There is no breach of verbal contract. There is no contract, period. A contract requires an exchange of promises to do certain things and an exchange of something of value (called consideration in legal jargon). A breach of contract case for revealing a secret would be quickly dismissed. If there is to be any successful lawsuit, it's going to be in tort for public disclosure of private embarrassing facts or some similar tort, but the threshold is typically difficult to meet. The courts usually don't allow recovery in cases where someone simply reveals a secret to one or more persons. You usually need to prove that a large amount of people found out about the incident and you were somehow hurt by it (damage to reputation, loss of employment, etc.). Breach of contract is a dead end here.
neverendingjourney
JoinedPosts by neverendingjourney
-
36
Confidentiality and the elders.
by LtCmd.Lore inwhile talking to a jw elder: if you specifically state that you are speaking to him as and elder, and that you want the conversation to be classified.
is he legally required to keep it secret, like a church confessional or doctor/patient type thing?.
lore.
-
-
-
36
Confidentiality and the elders.
by LtCmd.Lore inwhile talking to a jw elder: if you specifically state that you are speaking to him as and elder, and that you want the conversation to be classified.
is he legally required to keep it secret, like a church confessional or doctor/patient type thing?.
lore.
-
-
neverendingjourney
Lore:
Privileged communications is an evidentiary concept that concerns whether a person under a special relationship can be forced reveal protected communications in a court of law. I don't think that applies in your case. The key issue is whether there is any legal expectation on your part for the communication to remain private and whether the law would grant damages if that confidentiality is breached. In the case of lawyers, doctors, psychologists, accountants, etc., they have professional licensing boards that oversee their behavior and have the authority to reprimand their members for breach of confidentiality or even revoke their licenses in extreme cases. Of course, that's not the case with JWs.
I think a better road for your research is to look to see if your jurisdiction considers the breach of confidentiality on the part of the elders to be a tort for which you can recover damages. Most, if not all, U.S. courts recognize the tort of public disclosure of private facts. That’s a good starting point for your research. If you're going to be able to sue and recover damages, it's going to be in tort, not for anything related to privileged communications.
-
72
I was sexually abused
by Mindyemt ini was sexually abused as a child and the witness's accepted it and helped me granted they didn't go into depth about it with me but they do not cover it up they just dont like things publicized not every rape or sexual abuse is put on the news so why should a witness being raped be put on the news they are private people why not let it be
-
-
neverendingjourney
Mindy,
I'm sorry to hear that you were abused as a child. No child is ever deserving of that kind of treatment.
Just as one case of covering up child abuse does not prove that the religion has a policy of hiding pedophiles, the fact that you say you received help does not prove that the organization doesn't cover up child abuse. You don't say whether the person that abused you was ever reported to the police. If you feel comfortable enough to tell us, please let us know what ever became of him.
The fact is that there are hundreds of examples of children that were abused and the congregation refused to do anything about it because of their two witness rule. If there weren't two witnesses to the abuse and the abuser denied having done it, the religion required that the congregation continue to view the abuser as a brother. If the family went to the police, they could be disfellowshipped for slandering the "poor innocent" brother.
This isn't about getting the child abuse instances reported on television. It's about having the religion comply with the law and report the child abuser to the proper authorities. It's also about protecting the congregation from child abusers. The abusers were let free to continue preying on children. The congregations became safe harbors for pedophiles because they could deny the allegations and jump from congregation to congregation continuing to abuse children with impunity. As long as there were not two witnesses, nothing would be done to them. That's a classic injustice and a prime example of putting the religion's public image ahead of the children in their midst. The JWs criticize the Catholic church for their role in covering up child abuse, but they have engaged in the same kind of behavior. That's the kind of hypocrisy that we should not expect to come out of the one true religion that JWs claim to be.
-
-
-
neverendingjourney
Many rank and file JWs (most?) can't appreciate the distinction. To them, anyone that has anything bad to say about their religion is an apostate and should be treated as a lying, demon-possessed pile of garbage who should be avoided. This bothered me even when I was a faithful JW.
If you're trying to be faithful to the English language, an apostate is someone who has turned away from the religious beliefs they formerly held. The term should therefore apply only to baptized JWs or perhaps unbaptized JWs that embraced the religion but turned their backs on it before baptism. The scriptures (I don't believe in them anymore) do seem to indicate that Christians should perhaps avoid association with people that have left the faith, but the same can't be said about people who never embraced the faith to begin with. Jesus frequently confronted religious leaders who opposed him and attempted to show how hypocritical they were. Today's JWs refuse to do that. They prefer to teach their members to not waste their time with people who like to argue and many R&F view them as apostates who should be avoided, even though they don't actually fit the definition of the word "apostate." I was told by a CO to not call on a religious man out in field service that I had visited a few times because he had read apostate literature and we shouldn't soil ourselves with that filth. I suppose our light was supposed to shine in front of people that were completely ignorant of JW teachings only.
