Posted by Amazing [Anointed] on November 24, 1999 at 10:24:10 {BlpRHB6gpcFpTAHn5a4EASIIcexUto}:
In Reply to: **Cong.'s may leave Org. posted by Beaver on November 24, 1999 at 06:42:16:
While I am no longer in the organization, I can believe that the Society would refuse to allow Elders to resign. I'll give you three reasons why I believe this to be very possible.
1. I went to KM School for Elders in 1991. The Society instructed us that Elders no longer had to be immediately removed for serious wrong doing if the 'sin' was very private and occurred some time ago. A time frame suggested was 3 years.
The sins included in this new policy are adultery. The reason given is that if an elder had committed adultery a fews years earlier, and it was not known, there is no need to remove him. The KH instructor stated that this is because the Society/Congs were losing a lot of elders and they were trying to prevent that.
One of the other reasons this is also done is if an Elder commits a serious sin, he could resign his position. Then after some time he then confesses his sin and gets seriously disciplined. If he had been disciplined while an elder this would show up upon the recommendation for his removal as an elder and could affect future appointments if he were to move to another Cong. If he resigns first and then gets disciplined, then the record of that discipline remains with the local Cong and does not gfollow him around.
2. In Spring of 1992 the Society made a provision that Elders and MS could reduce or even eliminate all their responsibilities without having to resign thier positions. This was to allow a brother time to resolve issues without having to prove his qualifications to serve all over again. This was believed to be done to prevent further lose of those serving. I myself had just resigned my position to take a total leave of absense. The Elders in my Cong voted unanimously to keep me on the servant body in an inactive position. The CO backed this decision up.
3. I then wrote a letter of resignation in July-Aug 1992. They refused to accept it. I wrote it again and gave it to the CO, and it was finally accepted. This has been the trend. So if the Society now prohibits an elder from resigning, I would not in the least be surprised. I suspected one day they would have to do that to close the discipline loop-hole I mentioned above.
Simply Amazing