Many here have called for public judicial committees, which would indeed add to transparency. But--every person deserves a measure of privacy, and to be able to keep their dirty laundry from public view. Why should everyone know the details of very personal matters, perhaps involving private struggles and family secrets?
The fact is: the way judicial matters are handled currently can totality violate a person's privacy. Of course, officially, it is said that if you confess a matter to the elders, everything will be totally confidential, and everything will be handled with the utmost discretion. I have found out firsthand that it entirely NOT the case.
Now…I am NOT talking about acts of predation of any sort, that is another matter altogether. We have clearly seen that the organization has seriously mishandled those cases, but I am mainly referencing more 'mundane' matters that become judicial cases. Thus, I ask the matter of predation fall outside of the scope of discussion.
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FIRST off…why are there RECORDS of these matters? Doesn't God forgive and forget? Then, so shouldn't the organization? It is written, "As far off as the sunrise is from the sunset, so far off from us he has put our transgressions." But if a person moves to another congregation, their records follow, and whatever deeds they did will follow them. More people (albeit officially elders) get a chance to learn of what they've done, things that were supposed to have been forgiven and forgotten.
In theory, these records won't leak out…but having physical documentation, it just takes ONE act of carelessness, and that cat is out of the bag. For instance, when I was a ministerial servant, we had several congregations meeting in one hall. I was in charge of the sound and I came in early to set up. I noticed a folder sitting in a chair, opened it to find out whose it was. In it, I saw a number of names, some that I knew, along with words like, "confessed to…" I immediately shut the folder and moved it to a secure location. A few minutes later the elder from the preceding congregation came into the hall, huffing and puffing, and anxiously looking for the folder. I gave it to him and he thanked me profusely. Inside my mind, I shook my head in disgust at his carelessness.
Perhaps former (or current) elders can bespeak to what sorts of documentation is kept? Because it was apparent that not only did these things go into an individual's record, they seem to keep a consolidated list of judicial matters? The more sorts of documentation kept, the more they can be misplaced. To this day, I am very happy that I only saw enough of that folder to close it, and somehow the glance did not give me a list of names AND deeds together.
Once, a friend of mine who was attempting to date a 'sister', and those close to her said, "I want to first speak to two elders in your congregation." Basically, he had to pass a 'background check'. Which was no matter to him, he had nothing to hide, and he let them speak to the elders in his congregation (then it turned out, the woman wasn't interested in him, but that's neither here nor there).
But let us say, hypothetically, that he had made a mistake in the past, but was sincerely repentant. The elders might not reveal WHAT he did, but would they give a hint of a warning? Would the shadow of that sin haunt that brother? I don't know. But it would not be out of the realm of possibility for a self-righteous elder in their overzealousness, to do something that indiscreet. What protects an individual's record from falling into the hands of such a person? It would only take one act of indiscretion to ruin a person's reputation.
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SECOND, when a person is disfellowshipped or publicly reproved, sometimes there follows a local needs part about that sin. Therefore, anybody who doesn't already know what that person did, which might be the majority of the congregation, can simply add two plus two.
But sometimes the local needs might detail a sin that is NOT related to what that person did, and therefore, people are going to make a mental calculation based on the timing of the announcement versus the timing of the talk.
For instance, there is a case in my hometown, where a man's wife left him without grounds for separation. Secretly, the wife had been having a romantic relationship with a 17-year-old family friend. After months on loneliness and depression and anger, the man "messed up" as it were, confessed to the elders, and was privately reproved. The wife now was "scripturally free".
The inappropriate relationship had come to light to the man and the elders, but not the extent of it. She claimed to have called it off and it had not gone 'that far'. But the wife was deceptive, and over the objections of the boy's parents, her relationship secretly continued and deepened.
At one point, the man not knowing this, even thought his wife might be coming back. Suddenly the elders called and said, "It is apparent your wife is not coming back and is scripturally free to divorce you. Therefore, we are going to change your private reproof to a public reproof so that the congregation can know she is free and that the matter was handled by the elders."
The man even said, "Well, you have to do what you think is right, but I believe we are getting back together. Ask her and she will tell you." But the elders never told him what they knew of his wife's secret relationship. He was totally in the dark.
A week after the public reproof, the elders decided to have a marking talk regarding the man's wife. Of course, the marking talk did not reveal the name or gender of the person involved, but they detailed that man's family secrets and why he "messed up". They mostly highlighted the woman's inappropriate relationship and why individuals in the know should 'mark' her. Many were shocked and sickened that such a thing had gone on in their congregation.
However, to the majority not in the know, to hear that talk one week after the public reproof and the gender of the individual obscured, some undoubtedly would come to believe that the man had the inappropriate relationship, not the wife, after all two plus two…and not everyone comes to the conclusion that you can't be Reproved AND marked, that it's one or the other. So the man having concluded this, left that congregation in shame, never to return there, and basically went into hiding for some time after. How would his reputation ever recover the inevitable gossip that would always follow? Even well meaning people would be on guard against him for something he didn't do.
So depression deepened and loneliness grew, he got divorced, and under a state of reproof, he succumbed to temptation again. When much time had passed and he got the courage to return to the Kingdom Hall, albeit in another circuit. He wanted to get matters straight. He confessed, and about a year after his 'second' offense, he was disfellowshipped. His ex-wife was eventually disfellowshipped as well, because her boyfriend was indiscreet and her mother overheard him talking on the phone. But that's a different story.
Ironically, I know, I am revealing this man's private matters, but the damage has already been done, and I feel this illustrates an important point about privacy and announcements and local needs.
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THIRD, secret investigations can violate a person's privacy. I have known of cases where elders decided to investigative a certain brother. They went to his friends and possibly other people in the congregation to see what they knew. These people knew nothing--and afterwards they told them, "Don't tell Brother So-and-so that we questioned you."
In quantum mechanics, the act of measurement alters the outcome. Similarly, the very act of investigation and the manner of questions actually revealed what they suspected of this brother. Or at the very least, the act makes people aware that there is SOMETHING, and people's imaginations can fill in all sorts of darkness. Being questioned by the elders alone can be a rattling experience.
The children of the light conduct their business in the light--therefore, true Christians would never have need of such furtive tactics.
In another case, an investigation was made about a man's grandfather, in this case, a matter of gossip. The man did not want to reveal what his grandfather said to him. So the elders interrogated him, until he was crying and sobbing, and they got the information they wanted. Afterward the elders said, "I thought he was going to have a heart attack!"
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Finally, information leaks out to those outside the elder body. Some elders do a good job keeping secrets. Other times, they let certain things leak out to their wives. I heard of a case where a young gay man went to the elders for help. He had not acted on his desires. He wanted help before he succumbed to them. But an elder leaked the information to his wife. And the wife took it upon herself to warn other parents in the congregation to keep their children away from him. But this man did not like children, he was gay…he liked men. So in short order, this man's secret, the one he wanted so much to keep to himself, was spread far and wide. As a consequence, this young man took his own life.
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A friend of mine used to say something like, "We respect the right of each person to keep their matters private." But unfortunately that is simply NOT the case. I think the organization practices, "What you hear in secret, shout from the rooftops." Regardless, it is a further case of man dominating man to his injury.
