DONNYE:
You raise a very good point and I have asked myself that question. Are your secrets and confidences safe with JW elders and ministerial servants in the event they no longer continue in their position or even in the religion? We all know in the Catholic Church people confess their 'sins' to the priest in a confessional. Generally speaking though, a priest is a priest for life and any gossipping he does is to other priests so it is 'contained'.
However, in the JW religion a very different situation exists. For one thing, any Tom, Dick and Harry can become an elder or ministerial servant. They can be removed or step down. They have no professional training and feel NO sense of professional 'duty' the way an attorney or a physician would have towards a client or patient. They can go out for drinks and blab something they should not and in addition are notorious for telling their wives things. Then these same wives get on the phone and tell all their busybody friends, many of whom are pioneers. They do the most gossipping about everybody in their car groups. Since they have the mentality that it is one big club (but a nasty club) their consciences DON'T bother them when they blab personal business.
So, what was initially said in confidence to one person, can become known to dozens of people who can tell others and so on.
In the JW world you have NO expectation of privacy, no matter what they claim. Your secrets are at the mercy of such men's discretion, assuming they even have any.
