I saw this thread referenced recently in another post on the forum. This situation that Palmtree discusses (or one very similar) was mentioned on a recent CA by the DO. He spoke about the need for brothers to step up and get qualified for priviliges.
(Of course - in the US, the problem is all the growth is in the Spanish congregations, where so many of the brothers are illegal. Thus according to WT guidelines, they don't qualify to turn the lights off. So you see a lot of sisters used there from reading WT/Bookstudy to doing the sound/accounts/etc. I have a story about that too - some other time maybe. Anyway, you also have a lot of 'wanna-move-up-fast-in-the-org' brothers from the gringo congregations, moving to Spanish so they can make elder in about a month. So you have these few kiss-ass brothers moving out of the gringo congos into the illegal immigrant congos - which leaves the gringo congos short on bros. And in the end - this throws a big wrench in the WT's bros-before-hos policy.)
But ATJ really captured what this really comes down to with this quote:
No one should kid themselves, privileges = stature = respect = self esteem. And the opposite it is true. No privileges = little to no stature = little to no respect = little to no self esteem.
Yep, I heard a very liberal CO tell me along with an entire BOE something along those lines. This was right after a situation where a BOE was having a pissing contest that resulted in a super nice, humble, 'everybody-liked-him-so-the-other-elders-were-jealous' elder was removed for internal politics. His wife saw that he was set up, and realized then it was all BS, so she left the org right after that. She had a killer job and was educated enough to not put up with that kind of disrespect. So the CO basically told the brothers, 'If you guys don't give respect to publishers and one another - they'll go find it somewhere else.' I love that CO, I know for certain he's a conscious class lifer. Actually out of circuit work now, and PO in a gringo hall - probably one of the few where it would be bearable to attend. But this post - as ATJ made clear - shows the org has elder body after elder body that has no idea how to treat others with respect and dignity.
And because of that, I realize it's just a matter of time before many more publishers, say enough is enough. We don't have to do anything, the org does all that's needed.
