So you CAN be df'ed, even if inactive for months or years!!!!!!!!

by BLISSISIGNORANCE 25 Replies latest social current

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  BLISSISIGNORANCE

  News Mum banished from her church Jan 28 2005 By Homa Khaleeli, Southport Visiter

  A TEACHING assistant from Southport has been thrown out of her congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses - for celebrating Christmas. Karen Johnson, 42, was told she was being "disfellowshipped", or ex- communicated, because Jehovah ' s Witnesses disapprove of Christmas. Now she says her relatives and friends must choose whether to follow the religion's teachings and not speak to her unless it is absolutely necessary. Jehovah's witnesses do not mark holidays without Christian origins, such as birthdays, and ignore Christmas because of its links with pagan festivals. Ms Johnson, of Grove Street, was told she would be thrown out of the church on January 4 during her son's birthday party. She had not been to any Jehovah's Witness meetings since her marriage broke up, 18 months earlier, saying she was criticised for leaving her husband. But she is upset at the effect her ban will have on her nine-year-old son, who goes to Larkfield School, and on her mother. She said: "A few months ago a Jehovah ' s Witness mother who was in my son's school said to him: 'Isn't it a shame your mum is going to die at Armageddon?'
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  Incense_and_Peppermints

  well that tears it...

  She said: "A few months ago a Jehovah ' s Witness mother who was in my son's school said to him: 'Isn't it a shame your mum is going to die at Armageddon?'

  any adult who would speak this way to a child is cruel and evil.
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  Lostreality

  I and P, Agreed. I hope people like that discover just what exactly they are doing to those poor children.
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  Double Edge

  BLISS...

  do you have the link to that story?
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  Double Edge

  I FOUND IT ....

  http://icseftonandwestlancs.icnetwork.co.uk/icsouthport/news/tm_objectid=15127112&method=full&siteid=60252&headline=mum-banished-from-her-church-name_page.html

  THE REST OF THE STORY:

  "How dare they say such a thing to a child? Armageddon is the time that Jehovah's witnesses believe that everyone on the earth will be destroyed by God and only Jehovah's witnesses will remain."

  Ms Johnson, who works at Freshfields Primary School in Formby, said: "I am not a bad person, in fact I believe I am a good person. I work hard for a living, trying to provide a nice happy life for my son and I. Why couldn't they leave me alone?"

  A spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses said about 700 people are "disfellow-shipped" every year for not following the religion ' s moral code, which also bans smoking and sex outside of marriage.

  He said: "Their purpose is to keep our religion clean and maintain our high standards."

  Although many of these people later return to the religion, while they are disfellowshipped other Jehovah's Witnesses are supposed to ignore them where possible.

  Although close family members are supposed to behave with love towards disfellowshipped members, they are supposed to avoid speaking to them except to discuss important family matters.
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  candidlynuts

  i wish every story like this could be published. let the world know!

  700 are df;d per year where i wonder? their city? their country?
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  gumby

  The WTBTS policy on Disfellowshipping those who no longer are associated goes like this.

  If a sufficient time has passed, and if the person is no longer recognised by the community or fellow witnesess as being one of Jehovahs Witnesses, then there is no need to take action. If the person in question has commited a disfellowshipping offence and it's big news within the congregation in which a reasonable number of publishers are bothered by it, then a Judicial commitee will deal with it.........even after years of inactivity......depending on the effect it has on the congregation they were associated with. In many cases there is no action taken against such ones such as those who' fade' but make no obvious "waves" among fellow witnesses.

  Gumby
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  unclebruce

  AH!!! Gumby nailed it! A blokes gotta type quick arround here.

  Good question Bliss,

  I''ve enjoyed reading this thread, it's something that particularly worries us walkaway's. Here in Aust, walking away and just never going back is a very common way of leaving the cult. If the figures are correct, in Australia there are almost two ex-jws for every currently active/believing witness.

  I had a very heated 'discussion' with my elder father in law last time we met. He was angry that I "must have been speaking to apostates" to believe what I did about the history of Paulian Christianity. I remained calm but he went red as a beetroot and basicly called me a liar even though I showed him my reseach books (none of them by exjws). He looked confused when I explained that, by writing articles on the internet, I was more likely to be a bad influence on apostates and christians alike rather than the other way arround. The dear man had trouble comming to grips with the fact that no one really influenced my thinking but me.

  The upshot was that, once he had assured himself, by direct questioning, that I was "never going to attend a meeting again" or "cause any trouble in the congregations" he was able to calm down so we could resume our friendship with a mutual interest in sailing/fishing/camping.

  The above was reassuring for him but a thinly veiled threat of a judicial commitee to me. Funny thing is that when I was a JW no one could have got off lightly by threatening me in any way at all. I felt sorry for him and anyway what'd be the use of two people being angry at the same time? Maybe I'm more of a christian now that I'm a heathen.

  unclebruce who causes trouble from outside the congregation s.
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  dh

  the bastard said it right.
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  JustTickledPink

  I was DF'd after 5 years of non-attendance and moving to a different town. I never spoke to any JWs and no one even talked to me. My mother pushed the issue as soon as she found out I had moved in with a guy. She is the one that hounded the elders. I probably would have been left alone because no one even knew where I was.

  So, I don't think it was causing a stir among the congregation at all.