Before I write about the final two years of secondary school, I feel its important to set the scene regarding the congregation and some of the other aspects of my life which led up to those years.
In our congregation there were thirteen ‘young ones’ in their teen years, four of the girls got pregnant out of wedlock and in their mid teens, they were hushed away but not DF’d, four of the guys got up to all sorts but were allowed to drift away without being removed.
Of the remaining five, each and every single one of them performed acts which without repentance would have been a DF offense, and many times these acts were repeated over and over again during the course of many years. Only one of the remaining young ones who did not have an Elder for a father was ever publically censured for his actions.
The elders in our congregation were a supremely inept bunch of blithering idiots. The air in the congregation was frequently toxic with family’s feuding, rifts, and people refusing to speak with each other.
The group was let by a PO who was so emotionally cold that his daughter developed severe anorexia and nearly died, both of his children left the religion, one turning apostate (after being a special pioneer), the other becoming a teen mother. This man was so devoid of human feeling that his wife was permanently doped on anti depressants, and used to beat her head against the wall in what I can only describe as an act of desperation. You could see the sadness mixed with a certain wildness in her eyes – this was a deeply unhappy human.
Another Elder was a particularly evil man, small in stature and mental abilities, while seemingly limitless in his capacity for cruelty. If apostasy is defined as turning away from the truths and beliefs once held, this man was by far the best apostate in the Midlands of Ireland – he actively drove more than 10 members out of the faith. He was my primary sparring partner – more about this cretin later.
The remaining Elders included my dad who worked hard and tried to keep within the rules – but was frequently thwarted. There was a travelling pioneer, who was a genuinely hard working and nice person (although others disagree with me). The final elder was a slightly slow man, who never seemed to contribute anything other than frowns, and the only memory that stands out about him was his constant beating of his kid during the meetings for crying.
I don’t want to give the impression that it was always bad; I do recall a number of happy occasions centred on summer barbeques, weddings, anniversaries, and group outings. There were also a number of superb Elders in other congregations who were humble, hard working, and loving to their flocks. At this time I also had the ‘privilege’ of looking after the congregations ancient record player and organising the songs – this caused much merriment as it frequently failed to work, and for the laugh I would sometimes play the wrong song to see if they would sing anyway – they usually did!
You should now have a feel for the congregation and the constant problems it faced, in the next chapter I will describe the ages 16-18, my school graduation, the extent of ALL the ‘young ones’ double lives, and my continuing battle with Elder-Evil.