It would be good to understand how the concept of "DA" has come about
and then you can decide if this is something for you
it is the brainchild of 2 depts at bethel
1. Service dept
2, Legal dept
the Service dept handles elders, co, do, DFing, etc
they make the rules for Procedures and Policies for elders- they are usually the ones who send letters called TO ALL BODIES OF ELDERS
almost 3 yrs ago i invited a bethel buddy of mine down who is one of the society lawyers to give a sat night program and sunday talk- David Olxxx
after his sat NIGHT talk we went back to our house for dinner along with 6 former bethelites and our wives- so while the girls were downstairs-- the fellows were upstairs talking about- what else -THE SOCIETY
He related an exp that shows how the Writing dept & the service dept make it so hard for the legal dept
he was pleading a case before a judge and unbeknown to him the judge had asked his clerk to gather some info on JW,
so when he finished the judge began to ask him some questions in relationship to the position of jw on certain matters, then out of the clear blue sky the judged asked him:
Do you teach that the Gov are ultimately under the control of the Devil
and do you teach that the Catholic church is under the control of the Devil?
so he told us that he tried to give the usual answer we give about the gov being a servant of god and allowed to serve there by god and the usual tip toe over egg shell tricks
but the judge kept pushing him on the issue till he finally had to admit that certain commets may have been made in some of our printed material
after he did that - the judge then stated = so i work for the devil and worship the devil as well- i will give you my ruling in 30days
they lost the arguement before the judge
so he was telling us that many of the judges today often times will quote statements that the society has made on certain matters.
so as he put it --the Writing dept often times make it very hard for them in the legal dept- as he phrased it:
"We have to clean up behind them, but with jah help we can do it"
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YEA RIGHT
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i relate that exp because it helps one to understand DA-
in many parts of the world if the Society takes action against a bro such as dfing for joining the army in that country it can be viewed as punishing a citizen for serving his country- due to the Formal Judical proceedings
so the society needed a way in which they could impose the same punishment without being libel- so that is were DA comes in at
it has the very same end result for the jw who is classified as such
as with a person who had a Formal Judical Proceeding and was DFed
DIFFERENCE being no formal procedure-
so the society gets a person to be viewed by the rank and file as DFed even though on paper he is classified as DA
and it protects them from the LAW due to no Formal Actions were taken
i firmly believe that in the coming yrs we will see more things moved from DFing Status to DA status and more things will be classified as "Conscience matters" WINK WINK
so even though it may be classified as a Conscience matter
they will be sure to indicate what a "Mature Christain" would do
and those who hold positions would do-
so if you decide to DA it is merely to fullfill some concept put together by bunch of Lawyers
but it is up to you-
many have stated-- why play by thier rules and i agree-
ask yourself this question
Where does this concept of writing religious lettters indicating you no longer want to sell books come from other than WT
it is thier rules and to me it merely shows that they still control a person
one of the wt most important tools is to be able to classify you:
Mature
weak
worldly
df
reproved
marked
approved assoicate
inactive
active
low hour publisher
strong publisher
etc
this classifcation system is very important in wt world due to the fact that it determines how they will deal with and treat you
why not confuse them and have some fun with it
smile
just my 2
JT
