Has anyone else experienced something like this?
In my mother-in-law's congregation a special pioneer was recently moved to the congregation and he gave a talk where he said he and the other elders felt there was a bad spirit in the congregation and there must be something going on that is preventing Jehovah's holy spirit from operating properly. But he didn't state explicity what the problem might be and now gossip is rife in the congregation about whether there might be a sinner or a traitor in their midst.
For many this is just the excuse they need to gossip and bad mouth others. And it seems everyone must have a theory about what the problem is at risk of allowing their silence on the issue to incriminate themselves. Talk about a witch hunt! It's ridiculous.
And let's face it, considering the multitude of rules Witnesses have, there must be hardly anyone who can claim to be totally "blameless" from some infraction of the rules. So on the one hand you probably have the self-righteous ones pointing the finger over all sorts of minor issues, and on the other hand lots of insecure people may be worried that they will be "found out". In fact it seems some in the congregation are gossiping about my mother-in-law and her "friendship" with a worldly neighbour. She probably has a mixture of feelings, being worried that others think she is the source of the "bad spirit" and also perhaps some insecurity because she thinks it may actually be true and she really is to blame for Jehovah's disaproval.
I have certainly heard of the idea of a congregation having a "bad spirit" before, and the general idea about Jehovah holding people collectively responsible in some sense, but I had never heard of such a specific instance where this teaching was used to instigate an actual witch-hunt style paranoia in a congregation. Do you think it is a sort of campaign that is sanctioned from further up, or are the local elders likely creating havoc all on their own?