Tuesday we had a wonderful visit with the Andersons. Sorry we failed to post it until now but I was minutes from sending this yesterday when we drove out of the last Sprint cell in Central Illinois that handled internet service for that day of travel.
We did not talk with the Andersons much about the lawsuit ? it drags on through the courts and people have to live their lives without holding their breath waiting on these things to happen. For those not familiar with the Andersons, almost two years ago they filed a gigantic suite against the Watchtower Society on eight different counts. The original offense was the Watchtower?s slanderous implication that Barbara Anderson had been disfellowshipped for some ?local sin? (sighting 1 Cor. 5, on immorality) rather than for her participation in the DateLine program. The Watchtower adamantly denies that her disfellowshipping had anything to do with her exposing the Society?s inadequate child molestation policy on DateLine. That brings on a slew of other charges, one of which is ?wrongful disfellowshipping?. Joe was likewise wrongfully disfellowshipped for telling his local elders in his letter of resignation as an elder that the action taken against his wife was a sham.
The case has been waiting in Appeal Court since April for a decision on the count above of ?wrongful disfellowshipping?. The Watchtower says they cannot be sewed on this count as there is no Tennessee statute on which to base the charge. The judge says there is bases as it may be the disfellowshipping was only to silence ?whistle blowers? rather than over religious teachings (which the courts cannot judge) but the WT says no, so this ?charge? must be evaluated by an appeal court.
Now this is not an appeal of a ?guilty? or ?innocent? decision but only an appeal of the judges decision to let the ?charge? of wrongful disfellowshipping to go to trial. Regardless of the outcome the case will go to trial with either eight counts against the WT or seven. This could take a year just to get the question of this one count resolved so it is not surprising the Anderson?s are not making this trial the main focus of their lives and why we discussed the case very little.
What we did talk about was our common vacations, old bethel friends and experiences, Joe?s new motor cycle and Barbara?s book in progress. More than these subjects we spent most of our time debating philosophical differences, throwing verbal jabs at each other and laughing out loud in public. We were bad. We had a great time and it was far too short but we already have plans for the next visit.
I am sorry we didn?t get pictures until after dark and what we did take we had to let Barbara screen them. Below you will find the only approved picture of the Andersons.
We are now near Chicago. We visited with a few more JW?s in good standing on the way but that report must be excluded. Tomorrow we will drop in on the BRCI (Bible Research and Commentary Institute) meeting for a day.
Below is on poor picture of Joe?s Harley.
Jst2laws
edited several times trying to get the pictures to work