TOPIC OF PART 5: “Loopholes and the Good Ol’ Boy Network” is my topic. I discussed how if a guy that shows up at Kingdom Hall every week and wears a suit and doesn’t drool all over himself and his daddy is an elder they will soon promote him up the ranks. Also I talk about the loophole in the Elder’s Shepherd book (KS10) on page 38 that states the following:
“If it comes to light or an appointed brother confesses that he has committed a disfellowshipping offense years in the past the body of elders may determine he can continue to serve if the following is true: The immorality or other wrongdoing occurred more than a few ago, and he is genuinely repentant, recognizing that he should have come forward immediately when he sinned. (Perhaps he has even confessed to his sin} seeking help with his guilty conscience.) He has been serving faithfully for many years, has evidence of God’s blessing, and has the respect of the congregation.”
I actually saw this happen when a elder confessed that he committed fornication with his wife prior to their being married several years before. A more experienced elder promptly cited the “loophole” portion of the elder book and he was let off free as a bird, whereas if he was a publisher he would have had his privileges taken away and everyone would know he did something naughty. It further reinforces that fact that these JW men that are made MS’s and elders are often ruled by their “holy spear” and not Holy Spirit!
—– We Interrupt this Description for the Following Reminder! —–
If you want to contribute to the struggle directly using PayPal click below to help. There are a number of expenses incurred and I have a couple projects I want to develop and will be able to do so when I accumulate enough funds to do so:
http://www.jwstruggle.com/2012/10/contributing-to-the-struggle/
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THIS SERIES: I have been thinking about making this video for a while now. I initially thought I could do this in one video, but I was very much mistaken! My goal in talking about what I saw and experienced while serving as a JW elder is to simply relate what I witnessed in the many back-room meetings with elders, publishers, circuit overseers, etc.
I did not want to use the names of any of the publishers / former JWs that I dealt with during those ten years. We had only 3-4 elders on our body and over 100 publishers nearly the entire time, so I estimate I gave about 3,000 parts from the platform (As MS and elder) and sat on easily 200+ judicial meetings. These covered the following sins and situations:
1. Cheating on wives
2. Cheating on husbands
3. Getting drunk in private
4. Getting drunk in public
5. Single and engaged people “fooling around”
6. Smoking cigarettes
7. Smoking marijuana
8. Gossip and slander
9. Working for a church or “disapproved” business
10. Causing divisions and/or problems in the congregation
I did not encounter any cases of pedophilia during my time as elder, however as a Ministerial Servant I was tangentially involved in one case, and neighboring congregations had this problem at least twice that I knew of when I was an elder. We had to do a conference call with the Service Department a couple of times and also we had some run ins with rogue traveling overseers more than once.
I do not know at this time how many parts I will have in this series- it depends on how much comes tumbling out as I recollect these experiences.
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