by Black Man 18 Replies latest jw friends
good point, outnfree.
It is political ambition that gets a lot of these cats noticed. The WTS tries to say that since these appointments are prayed over on the congregational level during the CO's meeting with the elders and on an organizational level when they are prayed over at the GB/service committee meetings for recommendations that holy spirit plays a role. Complete and unequivocal BS.
And how many elders who really did care about the individuals in the congregation and do their best to help them ever lasted very long as elders? Not long, I'll vouch.
There was such a guy in Austell, GA years ago. Kind. Considerate. Compassionate. Loving. He hated the way the "sheep skinners" treated the congregation with their constant harping on trivialities, relentless judging, "marking" everyone in sight for the slightest failure, referring to themselves as "glorious ones."
And when this kind and loving brother would use his public talks to insinuate criticism of the way the other elders were treating the sheep, the "glorious ones" would all go APE! He did it through metaphor and parable so that the glorious ones couldn't complain directly about it. Drove them crazy.
In the end he couldn't stand it any longer. When some little old lady who weighed 90 pounds soaking wet was publically chastised for being unable to give up on 50 years of smoking according to their schedule, he turned in his letter, his DA letter. I helped him write it. He sent it to everyone. There was a great exodus not only from that KH when he left, but from the troot, too.
The good ones never stay.
Francois
Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.
Simon, my brother and I were talking about this the other day, and he made the same point you did. He said "where else can a blue collar worker, dress up in a suit, and teach, and lead, and control?" Sure, there are exceptions to that, but most are just exactly that, construction workers, mechanics, and other tradesman, window washers, janitors.........hahahahaha. It's no wonder they love it.
I think the ones who are educated and rise to the top are the ones who will eventually learn the REAL truth. At least that has been our experience. The ones who leave are the ones who are in a position where they need to really study hard, or they just like to read the Bible. Eventually the truth rises to the top, so to speak.
Black Man,
You said:
If I ever get some time I could relate story after story of the downright cut-throat politicking that would go on.
DO find more time, will you?
peace,
todd
Hi Black Man,
You are a real plus to this board; sure glad you're here.
Ray Franz, in one of his books, says that the WTBS really does have a clergy class, just another name. The elders do it for the same reason a lot of clergymen do it (or priestcraft): prominence. Well, at least the clergy get paid! However, they do have to have a higher education.
Maybe it's true in this case: you get what you pay for (hee-hee).
Pat
Couldn't agree more on this topic.
My 18 yr old brother remarked to me last week without prompting:
"You know all those elders in our old congregation. They are only elders because of the ass kissing that goes on. In the real world they are fuckwits. I wouldn't let them sell raffle tickets."
And he is absolutely right. In the town where I was a dub, out of the 3 congs and some 25 elders there were an oddball assortment of unemployed, janitorial, poorly educated assholes. Only one I could think of was really intelligent. And he had been running the show for all 3 congs since before the 1971 elders arrangemnent, when our town had only one cong. Yes one intelligent elder who had a university education who was a successful businessman who was de facto in charge of the other elders. The others on the 3 bodies were too stupid to see what was going on, and still going on today. What does that tell you about the real level of intelligence required to run the show for the big boys. Go figure.
Only in a cult like the dubs could uneducated men be high up the corporate ladder. What is scary is that these men in "executive positions" in the borg are taking their position so seriously. Dispensing psychological advice to people with serious mental health problems, who should really be consulting learned professionals to even begin to sort their lives out, is a case in point.
Further to this is the whole judicial farce. Making life changing decisions on behalf of other people without really having the savvy to think through the long term fall-out from their on the spot Watchtower biased opinions.
The sad fact is that in the real world most elders would not last 10 minutes in the cut and thrust world of modern business at the bottom level (just think of any customer service based job today), much less even getting up to a supervisory level or even a managerial/executive level.
It would actually be quite funny if it were not for the tragic human cost of these elders actions.
Hi Number 6 and pleased to meet you!
Your post was really on target. To have such untrained volunteers making such significant decisions is irresponsible.
What business do they have giving psychological advice, etc.? Once when I talked to a young elder about a problem (because he was my book study conductor) I mentioned I was also seeing a psychologist. His 'answer' was "What does your psychologist say?"
Hope you stick around and add to the board!
Pat
Hi Patio,
Actually you may already have met me as I have been posting sporadically for about 3 months as Mr Angry. Not a name i was please with hence the change.
Thanks for the kudos about the post anyway.
I am not a dub I am a free man.
Black man
I agree that Elders and M.S. are a bunch of suck ups. In one of the local congs.(North Sydney, Nova scotia) a man was made a M.S. about 5/6 yrs ago. He had been baptized about 6 months when the announcement was made. The CO's visit had been a month earlier when "brother new" was put on display (read at bookstudy, talk in mistry school, etc.). the schedule for these meetings had been made at least a month before this. So, in essence the decision to "promote this man had been made when he had been baptized for 4 months at most. There were other more qualified brothers who were passed over as well. Why was it Done? Because brother new spent most of his time chasing the elders and kissing their arses in particular the PO who he became best friends with before he was even an unbaptized publisher. sound familiar, too much so for me .
sawthelight
