Hi Insomniac,
I can agree that some elders fit the description you give, but I also feel that many elders are good people doing their best.
Ridiculous bunch of old men who somehow, with high-school educations at best, felt that they were superior both morally and mentally to every other person on the planet.
In my Hall, we had several well educated elders. One was an electronics engineer. I am an electrical-mechanical engineer. I worked in nuclear power operations as well as research and testing. Neither myself nor most of the elders I knew felt they were superior to others. However, in nearly every Hall, I also knew some assholes.
Guys who believed that any form of sexuality other than missionary position between husband and wife was perverted, trying to tell the rest of us how to live our lives.
Well, in all the JC cases I was involved, as well as the many that were in our files, we never had any discussions with anyone on how to have sex, or what position. However, if you read my Justice Series posted on JWD, you will see that there were some screwy issues and decisions made ... but, I believe that these were less the cause by elders, and more the responsibility of the Watchtower Society.
Men in polyester suits telling me how to dress, how to wear my hair, what parts of my own body I could pierce. And all the while, they thought I was inferior because I was a woman!
I wore wool suits. The only woman I ever talked to "in the back room" was because she smelled like cigarettes - especially when she talked - her breath was like that of a typical smoker. She denied smoking, so I dropped the matter. Most of the "counsel" on how to dress came from Service Meeting talks that were usually directed in the Kingdom Ministry ... the elders, in my opinion, were more the representatives of Watchtower policy then their own ideas.
However, in all the years I was a JW and/or an elder or ministerial servant, I never looked down on women, or thought of them as inferior. Some JW men believe in equality, and some do not. The religion itself teaches dual opposing ideas on this and cause much confusion between equality and the so-called "headship issue. Frankly, even as an elder, I still taught equality in my house, and sought equality with my wife ... and my children, especially my daughters, really stand as equals with any man.
At the same time, I was afraid of drawing too much of their attention, because let's face it, they did control our lives to a large degree.
Elders on average, had no intention of controlling anyone's life. There is another side to this story however. Many times elders get calls from publishers who need help making the smallest decision. If you listen to enough of these "cries for help" they are little more than subtle requests for affirmation. The whole relationship between JWs and elders and the Society is one of emotional and mental dependence on a system of beliefs and the authority of the governing body. All JWs, share in the lunacy to some extent ... and only when we step back and finally leave the religion do we see things for what they are.
I agree that the religion is not healthy and some aspects are even criminal. I do not like how women are viewed and treated by many JW men. I likewise do not like the ever increasing control of every detail of people's lives that the governing body exercises. When I beecame a JW in the late 1960s, it was far more relaxed. BY the early 1990s, when I was leaving, it was far more controlling. So, I can only imagine it is even worse today.
Jim W.
