it was a power trip. Their little secret meetings, carrying in their suitcases all hush hush. Some of them hated these long drawn out affairs which could have ended a lot earlier. These were ones who valued their family and their needs.

  MSs' and elders' mtgs. got down to business. Then the peon MSs could leave and some of the hotshots would stay on for unfinished business. I always thought it was so rude and unkind to leave their wives waiting when they told them it would be just a little while. We would offer rides to the wives, but often times they'd say that they were told that it would be a short one this time as they rolled their eyes.

  Juni