I am going to conduct a little pseudoscientific experiment here. My hope is to prove without a doubt that disfellowshipping causes more problems for the JW's than it solves. To do this I will ask all of you who voluntarily left:
When you left the org was it because of some one who DID get disfellowshipped (i.e. a loved one or someone you felt was unfairly judged) or becuase of someone who didn't (i.e. an unpunished child molestor, an unfaithful mate? Or did the df'ing policy not enter into the equasion at all?
Post your comments and answer I'll tabulate the data when i get around to it.
Does disfellowshipping work?
by what_Truth? 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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what_Truth?
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TRUTH SEEKER
I left because someone did not get df'd and the information kept changing - "it was in Jehovah's hands".- what a bunch of garbage!
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iiz2cool
I left because of the society's practise of protecting child abusers.
Walter
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Doubtfully Yours
I've left because the '1914 generation' new light, and after finding out the UN affiliation.
DY
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GetBusyLiving
I left because of the blood policy and the 607 bullshit.
GBL
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95stormfront
I initially left because I just couldn't wrap my head around their everchanging line of bullshit. The last straw was when a couple of elders came into my home and tried to "dress down" me and my decision to go back to school while my wife cheered them on.
Talk about having enough........
Learning about their doctrinal flip-flops, hypocrisy and outright lying came later.
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mnb77
I have never been in the group, but I had a dear friend in the group. She had invited me to join and learn more from the elders and stuff, but i figured i would research this stuff first. The BIGGEST reason I didn't join was because of the ever changing policy. With how many time things have changed, I couldn't see how it was in Jehovah's hands, because he is a never changing type and it made it hard.
Stuff I have found on the dsfing stuff:
Jehovah's Witnesses do disfellowship and shun people for:
o no longer claiming to be called a brother/sister.
o independent study and discussion of the Bible that brings Watchtower doctrine into question.
o possession of literature written by former members.
o having lunch with a former member, even if the former member professes to be a Christian and was not disfellowshipped for fornication, greed, idolotry, reviling, drunkeness, or extortion.
o attending a service of any other church or religious organization.
o authorizing a blood transfusion, even to save the life of a child.
o numerous other actions not mentioned in scripture, but deemed by the congregation elders to be "unclean conduct," or "conduct unbecoming" of a Jehovah's Witness. "Conduct" in this case covers a broad range of actions not clearly defined by the Society, leaving discernment about what is not acceptable to the discretion of the congregation's elders. As a result, standards by which people may be disfellowshiped are inconsistent throughout this religion which claims "unity" to be one of their identifying characteristics.
I found all this at http://www.xjw.com/shunning.html
I had also found other sites and found personal testimonies about people being dsf and didn?t see that as being Christian. This is because Christ hung out with uncool and unclean people and didn?t dsf them.
this dsf stuff is mean & not loving :(
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willyloman
Does it "work"?
Well, if you mean is it just: No. It's the end result of a kangaroo court in which justice is absent. So, in that sense, it can never work.
If you mean is it an effective tool used by the WTS to control its followers: Yes, it works quite well.
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hopelesslystained
I just left, period. Nothing about them brought me any peace, joy, happiness, love, or anything else positive. Being brought up a jw made it easy to shun them!
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tijkmo
im with willyloman on this...when i leave it will be because i was disfellowshipped wrongly.....and although now reinstated it has been too damaging....i was talking to an elder recently who had slandered me during proceedings but wasnt actually on the jc....and i mentioned that the original decision to disfellowship had been wrong and he actually started smiling as if the very idea of a mistake was inconceivable....he soon stopped when i told him to wipe the smile off his face before i wiped it off for him