Expert: Michael Troy - 4/30/2008

Question
Thanks again, Now just one more, please bear with me.



Is there any law that compels all churches upon request, to read a noterized brief letter of ones dissassociation stateing ones reasons for leaving, providing an exit that does not leave one open to slander and defamation?


Specifically Jehovah's witnesses who profess to be God's only true organization and therefore, anyone leaving of their free will are malianged as "apostate", or "dissefellowshiped" as such and under these labels automatically catagorized as someone having committed adultry,theft, lying, perversion, drunkedness, drug abuse, as outlined in JWs publications as reasons for disfellowhiping, which then carries with it the explicit intruction to members to no longer have any further contact outside of the church( how is their jurisdiction that legally extensive) under penalty of expulsion.

Answer
If a church made some statement that clearly indicated a person committed a particular sin, which was false, that might give rise to a defamation claim.  However,  declaring someone no longer a part of the church, or even to be a heretic would not raise a legal claim, as long as there was no false and defamatory statement of fact made.  Churches have the right to restrict members from associating with others as a condition of membership.

- Mike