Here is part 3
My congregation is one that is filled with mainly older people. Many have been in the truth 50-70 years. People who were little kids in the congregation in 1945 and received a copy of “The Kingdom is at Hand” and also remember the “Let God Be True” books when they were current. Here is how they are treated and what some are doing/saying now.
At the Watchtower Study yesterday, in one of the paragraphs in the middle of the study, the whole study was related to faith, one elderly Sister made the following comment: “My Mother and Father (both of the anointed, by the way) were in great expectation of the end coming at any moment back when they were alive. They could smell the fire/smoke and the end of everything. That’s how I was raised. We were told that the end is upon us. Now, 80-85 years later, we are still here. We know that none of that happened. We don’t know when it will happen, and are still waiting.” Her meaning I think was that we all have faith and are still waiting. The Watchtower conductor (the Bethelite) just put his head down, shook it slightly and didn’t say a word other than “Thank You”. I thought to myself, it’s the truth. Who can really say anything? Apparently it is bothering some of these people so much they can’t hold it in any longer. Many in the congregation think the same.
I over hear a lot in the KH just walking around after the meeting and listening. A Brother I know is in the truth his entire life. He has white hair and is no longer a spring chicken. He was an elder for many years. He just decided to stop being an elder due to several things, the main one being his health. The elders won’t talk to him anymore. Only one or two of them say hello periodically. He gave a great five minute talk up-front in the school recently. After the meeting, the school overseer was doing the counsel and asked the Brother if he did the “exercise”. This Brother was giving talks before there were any exercises, or the school overseer was in the truth. The school overseer told him “you will have to work on the point again if you didn’t do the exercise”. The Brother said that he did the exercise and they moved on. If I was to do the counsel with a Brother who had this much experience, I would have just thanked him for doing the talk, and marked him “good” on the point. A little respect please for someone that has been around the truth that long (about 65 years). Please don’t talk to him like a child. Talk about being put to the curb.
Here is a good one. The Coordinator (speaks English very, very poorly) got up on the platform a short while ago at the beginning of the service meeting and read a letter. We were all looking at one another not knowing really what he said. I did pick up something about extra money for the Society. At the end of what he read he spoke for a few seconds. A few people raised their hands. This was insufficient. So he repeated what he had previously said. Apparently, this was put to a vote for the second time. Many more people put up their hands. A pioneer Sister that is a friend, sent me a message on my phone, “What did we just vote for?” I didn’t know. I asked my wife. She wasn’t sure, and thought some kind of expenses. After the meeting, I asked around and was told that it was to add some additional money to the monthly amount being sent to the Society. The people that I talked to couldn’t tell me exactly what it was for. Obviously, they passed the course on jibberish and could understand some of it. I didn't. This is a good way to get money though. Nobody knew what they were doing.
A sister that I know very well, since she was a young girl, is now married and has been faithful in the truth for over 50 years. She told me that she wouldn’t talk to the elders about anything and wanted to speak with me. I am the only person (male) that she can trust. I told her okay. She went into a rant and indicated that she is furious that she “signed-on” when she was young and was told that if she wasn’t baptized she would die when Armageddon comes. Almost everything that that she was taught and heard at the meetings about the “end” didn’t happen. No one knows when the “end” will come. Jesus said he didn’t know when it would be. How would the Watchtower? It was guaranteed to her that the “end” is coming now (this is 50 years ago). Now in 2015, she and everyone else is supposed to be “in expectation of it”. She told me that she has had enough. She can’t listen to anymore speculation on the “time of the end”. She has been told for half a century that it is coming at any minute. Don’t get educated, or do anything to improve your life because it will all be over soon, etc. I am giving you the short version of this. It was rough. I calmed her down. She really feels betrayed but is okay now. I am sure that there are many more that feel the same as she does. She is a good person.
I have more to relate and will do so in following posts.