Not viewed as a JW if not reported for 6 months? (page 2)

ttdtt

No this is not true at all.

You are inactive.
It will be the elders mission "when the CO reminds them" to REactivate you.

If only it were so easy.

Diogenesister

Some people have found it useful to consult a lawyer and /or threaten to do so. You need to say you will take them to court for harassment and if they DF you, slander ( is that oral?)7

Usually when you do that you don't hear from them again as legal tells them to back off.

Anders Andersen

No Biahi, they have not.

You seem to be certain...but I thought official policy is to retain the publisher card indefinitely unless a person is confirmed dead?

Biahi

Yes, Anders, that is what I thought too.

neat blue dog

It's funny, they're a little like a debt collector. You can't pay even a penny or they'll view that as resuming your debt.

TD

And in many cases they're simply ignored. It depends on the local body often times not any hard and fast rule.

The "rule" is whether or not the person is still viewed as a JW in the community at large. I would agree that this is very often an arbitrary decision.

The BOE is supposed to keep cards of all except deceased (supposedly they send the cards of those who move to their new congregation); they might be moved to the back of the "box" wherever they store them. I remember an elder took out all the inactive publishers and put them in another file. The CO chewed him out for that. Another destroyed all the DA and DF cards....same result The CO got suspicious that there were no inactive, DA or DF cards (do the COs still look at the cards during their visit?

pale.emperor

Her best option is to threaten legal action for harassment. They scurry away like cockroaches when the lawyer card is played.

TD

Barring a serious screw-up, a JW does not have a lot of legal options with his or her own congregation.

Things get a little easier if the congregation has since been dissolved; disappeared in a split, or if the inactive person has moved.

JW's are legally organized in the U.S. as a congregational church, which means your relationship is with your congregation and only with your congregation.

Elders from a congregation you have not voluntarily affiliated yourself with do not have a legitimate claim to pastoral interest and/or ecclesiastical authority.

I'm not saying this will necessarily stop them. The average JW Elder truly, honestly does not understand why he is an Elder in only his own congregation and why he would need to be reappointed if he moved. However the lack of legitimacy does open the door to charges of harassment.

fulano

Blondie. Maybe they did but shouldn't.

Not viewed as a JW if not reported for 6 months?