oNE OF THE MOST interesting things about the judical process is that for the most part the elders are pretty much free to df anyone that they deem.
while one can appleal and so forth -- for the most part the actions of a judical committee will stand, are there cases where the branch or brooklyn reversed a decision O YEA ,
but for the most part the service dept feels that appeals based on improper organizational procedure by the judical committee are not reason enough to reverse most decisions.
allow me to give you a perfect example.
one of the elders in my hall was a former bethelite, former missionary,and former member of the branch committee
he still retained his voting member of the corp- and he used to go up every oct to vote at the standley theater in jersey city, NJ
he started doing things independent of the body, we talked to him
i begged him to get his act together he was one of the most arrongant black bro i knew and he loved it cause as he put it all of us are equal now black bro and white bro
he had major , major connections at bethel since he was appointed directely by the GB to the branch he used to serve at and the rights to be a VOTING MEMBER
well anyway each visit of the co resulted in the co sending in his report to brooklyn stating that their was tension on the body and how he encouraged us to LIFT UP LOYAL HANDS
HE WOULD report that the friends in the hall sensed tension on the body, he would not call on certain elders if they had their hands up when he was conduction a part from the platform
and this tension continued to buiild and build
till finally we had the CA and we were the host congo
the do was Paul Ellingsworth and the co was Kent Karass
so a letter was drafted all the elders signed it except one elder who was his sidekick flunky( he used to invite him and his wife to the annual meeting almost every year so he was not going to bite the hand that treated him)
so here we have 6elders sign off on removal as an elder, the CO and the DO al sign off on the sunday at the end of the CA
monday the DO is dropping the letter in the mail to NY
monday morning this bro hits a US Air from DC to NY returns on tues and comes to the meeting with the biggest grin on his face
2 weeks later we get our letter along with ellingsworth and the karass
NO DELETION instead we are told to show more than the usual love
that due to his long years of service he should remain..
i was the SEC at the time and i was in the office that night we all read the letter and he walked in and said:
"you clowns sent up those Frivous charges and they kicked it back to you"
i told him man you may have connections at the house ( his running buddy was Robert (BOB) Jones who was a heavy in the service dept)
but jah knows that the way you are dealing with your bro is wrong
jah is giving you a second chance to get your program together.
and he told me -- Like i said you all sent up those frious charges and they kicked them back.
so my point is the wt has many rules /procedures and policies, but when they want to suspend them they can and they do
James
2 eand
