How many judicial cases did you serve on, in how many years as an elder? Feel free to talk about the cases too.
Elders and former elders: Judicial cases how often?
by A question 19 Replies latest jw friends
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HarryMac
I, too, would be curious to know approximately how many per year on average.
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blondie
How many each congregation
1) it depends on your congregation, size, urban, rural
2) on the mindset of the elder body
then, individual elders
1) elders can back off of being assigned
2) some elders are eager to be assigned
3) perceived mature abilities of individual elders
4) elders may not be considered due to family or business relationships to the accused
One elder I knew was assigned to only 2 JCs in 5 years in an urban congregation of 120 publishers
Also some bodies don't or didn't pursue JCs with people unless pushed by public revelations or being pushed by jws with "pull"
As to any "details," what do you hope to learn from them that could benefit you or others in a similar circumstance?
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HarryMac
2) some elders are eager to be assigned
I never thought it through very much. Icky to realize that, yup, that must be true.
Good times,... good times.
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Jen2013
I also have some questions. I would like to know if there is a psychological support or help group for those Witnesses who lost family members due to not allowing them blood transfusions or due to refusing blood transfusions. How does the Watchtower support those people who lost a kid or a baby? That is such a pain to loose a loved one because of this rule. I wonder how life can go on, after such a loss? I wonder how life can go on, after parents are deciding for their child to not get a life supporting blood transfusion? Are there any psychological help groups that are qualified and funded by the Watchtower? Has it for example happened that a young kid lost its only parent and became an orphan? If so, who supports the kid? The Watchtower or the wicked worldly people? I just wonder how those people manage to live their life after such a forced death of family members and friends? Does the Watchtower in general take part in some sort of funded social and caring activities, as other churches do? If not, they should not talk all the time of other people outside the Watchtower as being "the wicked wordly people", because those wordly people are those who care.
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finally awake
The WTBTS does not provide any sort of help or support for members who have lost someone due to the blood doctrine. It is left entirely up to the individual publishers to support each other, and generally that means the bereaved are left to recover on their own. Any "help" given by elders is simply to exhort the bereaved to "study, pray, go in field service, make all the meetings"
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XBEHERE
Total in my career probably around 20-25. For many different reasons: porneia, stealing, apostasy (yes the irony doesnt escape me) I always try to avoid them if at all possible. As Blondie stated it does depend on the cong. and all the mentioned factors. In my first cong as elder there were very few cases. Went to one with a core bunch of tween/teens and bam! porneia, abhorrent pornography, even an orgy of teeneagers inexplicably allowed to have a sleep over at someones home.. lol Honestly lots of normal teenager things.
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sosoconfused
I personally upon the time I steped away was on 9. The congretgation had close to twenty cases. The funny thing is I knew of a number of people who should have had one formed but - I didn't feel like harassing people who were already depressed and trying to make it day to day.
It seemed that our circuit overseer was hellbent on getting them resolved quickly but we just could not because poeple kept doing things that are juducial committee material and not knowing it at the time.
We had 3 committees for people looking at porn. Two were for masturbators who felt guilty. Foul Language, drinking and marijuana. Smoking the list goes on.
These were issues that they could have resolved themselves so I said, "Look just go home and opray for Jehovah to help you... unfortnately they still felt they needed the elders to help them.
One mentioned that I told them to just pray about it and then the CO went off on me.
I laughed and walked out, moved to another hall and stopped serving.
The committees will continue
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Oubliette
I didn't formally keep count, but I estimate I served on 40-60 JCs over 20 years. Sometimes we'd go a year or more without a single JC, but then we might have three or four going simultaneously.
The JCs I served on dealt with pretty tame stuff compared to what other have already mentioned: there was the typical underage drinking, use of marijuana, and sex "sins." Among the adults we dealt with alcoholism, adultery, and "fornication." One case involved a single woman in her late 60s that confessed to giving someone (not a congregation member) a blowjob. All the elders looked at each other with a WTF expression on our faces!!! "Who'd she do?"
We never dealt with any apostates while I was an elder and fortunately never dealt with any pedophiles.
In retrospect, I look back with much regret because I realize there are basically two very serious problems with the JW judicial process:
- In the vast majority of these cases, elders are dealing with matters that are frankly none of their damn business. Most "judicial matters" are trivial things that should not be considered sins and should be private matters for the individual to work out or not.
- In ALL of these matters, the elders are seriously under-qualified to deal with the issues involved. This is particularly disastrous when dealing with actual serious problems such as alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, pedophiles and other serious issues.
Real counselors are highly trained professionals that have many years of education in the particular area in which they specialize. They often have to pass rigorous tests and undergo an internship under the supervision of a more experienced mentor.
The idea that a high school graduate (hopefully) that works as a janitor can be "qualified" to help people deal with serious issues and problems such as these by attending an "Elder School" lasting a few hours and reading a few pages of the secret "Elders' Manual" -- well that idea is just ludicrous. It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that these men do so much damage to so many people.
Some elders mean well, but that does not make them qualified.
I know I was one of those. I am in need of forgiveness from a lot of people. Sadly, it doesn't look like I'll ever be able to apologize to them.
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NeonMadman
We had 3 committees for people looking at porn. Two were for masturbators who felt guilty. Foul Language, drinking and marijuana. Smoking the list goes on.
They form JCs for people who masturbate?