Legal Stuff: What's The Likely Fallout?

by metatron 18 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  Even if the Watchtower survives recent legal reverses unscathed, I still find it likely that they will react in some fashion, to further protect

  themselves. The question is how?

  Whatever they do, they need to distance themselves from the congregations. Can they be held liable for who they appoint as elders

  or MS's? Can elders be viewed as their agents, legally? Could we see any extension of liability related to the actions of volunteers?

  ( the Catholic church got hit for 17 million for that last one). There was dramatic fallout from the cases they lost regarding Bethelites

  being classified as employees instead of volunteers - they had a mass layoff and dumped the Bethel elder arrangement. Recent child

  sexual abuse cases could be much more dangerous to them, as their old defenses are failing. They must do something......

  I sincerely hope that we see a gradual drift by the Governing Body away from the publishers - and towards their own private interests,

  as encouraged by continuing legal fights. I hope they spend all their time enjoying the assets of the Society, with nice cars, nice offices,

  fully stocked liquor cabinets and the like. Let them get as dismissive and distant as they wish. All they have to do is print a few tracts

  once in a while - and ignore the growing problems and let history take its course.

  metatron
• 

  Nina

  I think the question is slightly skewed. The United States government doesn't give a rat about Watchtower or Jehovah's Witnesses. Their interest is in doing away with "ecclesiastical privilige". Once that's gone (and it will take several more years, imo) the question becomes something like "how will Watchtower manage to keep a hold on its contributing members"?

  N.
• 

  wednesday

  I was also wondering how the rulings in Ca will affect JC's in the future. They may have a person initally confess their sins to one (so they could have clergy protection. ) I can see a lawyer working this now. They may not have to actually df or da someone to shun. They actually practice this now, persons that are inactive or for whatever reason deemed bad association are shunned. It is done without any offical announcement. Itis up to the individual jws.

  They have for some years held they were not responsible for anything, but the elders could be sued individually. The new rulings may stop that. If they own property in a state, they are responsible. This could however put the KH ownership in jeapordy again. Will they go back to the Boe owning the KH? Awaiting new light...
• 

  metatron

  Ah, but you need to understand the deep reactionary character of the Watchtower itself. The government will plod along with various cases

  brought to their attention but I am interested in what the Society is going to do in reaction to their new found threats.

  Calls for ethical reform and the cries of the weak fall on deaf ears in this authoritarian cult. Yet, let Jimmy Swaggart lose a court case and

  Kaboom! , Watchtower lawyers spring into action. Changes get made. Things get done. The 'voluntary donation' arrangement appears.

  What will the internal fallout be for the Watchtower?

  metatron
• 

  inbyathread

  I believe that if the Government wins its case about ecdlesiastical privilege, the wts will just say that this is religious persecution and win the hearts of their die-hard sales force.
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  AMNESIAN

  It would seem the potentially disastrous legal and organizational dilemma in which the WTS finds itself now is how to manage to maintain its iron-fisted control over the congregations and their respective publishers via agents and instructions to whom/which they must have no apparent or documented connection. If their exhaustive and meticulous written instructions and other communications with agents (who must not be provable as such in a court of law), i.e., DOs, COs, POs, elder bodies, are replaced with verbal directives one can only imagine the ensuing chaotic helter skelter that will masquerade as "caring for kingdom interests." I would think it virtually impossible to maintain even the illusion of either organization or unity.
  
  Further, it's bound to dawn on even the dullest clods conscripted as local overseers that their own meager livelihoods could become seriously at risk if they are forthrightly forbidden to invoke direction from HQ as justification for any actions on their part toward a congregant. The appeal of reaching out might diminish even further if men, upon accepting appointment, become obligated to fall on the sword, as it were, to swear to profess to have deliberated, decided and acted as free-lance agents if called to testify regarding their service as elders and specifically as a member of a judicial committee.
  
  If the complainant ultimately prevails in the Napa case, I cannot see but how it will force the "fds" to mutate into some vague incarnation of its present self that can hardly be identifiable to any already thinking and troubled JW as God's anointed who are placing their full trust and confidence in Jehovah.
  Iimo that we are presently witnessing the hugest potential yet for the WT's foreseeable collapse.
  
  AMNESIAN
• 

  sf

  one can only imagine the ensuing chaotic helter skelter

  I've become increasing ambivalent when it comes to just this type of imagination. I seriously used to envision all sorts of dastardly demises. I'd be lying if I said I still don't occasionally. Especially when they are so determined to continue their deceptive and corruptive "ways".

  I'm always thinking about the fallout and exactly what learning the truth will do to some. Sadly, and most probably deadly, it won't be pretty.

  But then, what did anyone really expect with such lethal policies that have turned out to be not truly spirit-inspired/directed. SHAME ON THE WATCHTOWER.

  sKally
• 

  free2beme

  I think it will have little to no impact. Other then making lawyers all very wealthy.
• 

  Scully

  Can they be held liable for who they appoint as elders or MS's? Can elders be viewed as their agents, legally?

  One way they can get around this situation, is to go back to the system where elders were elected by the congregation, rather than having them Appointed™ by the WTS. There is no Holy Spirit Directed™ Appointment™, but merely an acknowledgement of the congregation's selection of which Imperfect Humans™ will represent the congregation to the Circuit and District Overseers, who could still be "appointed" by the WTS. Logistically, verbal instructions from the WTS could still be conveyed to the elders via the COs and DOs at the annual Elders' School.
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  Quandary

  bttt