This is a slippery discussion.
Mr D. O’BRIEN — Just a final question on the process. You mentioned the family a lot. What is the situation in relation to what I might call whistleblowers or people who wish to report on any deficiencies or systemic practices in your church, including people who wish to depart from the church? How are they treated?
Mr T. O’BRIEN — People are free to be Jehovah’s Witnesses, or if at any time they wish to discontinue for whatever reason, that is a personal choice. If the person simply decides to become inactive and no longer associate with Jehovah’s Witnesses, then they are just viewed as they were before they became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. But if somebody is, what we refer to as being disfellowshipped, or if they disassociate themselves because of whatever reason — their activity, their disagreement with scripture or whatever the case — that puts them in a situation that the scripture has outlined where we would disassociate with them and they would come into the category of what we refer to as ‘disfellowshipped’ or ‘disassociated’. But they are free to believe whatever they like. If they want to challenge the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, there are plenty who do. You only have to browse the internet to see that. People are free to express themselves against any religion or any organisation.
Mr D. O’BRIEN — Would that include criticism of some of these practices, perhaps relying on the Shepherding textbook at that point? Is that the sort of thing that you would encourage people to make internally, or is that something that could be grounds for disfellowship?
Mr T. O’BRIEN — People can come and question teachings or procedures. They are quite at liberty to approach the elders to talk about that.
Mr D O’BRIEN — Sorry to interrupt, but I am conscious of getting to the point. Are they able to make public statements criticising the practices and, in a sense, the democratisation of the rules and practices of your religion?
Mr T. O’BRIEN — People do; they are entitled to do that. That does not mean that we will become a democracy because some individuals do not like it. They are free to come and go, as we all are.
Mr D. O’BRIEN — Can that be grounds for disfellowship if they are seen to criticise the practice for some reason? It is a whistleblowing activity I am particularly directing my attention to.
Mr T. O’BRIEN — If it was teaching against scripture, then that would be a basis for disfellowshipping, but it would not necessarily be disfellowshipping — that would be their decision. They would be disassociating themselves from the organisation of Jehovah’s Witnesses because they no longer agreed with the teachings.
