Joannadandy,
And you didn't respond to my point that they believe they have christs authority, to make people cry, shun them, break up familes, etc. Trust me I am not condoning what they do in any shape or form at all, I am just saying, people do crazy crap in the name of religion when they think they are doing it the "right" way and have God's approval. Threfore to say that "knowing what they knew" they should have left is really kind of moot. I don't think they even "knew" what they knew.
This is where I'm coming from: If a Federal Judge continually breaks the law the very law he has condemned others for breaking, he is a hypocrite. And if some little person comes along and tells him, "it's not right that you hold others to the letter of the law but not yourself", that little person is not judging him since he is not a judge. He is just speaking the truth.
When we say that an Elder, CO, DO or GB member violated the commandment of Jesus, to love their brother (the only commandment Jesus gave that must be held to if one is to claim to be his disciple!), we are not acting as judges since we have no power over them we are only speaking what we know to be true.
Again, for the most part in this thread I have been referring to those men who saw their brothers viciously trampled upon in some way and then remained publicly silent. Yes, there were reasons for this and I think Path summed up the reasons quite well but it still remains a wrong.
If a man gets robbed of his life's savings and in his anger then proceeds to stab the thief to death, the thief caused the anger but the man is still guilty of murder. There is a reason or cause for every action but not a valid or lawful excuse for every action. The JW shepherds were required to be just that shepherds of the sheep, a hiding place and a place of protection. Instead many of them were only playing a part because to let a lowly person suffer rather than to risk sanctions from others is not being a shepherd of God's people.
I am not condemning these men I am just stating what I feel is true. Non of us are without fault, we all make mistakes and have done things we regret. Sometimes though, some xJWs who were in high positions in the Org. act a little self-righteous and are now full of negative information about the Watchtower and full of experiences of bad things done to others in the Watchtower, and full of indignation that such bad things could be going on there etc. and they open their bowels to us and tell us about all these bad things they have seen and heard.
The only problem with that is: the reason why many of them know about all these many bad things is because they saw them and heard about them for years, sometimes many years, but kept publicly silent until the time came when they had to or chose to leave.
You are right of course, the brothers in the Org. are taught they are following what is true religious authority, an authority they feel is given them from God. Jesus though did not excuse the religious leaders of his day for doing what they did to the lowly people just because they thought they were God's gift to mankind. No, rather he condemned them even more because they used that authority to, in God's name, rip open their brother whenever he did not kowtow to their every little word and rule.
As far as these brothers "knowing what they knew", some of them "know" very well what is going on. A very good example of this is what a PO once told me. I asked him why it is that some brothers who give talks etc. do not themselves do what the Society instructs or recommends in those talks yet they tell others to so? His reply was that the brothers follow the Outlines sent by the Society, it does not mean though that what they say from the platform is something they themselves practice it's just what the Outline or KM article is telling them to teach nothing more. This he said in support of all brothers and the Watchtower! He is loyal to the Watchtower and he sees nothing contradictory or unloving or unChristian in a man standing up as a shepherd and telling the congregation to do this or that and yet not do it himself! I was flabbergasted, I could not believe what I was hearing. I had great respect for this brother but after this little revelation I lost all respect for him. He is a prominant elder in our area and has given many talks in Circuit and District Conventions, too bad "integrity" is not a quality included on the Speech Counsel Slip! He though, is not the kind of person I was referring to in the initial post of this thread since he "sees" and approves of hypocrisy, I was instead speaking about those who "see" and do not approve, a much better place to be in, imo. You are right in saying though that there are brothers who do not "know" and who do what they do sincerely thinking that they are doing what God requires and what Jesus would have wanted them to do.
There are many brothers in high positions in the Org. who are very similar to some of their counterparts in the xJW world. They "see", do not approve, but they wait and remain silent. They are not shepherds nor are they disciples of Christ, they are cowards and as Path said taught to be cowards by their religion.
There is no dishonor in having once been a coward there is only dishonor in dying as one.
IW
