I have always been opposed to the practice of Shunning especially for simple mistakes, especially when someone questions the 'truth' or the GB. Or elects to speak to a shunned family member or close friend. Or violates the Blood ban.
Even as a practicing JW I was uncomfortable with shunning.
An article caught my attention today on ritual sacrifice.
In much of the pre-modern world, ritual sacrifice was framed as necessary for the good of the society at large — the only way to guarantee, say, a plentiful harvest or success in war.
But the priests and rulers who sanctioned such killings may have had another motive, a new study suggests........... In other words, ritual killings helped keep the powerful in power and everyone else in check................
This finding supports the “social control hypothesis” of human sacrifice, the researchers said. This idea suggests that ritual killings are a way to terrorize people into submission, allowing the religious and political leaders (and in many cultures, those were one and the same) who ordered the killings to consolidate power unopposed............
Watts, a psychologist at the University of Auckland, wrote on his website..........
"People often claim that religion underpins morality,” Watts told Science. But he says his study illustrates how religious rituals like human sacrifice are often designed to serve someone other than the gods: “It shows how religion can be exploited by social elites to their own benefit.”
We have called shunning torture.......... we have called it unloving....a punishment.
Is it also a human sacrifice? After all aDF or DA person is considered living under a death sentence in the JW world........ is this practice which is supposed to come from a loving god nothing more then a barbaric symbolic ritual killing to make sure an organization keeps total control over their followers?
The full article is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/05/the-darker-link-between-ancient-human-sacrifice-and-our-modern-world/?hpid=hp_no-name_morning-mix-story-j%3Ahomepage%2Fstory