by Hope4Others 21 Replies latest jw friends
I use to, well I still do think its no better than the confession idea to a priest.
1. How many elders step down and are removed and what then?
2. How many people have access to the file cabinet?
3. My biggest thought is How many that are no longer elders repeat the dirty little secrets?
Has anyone ever thought about that?
hope4others
I don't think it really matters whether the elder has stepped down or been removed. In my old hall I heard all the juicy gossip both in my own hall and several of the surrounding halls.
I have never known anyone as gossipy as some of the local elders. The more lurid the details the quicker the word got around. And no, I didn't hear it from elders wives, I heard practically no gossip from the wemmin. I heard it when the elders would spill all the details to my active, but not even a MS husband.
Honestly, those elders could not keep there mouths shut and apparently there was nothing anyone could do about it. Looking back, I don't see how I managed to have any respect for those men at all, but somehow, I did.
Me!!!
They are just men. NOT God.
momz
I used to wonder how bad did you have to be to need to have to go the elders about it. In other words, at what point do you need to assemble a team to ask for god to forgive you?
I should not have confessed my sins to the elders at all. Thanks to the Watchtower making me feel guilty!
1. How many elders step down and are removed and what then?
As mentioned, it doesn't matter that they resign as elders. They can start telling others
while they are elders. Basically, any discussion one elder has with a member, if he
feels that he can get advice or just wants to share a juicy story, he tells the whole
body, then someone tells someone outside the body. It gets around.
2. How many people have access to the file cabinet?
That's just the elders from the one congregation. While the lock is easy to pick or
might be left open, it's pretty paranoid to assume anyone goes into the cabinet to dig
up dirt on you (exception for investigators for a divorce/custody suit). I never heard of
publishers rummaging through the cabinet. All the elders get to read what's there and
even they don't bother to look.
3. My biggest thought is How many that are no longer elders repeat the dirty little secrets?
I am not sure what you are getting at. My concern after they reminded me that elders can
commit sins that are not widely known and be repentant when it comes to light years later, is
that this encouraged elders to keep their dirty little secrets and STAY ELDERS.
Hubby and I were in a car group one morning with 2 Elders, they began discussing a JC meeting they had had the evening before with a sister... and I'm thinking....
I shouldn't be hearing any of this...
Didn't seem to bother them tho.........I personally wouldn't want to mention anything to them, there's no way to guarantee anything would remain confidential.
Cas
I was an elder that moved away, but my wife's family was still in the old congregation.
Years later, I am visiting. I am an elder in another congregation and I am with a
couple of elders from the old cong. They start telling me about the JC for my
in-law (something I would not be involved in because of family even if I was there still).
So now I knew the whole situation. At an elder's meeting, they are not supposed
to reveal details- only the charge and the outcome. That rarely happens. It certainly
doesn't happen when elders meet outside the backroom.
1. How many elders step down and are removed and what then? I have no comment on this one.
2. How many people have access to the file cabinet? Probably depends on each individual congregation. I remember in the 70's that my brother and I would snoop thru my dad's briefcase. We found a few things. Some were fairly juicy but I don't recall the specifics.
3. My biggest thought is How many that are no longer elders repeat the dirty little secrets? A friend I grew up with became an elder. I was surprised at how much and how easily he shared sensitive information with his friends (me included).
JWD poster 'Confession' had a problem with this concept, too. He's written much about it from his very first post - where he didn't want to engage in apostate rhetoric.
I 'confessed' one time. It was when I was pioneering. BIG mistake. Although no judicial committee was formed (I hadn't given all details), it sure made things uncomfortable in the presence of the elder. Especially when he would ask me in front of others how things were going.
-Aude.
otwo: My biggest thought is How many that are no longer elders repeat the dirty little secrets
Its not the sins of the elders, its the personal things about the people in the congregation that have come forth with sins. Also if any elders who
have been removed or become embittered, disfellowshipped or whatever reason there is nothing to prevent them them from repeating things they
know about the people to anyone, whether witnesses, work mates etc.
hope4others
