Alan F had a great article on that includes some commentary on a letter written by Philip Brumley
Here is a snippet of the article.....
To further show the Society's legalistic view of baptism, here are some excerpts from a lengthy letter written in the early 1990s by a Watchtower attorney, Philip Brumley, to a person who questioned the Society's legal right to disfellowship him:
I represent Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., the parent organization of the congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the United States. By means of your numerous letters and telephone calls to this office, I have been informed that your membership in the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses was terminated when you were disfellowshiped from the English Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, [xyztown], Massachusetts....
The relationship between a congregation and its member is consensual as to both parties. A congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses is a voluntary association. Both the member and the congregation have a right to determine if they will remain united. The member has the right to disassociate himself or herself from the congregation. The congregation also has the right to separate from a member if it is determined by an ecclesiastical tribunal, which Jehovah's Witnesses call a judicial committee, that a member is not conducting his or her life according to the tenets of the religion.
A. If a member no longer wishes to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses, then the member may disassociate himself or herself from the congregation. The term "disassociation" applies to the action taken by a person who, although being a baptized member of the congregation, repudiates his or her Christian standing as such, rejecting the congregation and stating that he or she no longer wants to be recognized or known as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. A brief announcement would be made to inform the congregation that the person has voluntarily disassociated himself or herself from the congregation.
B. If a member is charged with wrongdoing and wishes to continue to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses, then such one should submit to the hearings of the judicial committee. If charges of wrongdoing are brought to the attention of the body of elders of one's congregation, then they investigate the charges. If it is established that there may be substance to the charges and evidence is produced showing that a serious sin actually may have been committed, the congregation's body of elders will assign a judicial committee, consisting usually of three elders, to handle the matter....
II. APPLICABLE SECULAR LAW
C. Relation Between the Congregations and its members. It is axiomatic that the essence of the relationship of a religious society with its members is held by the courts to be the agreement of the parties, and generally, a profession of faith, adherence to the doctrine of the religious society and submission to its government. 76 C.J.S. Religious Societies 11 (1952). A party having voluntarily assented to becoming a member of a congregation thereby subjects himself or herself to the existing rules and procedures of said congregation and cannot deny their existence. All who unite themselves to such a voluntary religious organization do so with the implied consent to this government and are bound to submit to it....
Since you did not disassociate yourself from the organization, then under the law you gave implied consent to its government, subjecting yourself to the existing rules and procedures and being bound legally to submit to it. The theocratic government of the congregation to which you legally submitted includes specifically the legal agency of Jehovah's Witnesses, known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., and all their duly appointed representatives, including the elders of the congregation with which you were associated. The rules and procedures which you subjected yourself to include those of the judicial committee arrangement set forth in detail above....
Note that the above legalese says that once a person joins the Witnesses, he has only two choices if he wants to leave: disfellowshipping and disassociation. These two choices are enforced by American law. However, even if the Watchtower lawyer has correctly stated matters, he has neglected the case of the child who gets baptized and submits to "ecclesiastical law." By law minors cannot enter into legally binding contracts. Therefore by law, people who got baptized when they were children have a third legally enforceable option when they leave: to simply quit, without disassociating and without submitting to a judicial committee, or "ecclesiastical tribunal." Of course, the Society will not tell people about this.