-
43
Fading In? Am I nuts?
by jaydoe ini am a baptized jw that faded some years back.
in those days i deeply believed in the org and became disillusioned by some things happening in the local congregation.
following some research on the net i decided to fade out of watchtower existence because i did not want to keep mixing with false religion (or so i thought at the time).
-
-
neverendingjourney
There is a measure of truth to some of it but most has been bloated beyond recognition for personal reasons.
I felt that way when I first started to visit anti-JW sites. I still had my JW shields on. The years of indoctrination into believing that apostates were ALL liars had an effect on me. As time passed by, I came to see that most of the information was pretty accurate, although some people do post inaccurate statements (although people usually point them out pretty fast) and hold a serious grudge against the WT. All in all, there are more lies and exaggerations coming from the WT about apostates than there are lies and exaggerations coming from this forum about the WT.
As to the original question, do you what you feel is best. Other members have already made the points I wanted to make. You are wrong in thinking that you will be able to return to the WT on your own terms. You will be marginalized at best if you don't offer your full loyalty and obedience to the governing body and your local body of elders. Also, think about it, would anyone in the WT tell you to do whatever you think is best for yourself if you asked them whether you should return or not? I think that says a lot.
-
27
Went to a party last night...feel guilty this morning
by neverendingjourney ini went to a party last night.
it was relatively tame.
there were maybe forty people there.
-
-
neverendingjourney
Thanks for the humor and advice, everyone. I guess I've been conditioned all my life to think that this kind of behavior is terrible and will cause me to become a horrible person. I know better, but I suppose the lingering psychological effects of my upbringing take a while to undo.
-
16
So I went to the DC to hear that "Superiority" Talk
by mavie infirst of all, no recording.
i don't have a recorder.
i arrived at the location rather early, about an hour and a half before the talk was to begin.
-
-
neverendingjourney
declined a full ride to medical school from a wealthy employer recently!
I'm willing to bet that this isn't true. It's probably a distortion, at best. I once gave a part at an assembly saying that I had given up on a university scholarship. In fact, all that happened was that a school counselor told me about some organizations that offered scholarships, but I never followed up on it. I feel that most of those "I gave up a scholarship" parts are grossly distorted and dishonest.
-
27
Went to a party last night...feel guilty this morning
by neverendingjourney ini went to a party last night.
it was relatively tame.
there were maybe forty people there.
-
-
neverendingjourney
I went to a party last night. It was relatively tame. There were maybe forty people there. I drank a few beers, smoked a few cigarettes, but I avoided the marijuana. It was a good time. Nothing crazy happened. However, I woke up this morning feeling guilty, and I don't know why. This was always the case with me as a JW. Every time I went to a worldly party, a bar, or a night club, I'd wake up feeling really guilty the next morning. I never felt that way when I went to one of those lame Witness parties or weddings. I even confessed to the elders about it a few times.
I've been inactive for two years now and I no longer believe that the JWs have the truth, yet I wake up feeling guilty every single time I go out, especially when I smoke (I don't smoke regularly, just every now and then when I'm out at a party). There are still a lot of JW obstacles that prevent me from acting normal in these situations. Any thoughts on why I'm still feeling guilty?
-
29
Did anyone here ever really like field service?
by exwitless inas i have stated in previous posts, i absolutely hated field service.
hated it.
i dreaded it with a passion and couldn't wait to be done.
-
-
neverendingjourney
For about the first two years I enjoyed it. That's when I was certain the JWs had the truth and I fancied myself a modern-day Noah. After that, it became monotonous. Towards the end, I couldn't stand it.
I read each and every magazine for the first year and a half or so. I liked it. JWism was my passion back then.
-
14
Can a jw go be a policeman?
by reneef inwould this be frowned upon these days if a person decided to go to the police academy?
-
-
neverendingjourney
I knew an elder who used to be a cop. He said that his congregation wrote to the society because he wanted to get baptized. According to the elder, the society said that he could get baptized, but he couldn't have any privileges, period. If I remember correctly, he also said the letter said that he could not use the gun to kill anyone if the situation presented itself or else he would risk getting disfellowshipped. He remained a cop for a while, but eventually quit to find a different type of job.