What's up with the limit on posting topics and replies?? Frustrating.
My question has to do with confession. The way I read the literature, it is a suggested practice ~ not a command. The magazines indicated that a person might reason they can just confess to Jehovah because he is the forgiver of sins, but goes on to say that that may not be enough because the person hasn't gotten the spiritual help they need to overcome their sin. However, no where could I find in recent literature that confession to elders was ever required. It is always a strong suggestion. Am I reading it wrong??
The thing I see is that if someone has something they are struggling with, and they slip up ~ the elders are not qualified counselors to help the person examine why they are behaving that way, and to get to the root of it to stop the behavior. It is a very black and white system. There isn't room for people to really resolve their issues.
of course, this comes up because I am currently struggling with some things. And I am working with myself to get to the bottom of the issue ~ but will not be discussing it with the elders or my family or any one else that I might know. I have faded before, and come back. But I think this time, I am going to fade and not come back again. I am enough of a flake and unpredictable enough already at this point that it shouldn't take too long.
I don't mind keeping my opinions to myself, so I don't think I will give myself away. Besides, I think the JWs are probably 80% right about what they teach. But it is that 80/20 principal. It is the 20% that I am not willing to promote or pretend I agree with. They might be right about more than I think. I just wish, that when they were wrong they would say "we were wrong. We have done more studying and here is what we think now" or "Here is our best guess at this time. Future events will bear out if we are correct". I think part of it though too is that if they were that honest, and said that ~ people would FREAK out. People want other people to tell them exactly everything to do, think, or say. And they want definite answers.