Why do CO's refuse to strip Elders of their position?

by Tenacious 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Anna Marina
    Anna Marina

    Tenacious - sent you a PM

  • jwfacts
    jwfacts
    Because most CO's don't have the balls to do anything.

    This has a lot to do with it. When my father was a quite new as a CO he removed a number of Elder’s, a lot to do with domestic violence. The previous CO knew of the accusations but was afraid to do anything, particularly since in many of the congregations the elders were related and would back each other up.

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney
    This has a lot to do with it. When my father was a quite new as a CO he removed a number of Elder’s, a lot to do with domestic violence. The previous CO knew of the accusations but was afraid to do anything, particularly since in many of the congregations the elders were related and would back each other up.

    There was a guy in a neighboring congregation whose father was an uber elder PO. The kid led the model JW life, baptized at 12, pioneer at 17, MS at 18, Bethel at 19. After two or three years at Bethel he abruptly left, purportedly to "serve where the need was greater," but he kind of dropped off the radar not too long after that.

    Fast forward about 10 years and I found him on Facebook and his page made clear he was no longer a JW. I reconnected with him and it turns out what led to his awakening was an incident with this father. His father, the uber elder, had been beating his wife. Finally the Bethelite got up the courage to tun him in to the elder body. The elders did nothing. The father remained as PO.

    This started getting him thinking how the organization could possibly be run by holy spirit, he gave himself permission to think critically, and that was the beginning of the end.

    This elder was one of the cruelest men I've ever known. He led the judicial committee that disfellowshipped a good friend of mine. I was a witness at this JC and when he told me they were going to disfellowship him, he had a giant smirk on his face. I'll never forget that look.

  • FedUpJW
    FedUpJW

    Why do you believe Elders are so protected?

    My belief is that it is because they have for so long, and so loudly, proclaimed "we are appointed by Holy Shit Spirit that they are afraid that identifying and correcting any except the most blatant impossible to deny brazen conduct will cause the average low IQ dub to suspect there really is no holy spirit guiding the men running things.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot
    Tenacious - "Why do COs refuse to strip Elders of their position?"

    From what we've been hearing more and more these days, there's hardly any of the compassionate ones left, and they're scraping the bottom of the barrel more and more just to find guys just willing to take the job in the first place.

    What other option is left?

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney
    they're scraping the bottom of the barrel more and more just to find guys just willing to take the job in the first place.

    When I was a child in the 80s, there was a caste of professional ministerial servants in my congregation and in neighboring congregations. These were men who had been faithful, but who weren't particularly skilled or respected. The vast majority weren't really interested in being elders. A few did, but they were usually the type of men who didn't seem to be made of "elder material."

    In the mid-90s, these men started getting promoted to elder. The first guy was a professional MS who'd been badly wanting to be an elder for a long time. I seriously believe his IQ was barely above mentally retarded. Nice guy, but incredibly dim-witted. Before long, the old elder group of the 80s had largely been replaced with this new crop. A lot of the 80s elders burned out. Some developed health problems. Others had dysfunctional families that caused them to be removed from the position.

    By the time I left in the early 00s, the elder body had become a joke. It completely lacked the gravitas that the body had in the 80s. After I left, I started learning that they were elevating just about any male with a pulse. Guys who'd just been hanging around the KH for years leading double lives were being elevated first to MS then to elders. The only criteria seemed to be a pulse, regularly reporting time in field service, and no recent judicial action.

    I thought it couldn't get any worse, but it somehow did.

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    FED UP JW:

    I tend to agree with what you said: that the religion is also afraid of correcting any mistake for fear the average JW will wake up and see the whole thing is not led by holy spirit.

    I guess it’s all about keeping the charade going!..But, at this stage of the game with what everybody knows, I cannot imagine anybody actually believing anything ‘holy’ is behind this. At least not now..I know I heard stories of JWs who swear they received divine help during WWII...

    Would a righteous God expect people to stick around and have ruined lives on the whims of other earthly men?? Sorry, but I can’t buy it.

  • zeb
    zeb

    what will be the wt/gb action against those who were named to the CARC/ British Commission of Inquiry/ The Canadian class action and the Conti case and the $34,000,000 pay out case earlier this year in the US. ?

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot
    LongHairGal - "I tend to agree with what you said: that the religion is also afraid of correcting any mistake for fear the average JW will wake up and see the whole thing is not led by holy spirit."

    Ironic, really.

    Doubling down on the screw-ups just to save face still can't help but come back and bite them on the ass that much harder when the time comes.

    Makes our job that much easier. :smirk:

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    Reinforces something, too; that the leadership really are True Believers...

    ...because basing virtually all policy decisions on...

    a) ...blind confidence that God's got their back no matter what, and...

    b) ...firm belief that any minor mistakes made don't really matter because the Armageddon's gonna drop any day now and bail them out...

    ...is exactly the kind of tactical blunder full-on True Believers would make.

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