by Jim Dee 5 Replies latest jw friends
I was an Elder for 14 years.
I sat through 23 Disfellowshipping decisions and 6 appeals - and not one of them was approved. I checked with the guys I grew up with and they hadn't heard of an overuling either (and one of them is now a CO).The I think about my 35 years under the cosh - and I cannot recall an overuling from that perspective either.
It would be worth knowing, has anyone hear ever heard of a Disfellowshipping being overruled? Or is this another case of Animal Farm coming true
Jim
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/83572/1369977/post.ashx#1369977
Here's a thread on a similar subject. Do you mean after the DFing was announced or while during the appeal process?
The one case I mention, the elders did announce the DFing but while the person in question was trying to get an appeal heard. The elders involved were all removed and the DFing as if it never occurred. But that was early in the new "elder" arrangement and it was a small inbred congregation and the elders were too "close" to the problem and could not be objective.
I have never heard of that before. At least in the federal courts, 3 percent of convictions are overturned. Better than the WT.
I heard of 1 over-ruling in SoCal about 10 years ago. But this poor guys rep was so badly tarnished in the cong that it didn't do any good and he'd developed such a "bad attitude" from the injustice (what nerve!) that about a year later they re-DF'd him for that. This poor guy couldn't win.
One of the elders on his JC told me (very smuggly)... we knew he didn't belong and the angels finally saw to it that he was removed!
Note: He was DF'd for supposedly cheating on his taxes (how anyone knew that I don't know)? He appealed to WTS and the WTS reprimanded "the body" and said that was an area they had no jurisdiction in and to back off and recind the DF'ing. Oh yeah, this guy showed up with a lawyer too, hmmm maybe that had something to do with it? Ya think?
u/d
If you mean has an appeal committee ever overturned the original committee's decision (to DF), then the answer is, Yes.
I was on an appeal committee that overturned the orginal decision because it was clearly without cause. It involved a 17 year old girl, living at home w her parents, who had a boyfriend (a young JW man in the same congo). Her parents were not invited to the original committee "hearing" at which the elders told her she should stop "dating" the boy because she was too young to marry and because her parents had indicated they were opposed to any such marriage. The girl, naturally, let a little attitude show and said there was nothing wrong with seeing the boy, she was indeed hoping for marriage at some point, and, besides, she was almost 18. They DF'd her because of her attitude, "brazen disregard for counsel of the elders," or some such nonsense, under the heading "loose conduct." [By the way, "loose" conduct always sounds like hanky panky was involved, but in this and many other cases, it isn't]
Given her age, the appeal committee asked her parents to attend. At the hearing, they testified that they really weren't that opposed to the relationship but had simply asked one of the elders for "guidance" concerning whether she was old enough to enter a serious relationship. They were very surprised when their daughter came home disfellowshipped.
We corrected what was clearly a miscarriage of "justice" (JW judicial committee + justice = oxymoron). The original committee members were very displeased, and two of them went out of their way to avoid any contact with us at future circuit and district conventions.
All too typical of what happens when you put that much power into the hands of "untrained volunteers" (to quote J.R. Brown).
YES - a brothe rwas disfellowshipped for masturbating - when the CO heard about it he was absolutely angry - he did not even call an appeal committee and immediately overuled the DF and reinstated the brother without an announcement of anything at all ever being made - the elders were heavily rebuked and said masturcbation is a sign of lack of self control and weakness - IT IS NOT A JC offence
