by CaptainSchmideo 10 Replies latest jw friends
As I understand it, drinking in the UK is not as stigmatized as it is in the US. Going to the pub after the Sunday meeting is on a par with going to the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet over here in the US.
So, if a person has real problems with drinking, and asks for help, how do the elders handle this?
If they themselves tipple overmuch, how can they be unbiased in rendering judicial matters in this regard?
Are they tougher on the women than they are the men?
my mother used to call the elders out regularly about my dads drinking, usually while they were in the middle of a row, two elders would turn up and theyd talk downstairs while i was banished upstairs, so i've no idea what their 'counsel' was
he'd stop going to the pub for a whiles then it would be biz as normal.
they even came round because she reported him for weighing his potatoes in the kitchen (he had a fruit n veg biz) while my mother objected to potato dust she was quite happy to skim his till and he'd spend hours puzzling over his accounts, but strangely she never mentioned that to the elders.
she did complain that he never made 'progress' in the ranks though, so maybe their regular visits put pay to any chances he had of being trusted with a mic.
HA! USA must be pretty bad. From my Irish perspective the English elders are very up-tight about alcohol. Much more so than the Irish. If they had a keg at the back of the KH I think the Irish brothers would partake during the meeting (I would). But some of the English elders wont even go out for a beer because they don't want to stuble anyone. I'd imagine the Scottish would be on par with the Irish. Don't know about the Welsh. Wierd bunch there.
I always thought it strange that alchoholism would be counselled but overweight folks weren't counselled for gluttony. That's one of the seven deadly sins, something that God detests. There were people who were so large they were wheelchair bound, they had to have special seating at assemblies, why no counsel there? Not to hi-jack the thread but any former elders out there counsel someone for being overweight?
I think that the elders would be more afraid of a person meeting and talking to unbelievers in a bar rather than the alcohol itself.
If you admit you have a problem, they'll be after you.
Funnily enough, on one of my final discussions with one of our local elders, I was talking privatley with him in his lounge, explaining the issues I was having, and I also mentioned that I was struggling with a drink issue.
Upon my departure, he and his wife were seeing me out of his home, and she said, and I quote...'call anytime, if i"m not drunk'.
That elder then persued me for a formal 2 elder visit a month later about my drinking.
I DA'd. Hypocrites they are!
Shell69
Usually the body of elders takes the wayward brother to the local pub and they discuss his problem over a few pints, as would be true of any clear thinking, civilized group of people.
Oh wait, this is Jehovah's Witnesses
S4
I do know personally a person who went to the elders for help with his drinking, he is no doubt an alcoholic, they told him to stop. gave him 2 weeks or face a judicial committee.
He of course could not stop, not without help and support, so now he drinks secretly with no help and feels guiltier than ever!
Loving organisation
Poppy
I've been out of the tower since 81. I remember back in the 70's most of the elders drank and came to the meetings smelling of alcohol. When ever we would socialize, which we did often back then everything revolved around beer and alcohol. I do miss that part. But it was a growing faze.
I guess none of us realized we were all medicating and were functioning alcoholics.
After I left the tower I met a few people who didnt medicate, but over all most people I know medicate in some way, Beer, whiskey, wine, doobich.
Many humans are miserable so they medicate.
In fact its time for me to go have a couple of pints now.
likely like the elders do in the states..........draw another pint and talk it over . Being a (discreet) drunk has always been one of the few hobbies a JW could get away with.
~Hill
