If he does not listen to them, speak to the congregation. If he does not listen even to the congregation, let him be to you just as a man of the nations and as a tax collector.
As has been pointed out, the above is the NWT rendering of Matthew 18:17. The above, however, is not the wording that ordinarily appears in Watchtower publications when Matthew 18:17 is referenced. Almost without exception, the verse is rendered,"If he does not listen to them, speak to the [responsible ones in the] congregation. If he does not listen even to the [responsible ones in the] congregation, let him be to you just as a man of the nations and as a tax collector."Notice the subtle difference. This is another example of how the Watchtower subtly changes what the Bible says as it suits their theology and convenience. There is no scripture anywhere that authorizes secret, star-chamber type hearings with persons who have committed sins, for the purpose of determining whether they are repentant and should be allowed to remain in the congregation.Yesterday, on an xjw mailing list, I responded to someone who was asking how to respond to a Witness who had sent by email a number of arguments designed to prove that God works through an organization (what the JW had actually done was to send the actual text of the Reasoning book section on "Organization" - God forbid that a JW should have an original thought). One of the responses I suggested was that, even if God does work through an organization, the history of JWs provides plenty of evidence that it could not be their organization. But, obviously, from the JW point of view it is a given that, if they can prove that God has an organization, it must be theirs. They usually fail to see the subtle distinction between the two conclusions, because their faith ultimately rests, not in the Bible, but in the Watchtower. The Bible may say "A", and the Watchtower says that when the Bible says "A", it really means "A+B+C"; therefore the JW accepts the whole teaching as being 'scriptural'. (Even worse is when the Bible says "A", but the Watchtower says, "Yes, but in saying 'A', the scripture really means 'Z'" --- don't get me going!)Anyway, the point of all this is that a similar situation exists with regard to disfellowshipping. Is it scriptural for incorrigible sinners to be removed from a Christian congregation? Absolutely, and the JWs will gleefully cite numerous scriptures that testify to that. And because the scripture says "A", they will also accept the "B" and "C" that are added by the Watchtower, utterly without scriptural support, i.e. secret judicial committees, absolute shunning of family members, disfellowshipping for organizational offenses, etc.Someday, I would like to gather all my thoughts on this subject and put together a thorough essay, because it's a topic that really gets under my skin. However, I'm not sure I could add much to what Ray Franz has already said in In Search of Christian FreedomTom
"The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan