Is it legal to announce DA?

izobcenec

Ok, if someone sends DA letter to his elders, that is a confidential
thing...personal information. But what do the elders do? They announce
this personal and confidential information to the whole congregation. Is
that legal? I mean if you write in your DA letter, that you dont want them
to reveal this information to anyone, could you sue them, if they do?

blaid

I dont think so, even if its confidental, by writing the letter, you are agreeing to a clause of some sort. besides, as far as I know, they only say "such and such has been DA'ed"..same with DF's

Nathan Natas

You don't understand, Izzy.

The Watchtower Society has to protect all the pedophiles from spiritual contamination by bible-reading apostates.

izobcenec

This was strictly a "legal" question. I dont know about any clause...
Yes, they only say "xxxx has DA himself..." and we all know why
they say that (so all can shun him), but it is not a bible procedure,
pure WT thing, and with all data and personal info protection laws,
it wouldbe interesting to state in DA letter, that announcment of
this information would result in a lawsuit against local elders...

Simon

They do announce people have DA's themselves when they have written no such letter at all

This is what they did with me.

I'm now treated as a DF'd person and everyone assumes that I wrote a letter. Even my mother wouldn't believe that they announce it without anyone having written one (so assumed I was the one lying of course).

UpAndAtom

They would argue that a statement of facts is not slander, however if you have a strong case you might be able to argue otherwise:

The term libel is also often used if a wide audience for the defamation is possible. Courts have split over which category radio and television are in; today's statutes generally categorize defamation occurring in those media as slander. The offenses are alike in several respects. The defamation : essentially exposure to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or pecuniary loss : must directly affect the reputation of a living person. It must be published, i.e., revealed to someone besides the subject of the attack. It is no defense that the defendant merely repeated but did not originate the defamation.

...however this is something you will need to investigate yourself. It depends how badly they ruin your public reputation within your area and/or business. Some kind of proof would need to be shown to the courts to support your hurt feelings and/or reputation. If you want to pursue court action - then document all contact and conversations from this moment on, always have witnesses, video tape their secret meetings, blah blah blah....

Is it really such a problem? Leave them alone and get on with your life. No court on Earth could possibly deliver the kind of justice you're probably after.

Amazing

HI,

Ok, if someone sends DA letter to his elders, that is a confidential thing...personal information ...

No, it is not necessarily 'confidential.

But what do the elders do? They announce this personal and confidential information to the whole congregation. Is that legal?

Yes, it is legal for a religious or social organization to announce the status of a member or former member. It is not libel, because libel is done in written form. The term that applies to oral comments about another that causes undue harm is: Slander. If a JW sends in a DA letter, then by their own writing they declare their status. Their own letter stands as a 'witness' against themselves. The religion is simply announcing that stated fact by the DA person.

I mean if you write in your DA letter, that you dont want them to reveal this information to anyone, could you sue them, if they do?

Maybe if the DA letter states its confidentiality and threatens legal action for any announcement, as you suggest, then possibly it might me considered slander were the Elders to violate the demand of confidence. The best way is to do this ""orally"" to one Elder in private, then the JW Elders have no written proof. It is your word against his. Another way is to have an attorney handle the matter for you. JW Elders and the Society do not like dealing with attorneys ... but even in that scenario, they will likely get the word out carefully that you are DA. And you will have no proof that they 'slandered' you because of the loyalty of JWs who have been informed privately. - Jim

NeonMadman

If you don't want it to be announced, why conform to their rules and write a letter at all? I believe the actual wording of the usual DA announcement is, "So-and-so no longer wishes to be known as one of Jehovah's Witnesses." If you have actually stated that formally in writing, it's hard to see how you could raise a legal objection to their making it known within their congregation. But if they DA you "automatically," without any statement from you, then I might think you had cause for a complaint of some sort. Particularly so if the announcement is phrased as I describe above. How can they inform the congregation of your wishes if you have not expressed them? In such a case, I guess the announcement might be that "so-and-so has shown by his actions that he no longer wishes to be known as one of Jehovah's Witnesses." Still, they are supposing what your wishes are, and they have no right to announce to others what your wishes are if you have not expressed them, particularly if such an announcement will do harm to you personally.

lv4fer

We wrote a letter after they sent us a certified letter requesting my husband and I to meet with them regarding charges of apostacy. I called them and said the meeting was not a good time for us. Then I sent them a certified letter saying that we were not apostates in the biblical sense as we still believed in the bible and all the teachings of Jesus Christ. We said we would like to be left alone and if they made any announcement about us we would consider it slander and that they could possibly be sued. So they have left us alone, we are still shunned by most in the congregation. I called the presiding overseer up and asked if they had announced something due to our being shunned by the local congreation, he said they had not announced anything but that people do talk amongst themselves etc. And people have to do what their concience leads them to. So they probably started conversations about us in the car groups out in service and spread the info that way. We are not shunned by my husbands mother we agree not to talk religion, it upsets her. His sister talks to us if its in her best interest like can you fix my car etc., My dad does not shun me and said he never would. My husbands aunts and uncles and cousins do shun us. People that don't attend our local congregation if they run into us most do talk to us because they don't know we don't attend the meetings anymore. Unless they bring it up we don't say anything.

Panda

I wrote a DA letter, told them not to announce it, they announced I'd Da'd, but I found there wasn't anything I could do about it. And really the kind of justice I'd be looking for is not realistic. But that said, I'm glad I wrote that letter which they will keep and others will read. Sort of the Gospel According to Panda

Is it legal to announce DA?

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