Seeker4 Facing DFing - Seeks advice!! Lawyer??

by Seeker4 44 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Grace

  I wrote a response yesterday, and, being quite new to this board, I missed looking for a person's name and called someone "Jedi Master". I see now the error I made; however, in my home I am always looking over my shoulder when I contribute to this board. Anyone else have the same problem? So, I read quickly, type quickly, and hope I can be of some encouragement to someone, and that I myself can not feel so alone in this whole mess of being so stupidly shunned by family.

  Bear with me... I'm learning!

  Grace to you.
• 

  Seeker4

  I'm braced for the impact.
  
  Actually, the point is, I've been getting on with my new life for some years now. All of the sudden, here come the elders feeling the need to interfere with it.
  
  I'm not going to just be a sheep in this. I've had enough of that.
  
  Time to give these bastards a wake up call.
  
  S4
• 

  observador

  I just want to say a couple of things:
  
  I am not a lawyer and, most likely, the other poster must have given you similar advice, but if I were you I would hire a lawyer to deal with these guys. I don't think you have a legal case, though. Hiring a lawyer simply MAY make these elders think twice before proceeding with the disfellowshiping thing.
  
  Observador.
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  Quotes

  These elders are MORONS (sorry to say that, I know they are your old friends).
  
  Think about it: if you had put your thoughts into writing and written a formal DA letter, you'd have been DA's 10 years ago. But you *HAVE* put your thoughts into writing; you *HAVE* said, in writing, in an open and public forum, no less, that you are a skeptic and athiest. And yet these morons still feel they have to "deal with" you???!!!???
  
  If you join the army, you have "DA'd yourself by your actions".
  
  If you vote, you have "DA'd yourself by your actions".
  
  If you are caught hanging Christmas lights, you have "DA'd yourself by your actions".
  
  But, apparently, in your case, if you openly state in written publications that you do not believe in god, YOU ARE STILL A MEMBER THAT NEEDS TO BE DEALT WITH.
  
  Who knows if it is the gung-ho CO, or the soon-to-be-ex-wife, or someone else pressing this issue, but the elders are trying to create a tempest in a teapot. All they have to do is look at your published words, and conclude that you are "no longer a member". Anything more than this is just a witch hunt.
  
  ~Quotes
  
  P.S. Seriously, one thing that may make you change your mind: surrepititious tape recording of JC can provide you with plenty of material for your journalist career.
• 

  jgnat

  I wouldn't go for a lawyer, but, then, I am a Canadian. Canadians negotiate. I agree with this:

  The bottom line here is this. No court is going to intervene with the inner workings of a church except under very extreme circumstances. In reality a DF'ing is a church action and an "internal matter" that only tangentially has any affect on you.

  Every case against the JW's that I could find on the web regarding defamation of character, harrassment, etc. over the harsh penalty for DF'ing was thrown out. American courts don't interfere with the inner workings of religion, and consider members to be personally responsible for their choices. Kind of a "buyer beware" type of thing.

  I figure you have already shook the elders enough. Let them cry in their pillows. Remind them again that you won't cooperate with any DF'ing action, they will have to do it themselves. Stop answering their letters and their calls.

  Go on and enjoy your life! You have obviously figured out how to do that.