Publisher's Record Cards

Faded4good

Okay, I haven't been to a meeting in over 17 years and I don't live anywhere near the place I grew up. I have had minimal contact with my JW family, essentially just occasional phone conversations. I think they could easily guess that I'm inactive but they pretend not to know and they've never shunned me. As far as I know my last publisher's record cards are at a cong down in Florida near my dad's old house, but he was DF'd years ago and doesn't care and he isn't in Florida anymore anyway. I live nowhere near Florida and and my JW family is far from there as well. So my question is what is the likely status of my publisher's record cards? Are they likely to still be in the box at the cong down in Florida? If the elders in Florida figure out that my JW family is still in the cong that I grew up in will they try to send my cards back there? If my cards are sent back there I'm afraid my JW family, namely my mom, will shun me when they officially know that I am in fact inactive. What does anyone here think? I know the short answer is "don't worry about it" but that doesn't help. I don't want to lose all contact with my mom.

Atlantis

Letter dated 2017, January 6.

10. Field Service and Meeting Attendance Records: The Congregation’s Publisher Record (S-21) cards should be retained showing at least the last five years of activity for each publisher.

Cards from more than five years ago may be destroyed. At least the last 12 months of activity should be retained in the current file of cards. The last card of an inactive publisher should be retained in the current file indefinitely. The record cards of a disfellowshipped or disassociated person should be retained in the sealed judicial envelope. The current file of cards should be divided into two sections—“Active” and “Inactive.” The section for active publishers should be
arranged alphabetically, with the cards subdivided into sections for regular and special pioneers, baptized publishers, and unbaptized publishers.” Monthly Field Service Report (S-4) slips, after being tabulated and posted on the Congregation’s Publisher Record cards, do not have to be retained.

Three separate Congregation’s Publisher Record cards should be filled out to reflect the combined monthly totals for the congregation—one for all publishers, one for all auxiliary pioneers, and one for all regular and special pioneers and field missionaries. The last two years’ worth of such records, as well as meeting attendance records for the congregation, should be kept. Although the record cards are part of the congregation file, they may be kept by the secretary and made available to the other elders upon request. The field service group overseer (or servant) and his assistant should periodically review the field service activity of the publishers in their group with the goal of learning what each publisher’s strengths and weaknesses are and then offering appropriate assistance. If the assistant is not an elder or a ministerial servant, the group overseer (or servant) should orally share the information with him, noting areas of concern.

Atlantis!

DesirousOfChange

Going back 17 years, Pub Cards were only to be kept on file for 8 years. So if you were inactive over 8 years, there was no longer a record of you in the Cong.

That changed some years ago and your final Pub Card is retained indefinitely. No doubt so they can "go after you" if they deem it necessary.

Likely at this point in time, they would consider you to be "a man of the world" (someone never baptized) unless you stir the shit and cause problems.

Phizzy

DOC, I guess if you really start some very public activism, or are helping JW's to wake up, as I do, then they may target you.

It all seems so very petty and small minded, but then, they are. I reckon if they deem it too long ago that you were a member to make it worthwhile DFing you, then they will DA you and let it be known, so that JW's steer clear of you anyway.

It still seems strange to me that they deem it sensible, or even acceptable to people looking in on the Org, to take action against someone who was a member many years ago. If anyone had the money, time and will to do so, I think a Court case for defamation or something would be a fun thing to do, to lay before the Public how very childish and silly they are. What proof could they offer a Court that you had been a member ? no Record Card, just hearsay evidence from people who remember you. I can see the JW's being laughed at in Court, and paying some damages.

Faded4good

Thank you for the responses. I guess my fear is based on the news that WTBTS is telling active witnesses to shun inactive witnesses and within that, I could see where elders might now be more inclined to unload the cards of inactive witnesses my mailing them back to the congregation that they came from, especially if that congregation is where they suspect the person's family is located.

Splash

If your mother finds out and threatens to shun you, point out that you've not been to a meeting in 17 years and during that time you have not done anything 'apostate' to endanger her, neither will you do so in the future.

If she realizes that you are not the danger that the WT portray you to be she may yet be reasonable.

DesirousOfChange

I guess if you really start some very public activism, or are helping JW's to wake up, as I do, then they may target you. ~ Phizzy

I think you are right on point! If you are "laying low" and not being a shit-disturber, they will likely just leave you alone. If you are an "apostate activist" then ya better look out. Watch your back.

As far as any legal action here in the USA-- no court is likely to take on a case that would conflict with religious freedom. It is interesting though that the WT Service Dept treads more carefully if the person is deemed to be financially able to carry out any "legal threats".

FedUpJW

Reading the comment by Atlantis I am surprised they do not dictate what color ink should be used when labeling records, or whether it should be written in cursive or printed in block letters.

under the radar

I personally know of a case where the Borg disfellowshipped someone who had been inactive for over 25 years. He had been an elder before he "left the truth," and somewhere along the line he had divorced his wife and then years later had begun living with a different woman. There was no public controversy and he was not disfellowshipped at the time, probably because he had been inactive for so long. But a new Circuit Overseer came to town and decided to tie up loose ends. The elders confronted him and told him he would have to kick his paramour out of their home and stop seeing her altogether or else he would be disfellowshipped. He told them to pound sand, so they disfellowshipped him. Why, after all these years? The new Circuit Overseer said he was once well-known as a JW and some of his neighbors might remember this and know he was now "living in sin," so they had to avoid bringing reproach upon ~~Jehovah's name~~ the congregation.

I myself have not attended a meeting or presented myself as a JW for over 20 years. During that time, I got a divorce and moved far away. I also remarried, but was never officially disassociated or disfellowshipped. I could have been, but I guess the elders from my last congregation decided to use the "hold the matter in abeyance" provision of the Flocking the Sheep book because they never contacted me about it even though it was well known locally. Also, my now ex-wife didn't want me to be disfellowshipped because she still clung desperately to the hope that I might "come back" to the Truth™ and, before the divorce, possibly her.

Fast forward to today. I have been happily legally and "scripturally" married to the love of my life for several years. Most of my JW family still shuns me anyway, because my sins of the past were never "handled" by the congregation and I have been completely inactive for many years. Some refuse to talk to me at all because even a conversation with someone like me "undermines [their] faith." Some consider me too smart for my own good because I ask logical questions they find impossible to answer. Some grind their teeth that I have a "source" that provides me copies of "secret" WT documents, often before their elder friends and relatives get their own. I don't rub any of that in their faces, but they are aware that I often know too much too soon about most JW related matters.

Anyway, the point of all this is to say that could probably still reach out and disfellowship me at any time, if they chose to do so. This despite that fact that I live hundreds of miles away, no one around here even knows I ever was a JW, I have never gone to a KH in this area, and I am no longer "living in sin" and haven't done so for several years. I don't worry about it, and I really don't give a shirt.

Faded4good

So if the policy is as follows:

"The last card of an inactive publisher should be retained in the current file indefinitely."

What do the elders do with all of those cards in their inactive files? Every congregation must have a bunch of cards for people that disappeared years ago, some of whom none of the elders even remember. Look at me, I moved 500 miles away nearly 20 years ago, do they remember me or my dad? Think about it, they must have cards for dead people!

So formal regulations aside what do the elders really do with all of those inactive cards, especially the really old ones. Do they throw them out even know they aren't supposed to? Do they try to find some other congregation where they think the inactive witness might be and send the cards there? What do they do with this stuff?

Publisher's Record Cards

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