New blog post here: http://shunningmuststop.blogspot.com/. Please visit, bookmark, and forward the link to whoever you think might benefit. Questions, comments, criticism, etc. welcome. If anybody has any legal expertise, here is your venue.
A Legal Precedent for Exceptions to the Shunning Policy
by Dead Man Joaquin 6 Replies latest jw friends
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AWAKE&WATCHING
I think shunning is inhumane and should be stopped. Will has a valid argument in my opinion.
Legally - I have no clue if anything can ever be done.
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B_Deserter
I know of one guy who avoided being disfellowshipped even though he admittedly cheated on his wife. He threatened to sue the society because he was baptized before the age of 18. Since he was not old enough to engage in a legal contract, he concluded that his baptism was null and void, since he was not legally old enough to sign in a binding agreement.
The elders decided not to expel him from the congregation because they didn't want to bring the JW's dirty laundry into the public court system. -
Gopher
Shunning has been upheld in American courtrooms. The judicial system is loathe to involve themselves in matters of religious belief or practice, unless an imminent danger to life to innocent/uninvolved people is demonstrated.
Such danger has been successfully used against JW's in cases involving children needing the full range of modern medicine, including blood when necessary. The courts have acted and saved lives.
As far shunning, we all know how it ruins lives. Some suicides have undoubtedly been a direct or indirect result of the Society's cruel interference in family relationships.
However, the relationship hasn't been established in courts to my knowledge. Until a major breakthrough occurs and a precedent is set, the Society's clever lawyers will continue to forestall prosecution on this front.
It's unfair, and yet the 'freedom of religious practice' inherent in the American laws and constitution are things behind which perverse practices masquerading as religious doctrine can hide.
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Dead Man Joaquin
If the above is true, just think of how many "next-gen" JWs would have a legal out. The Society is encouraging them to get baptized younger and younger, before their minds can fully grasp the enormity of the problems of the organization. But it may be gone or reformed by the time the current bunch of 7-year old initiates turn 18 anyway. Makes me breathe a little easier when I think about my own kids.
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Dead Man Joaquin
I think it's possible for a precedent to be set on an individual, if not organizational, basis (i.e. the policy is kept as Official Organizational procedure but exceptions made "unoficially" on a congregational basis). Once this is done, the news will make the rounds on boards such as this and it could be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back (though some say the 16 child abuse lawsuits settled out of court by the WT will prove to be the turning point for reform, schism, or implosion).
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Dead Man Joaquin
What about non-American courts? Any precedents there?