As many of you already know, my wife and I left the JWs simply because we discovered it was not true. We did not commit any ‘sins’, and we did not ‘sow seeds of doubt’ in the congregation. In fact, at the last meeting my wife attended, she still fully believed it was the truth.
We tried fading, but the elders eventually came looking for us. When they stopped by just to check up on us, we were kind to them. Finally, though, one of the elders called us to set up a meeting. Those two phone conversations (which can be found here: http://www.watchtowerletters.com/Our_convo_elders_vids.html) occurred over a year after our last meeting, and nearly two years since we had last gone out in service.
We wrote the elders a letter (http://www.watchtowerletters.com/our_letter_elders.html), stipulating that we were willing to meet with them as long as certain basic rights were secured, such as our ability to bring counsel and to record the meetings. We also asked that they inform us about the meetings in written advance.
We never heard back from the elders. That was August of 2006. As I mentioned here before, in November and December of 2008 (over two years later!) I began receiving phone calls and emails from family members wondering if we had been disfellowshipped or disassociated. I told them that we were not, but that if they didn’t believe me, they could call the elders from my former congregation and check for themselves. My sister-in-law called the elders and then emailed us to tell us we were disfellowshipped.
This surprised me, as we had never had a judicial meeting with the elders, nor had we ever been informed of being DF’d in abstentia. So I had a friend call one of those elders. That elder, after much hesitating, explained that we “really weren’t disfellowshipped” but that we were “removed from being Witnesses” and that that’s “pretty much the same thing” as being DF’d. When my friend (pretending to be a JW from another hall) expressed surprise at this, the elder said that’s understandable since no one outside the local congregation was informed about the ‘removal’. The elder said “Yeah, Shepherd Book wouldn’t know about it, because we never told him”. The elder also went on to disclose some of the contents of my letter. I recorded that conversation but, as of yet, have not put it on the internet.
So…
I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to proceed. The elders (evidently at the behest of the Society) have gone against the letter I sent them in multiple ways, and have evidently created a whole new category of expelling members just to as to find a loophole. I spoke with a lawyer, and she said I may have a legal case, as they broke their own rules (i.e., not informing me, creating a new kind of label, slandering me to others, divulging ecclesiastically privileged information), but the initial consultation with this lawyer would have cost $380 for the first hour. (Now that’s a crime – how many of us even make a tenth of that in an hour?) I also consulted with Michael Newdow and the FFRF, and though they were sympathetic, they pointed out their area of expertise concerns separation of church and state.
If anyone has any connections/suggestions in the legal world, I’m listening. Or, if anyone has any ideas for getting this out to the public and/or other JWs, I’m all for it.