I find this subject titillating. With two of my sons forced into shundom (my word) I am for virtually anything that would get them out of their enslavement.
That said, I think that “Justice for None”, the book by deerskin-cloaked attorney Gerry Spence, speaks volumes. In brief, he demonstrates that real justice is actually never accomplished in a U.S. court of law; that winning in a U.S. court is highly dependent in how deep the pockets are of either side. To back his argument, he cites case after case. Without naming one, we all know of the case of the century where a defendant was able to finance his defense with some $10 million and now walks and golfs freely.
Knowing that, I naively look for one day where some person, or group, with a good strategy, some valid arguments, and above all -- extremely deep pockets of money – will challenge the WTBTS. I look for this day when the challenge will finally see the inside of a U.S. courtroom and not the cowardly private arena of settlements we see them make with child abuse victims, victims that will forever be required to wear masks of gagged silence.
Who knows what those arguments will actually entail? How many arguments will be presented?
Will one of them be the slander a parent suffers when his child is told by some outsider –an elder – that because his parent no longer subscribes to Watchtower teachings he is an evil parent and wicked and sinful and the child should avoid contact with that evil parent at all costs? Can the WT member of the two parents usurp the authoritarian role, join forces with some outsiders (the elders) in order to engage in a type of psychological battle for the child and against the other parent?
In some case such sanctioned family shunning has been enforced for more than a quarter of a century – just ask me and I’ll tell you. Could it be that such an organization could be held liable for the hatred which is inspired inside this child toward this parent? There are Hate Crime laws today championed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) but they vary by state. If there is any such thing as a hate crime today, does such inciting and hateful, prodding behavior not fall into that category?
Will one of them be when some baptized member of this cult decides that the contractual conditions of his baptism indeed changed in 1985 at a time when loyalty would not only then be required to God (the original contract) but now also to an organization of men? Yes, the contract changed but was this member offered an opportunity to back out with no threat of imposed sanctions? Was he even informed?
Will they be when some baptized member decides that he never was allotted the full disclosure of this cult’s historically cartoonish teachings -- the miracle wheat; the pyramidology; that evil aluminum cookware; those teaching flip-flops on subjects like “who is the Faithful and Discreet Slave”, the Superior Authorities, the military service impropriety, that San Diego home for resurrected leaders, those wicked medicinal vaccinations, the avoidance of higher education, the 1914 generation -- truly cartoonish, all of them and more. But none as despicable as the certifiable trail of failed prophetic dates.
Will they be when freedom of religion and freedom of speech finally no longer mask the belittlement and defamation of character which, with one phrase -- “John Doe is no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses” – brings? And with that single statement, ostracization from loved ones, friends, and most important – family members begins and lasts indefinitely, forever fracturing some of humanity’s most sacred and treasured unions.
I know, you don’t have to tell me -- I’m naïve.
Len Miller