First I need to acknowledge the kind thoughts from: Winston Smith, Blondie, Double Edge, Frannie Banannie, SheilaM, Scully, Panda (six at the wedding??? That just sucks!), ascot, Elsewhere (yes...I'm guilty as charged), refiner's fire, LeslieV, Tinkerbell4125, Shotgun, berylblue and CruithneLaLuna! Thank you for your responses. All this has caused me immense happiness and I had to get up after reading all these posts and do my happy dance.
Panda...as to your comment "grey cells aging"...boy do I know about that one! Every new grey hair I get means one more brain cell has bit the dust. And oh my...have I got A LOT of grey hair.
puttytat...seems to me I sense some jealousy on the part of some members of this board that we are harboring such fine Watchtower material! (Maybe we could get a good price for it on E-Bay???) You've got a point there...a lot of that old stuff is coming back to haunt them. Maybe we should treat this material as we would a box of dy-no-mite...and keep it dry and safe in case we need it in our future pursuit of exposing the society for what they really are and not what they want others to believe they are.
And now...I would like to add a few tidbits to my story that started this thread that in my haste to get the story down before my computer turned itself off (some may say a sign that God is trying to shut me up??) that I didn't mention.
I hope you all don't mind me using you as cheap psychiatric care...unloading this stuff feels soooooooo good!
At one time after we perceived that the elders were failing in their duties to get our son's fiance on the baptism wagon (she had been wanting to be baptized for over a year or more and they kept putting off the questions, etc. and ignoring her. She was not from a family related to the Big Guys and so on and so forth), my husband approached our PO and asked about her progress toward's baptism. He quickly gathered his trusty sidekick, brotherkissthepo'sa**, and cornered my husband (who asked to have our son go in with him but was denied) in the backroom (the infamous interrogation/torture chamber) and proceeded to tell him that it was "none of his business" and then ranted and raved and yelled at my husband for almost 45 minutes. All this witnessed by the aforementioned brotherkissthepo'sa**. Now in our minds...this was what is commonly referred to as a "fit of anger" which I don't think is supposed to be shown by elders. The brother present witnessing this outburst even told another elder friend of my husband's about this fit of anger. Low and behold though, when this came up in one of our many discussions about what had happened with the wedding...the fit of anger had now turned into "righteous indignation." How convenient. What a load of crapola.
I did leave out the part of a half-hearted attempt at an apology to the kids. Two months after the wedding, after my husband had talked with the DO about the situation...he apparently urged or commanded the elders in the Stevens Point congregation (he let the Plover elders off the hook) to apologize to the kids for bungling the situation. So one Sunday morning after the meeting, without any foreknowledge or time to prepare for this momentous occasion, our two kids (now happily married) were ushered into the second school and surrounded by all the elders...apologized to with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. What a crock! The kids were caught off guard and didn't know what to say. The PO attempted to counsel the kids, but was shut down by another elder. So much for genuine repentance.
Now don't you think if they sincerely felt sorry for what they did, they would make reparation's to ALL involved in this dastardly deed? No...none of the families were ever apologized to. The congregation was left in the dark about what really went on...no talk was given to undo the damage done by the unscriptural "marking" talk. They walked away smelling like roses when my son's reputation had been left laying in the mud. They also did not show any "works befitting repentance"...the couple was avoided by the elders and have never once been invited to any elder's home for a meal or any other social activity. Hmfffffffffffffffffff!!!!!!! (But in actuality...this is a very good thing, but hurtful to them).
Also...to show how bad the Stevens Point congregation was even before this happened... Not soon after the wedding fiasco, the society brought in three new elders to replace our PO and take over control of the congregation. When we asked these new elders if anything was going to be done about what these elders had done...the reply was that they were there to "Rehabilitate and refurbish" the elders and what was past was past!! We should try to be more forgiving. Needless to say...the new elders were almost immediately our other elder's new best friends! I guess birds of a feather do really flock together!
And furthermore...the week after no one would attend our son's wedding...some of the elders attended a "worldly" wedding of a couple whose mother was a witness in the Plover congregation. They had been living together (OH MY) and were having a full-blown Lutheran service...tho not in a church. These elders and their wives had no qualms about attending this wedding/reception. The next month, in October, just about every single elder from Point and Plover attended a huge wedding down in Madison where underage drinking was rampant, the music was questionable (whatever that means) and there was body passing during the dancing (including the bride!). All these elders who morally could not attend my son's wedding participated in this drunken, out-of-control wedding reception. We left early because it was so unbelievable. Is that a double standard or what?
Oh boy oh boy...guess I had better shut up now. But I think I've gotten most of it out. I apologize profusely for my moaning and complaining, but after 4 years I needed to unload this on someone other than my poor hubby. I know I could even add more to this; but you've probably heard it all before and worse; otherwise you wouldn't be here now would you???
Gotta go...my domestic duties are calling me. Hope you all have spectacular days! Cathy L.
