May 23, 2002
Mrs. Barbara Anderson
c/o Jerre Michael Hood
Attorney at law
124 First Avenue N. W.
Winchester TN. 37396
Dear Mrs. Anderson,
In harmony with Our conversation on May 17, 2002, the continuation of your judicial hearing was held n Sunday May 19, 2002.
The decision rendered by the judicial committee was to disfellowship from the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses on the charge of causing division.
If you wish to appeal the decision you may submit a written letter of appeal to L. Seely within seven days. You should state clearly your, reason (s) for requesting an appeal.
Sincerely,
Larry Seely
PO box 275
Tullahoma TN, 37388
_______________________________________________
Barbara J. Anderson
May 30, 2002
To: Manchester Congregation Judicial Committee
Dear Brothers,
I Barbara Anderson, wish to appeal the disfellowshipping decision of 5-19-02, which I received notification of on May 28, 2002. I wish to appeal for the following reasons:
1. There has been no disfellowshipping offense committed by me.
2. I deny committing any wrongdoing worthy of disfellowshipment from Jehovah's Witnesses.
3. I firmly contend that speaking out to media in order to protect children of Jehovah's Witnesses from Watchtower policy is not causing divisions or apostasy, thus it is not a disfellowshipping offense,
4. I have never spoken about the problem of sexual child abuse within the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses to anyone before I spoke to the media, hence no witnesses could be produced that said I had, thus I have never caused divisions among Jehovah's Witnesses. I spoke to the media only to protect myself due to the lies spread about me by J, R, Brown, spokesman for the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, when he said the congregation was investigating me, Bill Bowen and Pandelos for committing "spiritual violations" and "sins" and not for speaking out to Dateline. He also said that headquarters didn't know I was going to appear on Dateline and that is a lie in that headquarters sent a personal e-mail to the Manchester Congregation some eight months ago where I said in it that I had spoke to Dateline,
I further request that all communication be conducted with my attorney, The telephone call to me from Larry Seely did not honor previous demands for all communications to go through my attorney only.
Very truly yours,
Barbara J. Anderson
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June 5, 2002
Dear Sister Anderson;
Thank you for your letter dated May 30, 2002, that was delivered to us by Brother Anderson, As per your written request, an appeal committee is ready to meet with you regarding your appeal of the judicial committee decision. The meeting has been set for Saturday, June 8, 2002, at 2:00 P.M. at the Manchester Kingdom Hall located at the intersection of Bowling Alley Road and Highway 55, Manchester, TN. If you are unable to meet at that time, you should personally contact the chairman of the committee.
We note that you letter said that you prefer to communicate with the committee through your attorney. We fail to see why this is necessary or even needed. Your status as one of Jehovah's Witnesses is an internal matter, not involving Caesar's purview. What is more, your meeting with the appeal committee is not adversarial. Your meeting with the appeal committee is for the spiritual purpose of deciding whether a serious error in judgment was made by the judicial committee that met with you earlier.
You state in your appeal that you did not commit any offense for which you should be disfellowshipped. This is a spiritual, rather than secular, question which the appeal committee will examine. If the appeal committee determines that the judicial committee did not make a serious error in judgment in this regard, the spiritual question of whether or not you were repentant will also have to considered.
We trust this explains why the involvement of an attorney is unnecessary and why we are communicating with you directly rather than through an attorney. Of course, Brother Anderson, as your husband, is welcome to be at this meeting with you.
Your Brother,
R. E. Matthews
Chairman, appeal committee
P.S. As a courtesy we are providing Mr. Hood with a copy of this letter,
cc Jerre Michael Hood, esq,
