The contrast between the two genetic brothers who were elders was not unnoticed by the congregation. One old sister told me: "I would trust OB with my life, but I wouldn't trust Roy with my lawnmower." Yet, Roy was easily more likable, more approachable, although defensive. His most common expression, spoken with hands in a "stop" gesture was: "Don't get me wrong!" Roy easily went off on tangents. How many harebrain ideas didn't make it through OB's filter, we will never know. But if they did, they didn't make it past Brother P.
For the 1975 District Convention Roy had received an assignment to "Administration", a DA department head. This got a strange reaction. Walking toward me, arms flailing, I could see he wanted to talk. "This is simony! Another brother and I laid carpet in the circuit overseer's travel trailer and now we're both department heads. How many black department heads are there? I want my due, but not this way! I'm gonna call the Society. TMS, I'm serious." I listened.
Later that day Brother P walked up: "Did you hear that silliness Roy was spouting? I nipped that nonsense in the bud and sent him to you. I know you did, too." "Yeah," I fibbed.
In 1976 two more white elders, brothers-in-law, transferred in. Both had agendas and stayed just over two years. One later admitted his goal was to be appointed elder and go back to his former congregation. In that he succeeded. The other had bigger fish to fry. Lets call him Brother D.
The elder body had now swelled to 11 members or as Brother P said "10 elders and one resident circuit overseer." Brother D prefaced nearly every statement with "The Society says". He was a walking authoritarian and my nemesis for over twenty years in two congregations. Although I was normally laid back, Brother D brought out the worst in me. I had to match his firepower.
Accidentally, one of the elders found to have a "Playboy" type magazine in his work truck. Or as Brother D put it: "A matter has come to the attention of the elders." Brother D had already taken the liberty of going to the circuit overseer or said he had. "The CO said this is "por'neia." "Bullwacky!" was the gist of my response. "That would make it a disfellowshipping offense or grounds for divorce. That's ridiculous.' We went round and round. Finally, I found the references distinguishing between uncleanness, loose conduct and porneia. Getting no where I framed a letter to the Society to get something in print. Still, the damage had been done. The brother "stepped down", moved and was never appointed again.
At a circuit assembly in 1978 Brother P mentioned something weird. He said he had woken up at midnight, showered and dressed, come down to the assembly sight to be greeted by the security guard. He told the guard that he had a talk to give. The security guard told him that it was 2 am. Within two weeks, Brother P was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
The East elders HAD to do SOMETHING. Brother D, although a grandstander, was a man of action. He rented a private plane and flew Brother P and several elders to a specialist in Dallas, Texas. Same diagnosis.
OB gave the funeral talk stoically, with tears streaming down his face. Several years earlier, OB had become a beer truck driver. After seeing him take no heat, Brother P followed suit. Dozens of Brother P's customers were at the funeral. Probably 400 people were in the little hall. I overheard the funeral director say: "I can't believe the obituary was so small for such a great man."
OB now became the spiritual leader of the congregation, the role model. He continued to cover for his brother Roy. If Roy was late for a talk, OB started the Watchtower. If Roy failed to show, OB gave one of his. OB was also rising through the ranks of his secular job. He hired a number of brothers as drivers. By 1980 OB began to miss meetings, sometimes just rushing in to handle the Watchtower Study, then leaving.
Then no meetings at all. Dissassociation and divorce.
Roy approached me. He and the other brothers had been thinking about the Presiding Overseer position. Would I consider it?
Several other elders went the route of OB. Would they have taken that course if Brother P were still alive? Possibly.
In 1983 I took my family on a two week vacation to the Pacific Northwest. I had been gone 22 years. I didn't recognize the East Congregation on my return. Roy had whipped the group into a spiritual frenzy. All the elders and ministerial servants were auxiliary pioneering, except me. The Service Meeting schedules I had written before departing had all been changed. "You know the Service Overseer should give these parts!" Roy said. The ministerial servants handling magazines and literature had been replaced with sisters. "They weren't doing their job." The Kingdom Hall entrance was now locked at the start of the meeting, forcing latecomers to go to the back door. Seating was done in a specific order, no exceptions. And on and on.
Pioneering had become sort of an all day elders meeting with Roy as the chairman. He was shaping up the congregation, almost singlehandedly. He saw what was impeding progress and that scapegoat was me.
That Sunday an elder gave a talk with a subtheme: "Some Say the East Will Never Amount to Anything. They Are Wrong." I couldn't make heads or tails of the talk, until a young sister told me: "He's talking about you!"
Brother W met me at the door: "They don't know what they're doing. They're young."
A citywide meeting was arranged in 1989. Brother D was now City Overseer. At the Circuit Overseer's direction, they were now dealing with the "East situation." New territories boundaries would be agreed upon and a new Kingdom Hall built. A new Central Congregation would be formed. Roy and Brother D were on the committee to make the changes. When the new elder bodies were formed, one brother was pulled out of territory to be in the new congregation. Me. I respectfully declined.
The new hall was state of the art, with circuit overseers quarters. The new congregation paid have of the mortgage with the other city congregations picking up the other half. That half was 6 times the mortgage on the old hall.
In 1993 the departing circuit overseer tossed me a theocratic cookie on his departure. Would I conduct Pioneer Service School? He knew my son's DFing was about to be announced pending appeal. It was a sympathetic gesture. The "school" was at the new Central Kingdom Hall. The place was nice. Many of the same faces. The elder body was predominantly white with one elder from the old East. The place seemed sanitized, without soul.
Just before I left the state in 1995, my wife and I ran into Brother W and his wife at the mall. Brother W was an elder again, this time in a white congregation. He knew our son had been reinstated and that we were not attending meetings. Brother W pulled me aside. "I just finished serving on a judicial committee. The brothers wanted to disfellowship this young girl for having a baby out of wedlock. I held out. I told them disfellowsipping ain't gonna do that girl any good.! They're just young brothers."
Yeah.
TMS