Hi Danny,
hope you are doing well.
In listening to the proceedings it was a mixture of familiarity, sadness and at times hilarity. Also, I am just sorry but it is almost impossible for me not to picture the room full of William Macy-type guys and that itself makes the sound files pretty funny. The whole thing would be quite funny if it weren't so sad and I know, personally traumatic.
One thing that I took away from hearing your meetings and hearing the others out there, and even in reflecting upon my own, is that no matter how smart or educated or prepared the person is, the situation is one which is intimidating and it seems that it is very easy to agree, to capitulate to some extent, even when what the Elders are saying is wrong or we don't agree with it.
If anything, the more that proceedings like these are made public, perhaps others may be better prepared to deal with the situation.
In my opinion, I would not advise anyone to meet with the Elders in a JC at the KH at all, but I would tell them that they should only meet at their legal counsel's office or some other neutral meeting room and that their legal counsel will be both audio recording and taping the meeting. Of course, they will go ahead and hold their secret, unscriptural JC anyway and do what they are going to do, but with perhaps the exception in some very limited circumstances, I would not advise anyone to cooperate with the proceedings as they want to conduct them.
In listening to the tapes, it was quite clear that they intended to disfellowship you by the second meeting so there really didn't seem to be much of an issue. It would not have helped you really, since it does seem clear that they intended to disfellowship you, but it seems that in the early meetings, a useful tactic would and is to get the Elders to admit that the Society both has been wrong in the past and could be wrong now.
Doing that is pretty easy to do in discussing any big recent change like the Generation Doctrine, or if one needs to, one can go back to things like Organ transplants are cannabalism or even the Oral Sex stuff of the 70s, or even 1975, if the Elders are really honest.
If one needs to push the point further you can go to further things like Vaccinations don't work, etc. but then you are dealing with the truth outside of their experience and they would be more reluctant to acknowledge the possibility that the Society can be wrong.
The point is once you get them to accept and openly admit the premise that the Society can be wrong and actually HAS published things which have been wrong in the past (even recently), then you can always keep coming back to that when they question you about your "doubting" or when they keep urging you only to rely upon the FDS and the publications.
It isn't a totally winnable position but it is the best one in this situation.
anyway...
I was wondering who the woman is in the appeal meetings? I was surprised that they tolerated her presence. Also I was wondering about the issues pertaining to your mental state, there was a mention of potential suicide, and so forth. I hope that you are fine. I hope that some of this was just positioning on your part.
looking forward to hearing more of your experience and seeing what your family will do. What happened to the JW roommate?
take care,
Eduardo
