Can disfellowshipping a person be harmful to their spirituality?

by JH 17 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  JH

  The JW Org wants us to be almost perfect. The slightest fault that we do, we are treated as if we are entirely bad, then we get DF'd.

  It's an "ALL or NOTHING" way of thinking that can be spiritually dangerous.

  Example: If a JW is caught smoking, and becomes DF'd because of this, that person may feel free to do even worse sins, because they can't be more DF'd than they are right now. So disfellowshipping a person for something as small as smoking or playing lotto, can be counter productive for the sinner.

  It's like puting a person in jail for a petty crime. Then in jail, he gets to know real criminals, and comes out of jail worse than when he entered.
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  Can disfellowshipping a person be harmful to their spirituality?

  hopefully.

  honestly. not getting DF'd, but then burning in hell for eternity is just as detrimental to one's spirituality.
• 

  JH

  I mean, if the Watchtower Org wants the sinner to repent, why expose them to even worse sins by DF them.
• 

  bennyk

  So far, my spirituality has not been harmed by my recent disfellowshiping.

  But I do find it somewhat depressing that so many people with whom I worked so long could be such traitorous swine....

  ben (of the I-feel-somewhat-sorry-for-me-today class)
• 

  jeanniebeanz

  Benny,

  Traiterous swine. I love it. May I quote you?

  JH,

  Yes, it does tremendous damage to a persons concept of "god". Many of us make a complete recovery though by kicking 'god' out of our lives entirely. So I guess it depends on if you view spirituality as necessary. If so, the treatment you describe is devastating. If not, it just enables people to see clearly for the first time in their lives...

  btw, did you see the girlfriend I found for you yesterday in the wake up thread? Quite the beauty...

  Jeannie
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  Rod P

  It might initially, until they pick themselves up off the floor, brusch themselves off, and start over. For some, they may never recover.

  Thinking about it, I think it may be more about the question of the harm it causes to their Self-Esteem.

  Rod P.
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  minimus

  No. Jehovah loves those He disciplines.
• 

  crazyblondeb

  Being df'd was the best thing that happened to me. I didn't believe in jehovah, or any god for that reason. I mean, couldn't you just "feel" god's love in the congregation? Yea, right!!

  Now, like Rod P said, it cratered my self-esteem.

  shelley
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  tetrapod.sapien

  well said jeannie,

  frankly, i would prefer for any witness to get DF'd, and go out and become a born again christian, than to go back to the WTS. and that's a big thing for me to say.

  the saddest is when they think they will be torn asunder at armaegedon for so many years after getting DF'd. that's the true damage. being in cult-lock-control-purgatory thought-space.
• 

  JH

  did you see the girlfriend I found for you

  Yes jeannie. that female rat pleases me.