This topic came up the other night when I was chatting with nvrgnbk. As some of you may know, I was born and raised as a JW. I was actually a 3rd generation JW. I became a publisher at 12 and also started giving talks for the Theocratic Ministry School at the same time. Eventually I got baptized when I was 17. An experience that I had shortly after I got baptized is what I want to discuss or vent about now.
My family and I moved and switched Kingdom Halls about 6 months before I was baptized. I met all the elders at the new congregation, I "passed" my baptism questions and I was baptized on June 19, 1982. One of my first goals after baptism was to auxiliary pioneer. I wanted to do this during that summer month of August. So I approached the Service Overseer about a pioneer slip for August in late June. To my shock and utter amazement, the elder told me that I did not qualify for one! So I approached the Presiding Overseer and told him that I had desired to auxiliary pioneer, but I was again told that I didn’t qualify. I told the P.O. that yes, I had only recently gotten baptized, but I had also been a publisher since age 12! The P.O. looked at me and said that the Service Overseer was correct, they would NOT give me a pioneer slip because I didn’t qualify! I walked away stunned. I didn't understand. I had always put in alot of hours as a publisher and I had never missed a month of turning in a Field Service slip. This discussion happened on a Sunday afternoon.
That upcoming Thursday, during the Service Meeting, the P.O. actually made a comment about me from the stage!!! He didn’t mention me by name, but said the following, “Some people think that just because they go out and get baptized, that they can also go out and become a pioneer. Well, we need QUALITY, not QUANTITY!!!”
Those are the exact words that he used. Considering that I was the only one that had been recently baptized, I was quite certain that the whole congregation knew that he was referring to me when he made that statement. I remember being genuinely hurt at the time. And that was also the first time that I began to question the so-called "love" within the JW congregation. Later on, when I began to question other things about The Org., I remembered that experience. Only this time it was with anger, not hurt. Just who in the hell did that arrogant S.O.B. think he was to question my integrity? And what gave him the right to use me as a negative example? As a matter of fact, I had been a publisher longer than he had been an elder!!! That was definitely the beginning of the end for me as a JW.
Did anyone else have an experience similiar to this? Where an elder talked about you from the stage or used you as a negative example among the congregation?
TCK