Flip-Side News: Governing Body Member Demonstrated Correct Procedure

When the Watchtower was asked by a U.S. court to present governing body member Gerrit Lösch and documents involving a former elder and accused pedophile, brother Lösch did not come as asked and they did not present the documents. Why?

As brother Lösch himself provided in a written document, he does not and never has answered to the Watchtower. Should we be shocked by this? No. The summons was for what the court perceived to be a long-standing member of the head of 'the Watchtower organization'. However, the Watchtower magazine is not and never has been the head of the organization. "The Watchtower" is a publication, not a religious organization, nor even a publishing company.

What purpose does brother Lösch's response serve? It gives the organization grounds for appeal because the courts did not follow the proper procedure. If the court officers, the prosecutors, had followed proper due diligence, they would have found that the Watchtower is nothing more than a publication for the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. The governing body oversees various organs within the organization and write articles for publication, but they are not and never have been employed by said magazine, nor do they own the magazine. Thus, to request a member of the Watchtower to appear before the court is inappropriate when there is no such member. Gerrit Lösch is a member of the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Each of us do well to respond in the same way as Gerrit Lösch when we hear of such a summons. None of those outside the publishing facilities are members of the Watchtower. We are members of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and all of us are subject to its governing body. What is printed in the Watchtower is attested to by the governing body. But if the Watchtower is asked to present you to a court, you are under no obligation to go, and to go would be inappropriate because you are not in fact a member of the Watchtower. But if the governing body is requested to present you to a court, you would be acting properly to go.

A similar problem exists for the request for documents. They are requesting them from the Watchtower, not from the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses. Thus, in order to make sure the courts are acting appropriately and not frivolously, the Watchtower must refuse. The Watchtower has no culpability in the actions of members of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and should not be called to account the way the courts are attempting to do. The prosecutors need to do their homework, but instead, they are being lazy, bigoted anti-cultists who assume they know everything about this supposed 'cult, but in fact know nothing but what they've heard from apostates and anti-cultists who call us "the Watchtower organization".

Appeals of the sort that are about to happen are also usually followed by a substantial drop in awarded funds. So since the court's claim is factually unsound, an appeal will be filed and the court will be forced to take the case more seriously than it currently is. The organization of Jehovah's Witnesses fights these cases in such a way so as not to provide a precedent for any apostate to file frivolous lawsuits against the organization. If you want money, you're going to have to fight for it. If you want justice, all you have to do is work within the organization's structure and use the Bible as your law book. Apostates who bring these cases are doing damage to everyone in the organization, not just to the finances of the organization. If they really wanted change, they would do it from within through the proper channels.

I suppose our opposers should be thanked for this misunderstanding the court prosecutors have. If it were not for our opposers, the court would likely have a more accurate and proper understanding of the organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses and filing for appeal, or throwing a case out, would be less likely. If the courts dotted their "i's" and crossed their "t's", I have no doubt our organization would readily comply. I for one am glad the organization does it this way. If they did not, it would be chaos and any number of things could be interpreted any number of ways. There would be no justice for anyone, but only further injustice.

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