I know for me I had a few that I went out of my way to avoid like the plague 'cause I would always walk away from them feeling angry, bitter and hostile.
Did you have any of those? For me it was a family from my mother's original congregation. They were the 'perfect' witness family. Father was the
PO, the sons were elders, the daughter-in-laws were pioneers. My problem was knowing that years earlier, when the sons were all in high school, they did all
these horrible things and in the end would convince the elder body that it was my siblings doing those things, and of course since they were elder's kids,
they were believed, while my siblings weren't since we didn't come from a strong, spiritually 'connected' family. One 'son' made a gay
pass at my brother, my brother reported it and my brother was reproved because the son said it was my brother that made the pass. There were no witnesses;
they just took the elder's son's word. So much for that "Two witnesses..." crap. I would always run into them at CAs, SADs or the DC... and
it was what I dreaded most about those events. Dealing with those people, still looking so perfect (I have learned that in the last two years their perfect
picture has totally crumbled), so smug and superior.
Then there was the elder that tormented me my entire adolescence, calling me blood guilty, asking me all kinds of horrible questions while in service like, "If you were to leave the truth, why would you? What would it be that would make you leave?" This is being asked of a ten year old. We eventually reconciled after a confrontation that another elder helped set up, but it was still pretty darn traumatic and it was eight years of my life that I HATED going to my mother's congregation, dreading I'd run into HIM.
Anyway, was just curious. I'm sure most of us have them but wondered what had impacted others in this way.
Then there was the elder that tormented me my entire adolescence, calling me blood guilty, asking me all kinds of horrible questions while in service like, "If you were to leave the truth, why would you? What would it be that would make you leave?" This is being asked of a ten year old. We eventually reconciled after a confrontation that another elder helped set up, but it was still pretty darn traumatic and it was eight years of my life that I HATED going to my mother's congregation, dreading I'd run into HIM.
Anyway, was just curious. I'm sure most of us have them but wondered what had impacted others in this way.

