by pierogi 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
pierogi I love your cute avatar!!!
Keep it generic; avoid lawsuits. I DAed myself 14 years ago because I wanted to make a clean break. But I'm sure others might think it was because of immorality (they love to gossip about that). Does it make a difference? I don't like the idea of people perhaps thinking me guilty of that, but what can I do? They'll think whatever they want to anyway.
Juni
I think the main reason for the change from ".....is df'd" or"....has disassociated" to "...is no longer a jw" has a lot to do with the increase in people da'ing themselves. With the announcement being what it is now, the congregation aren't aware of the reason they are no longer a jw, and if they obey the shunning rule, have no way of finding out.
It isn't in the org's interests to have their members know how many are leaving of their own accord.
Ok I just replied and it didn't show up!
I said thanks Juni.
Also that maybe they changed the announcement because of legal reasons, with the extra benefit of deceiving the JWs. I did hear that they used to announce something that implied the
person was no longer a Christian. I see how that could make people mad and easy enough to prove wrong and that it is slader to sue them. Does anyone know about this? I think maybe
they said no longer part of the Christian congregation.
I remember having dinner with a circuit overseer once who was trying to impress upon myself and others at the table his vast array of knowledge. He made an hour long disscussion of how much worse a disassociated person was than a dissfellowshipped person. A disfellowshipped person was simply having to endure much needed punishment(like a spanking, he said) . But a d'Aed person had chosen to leave Jehovah's org. and should be treated as though they we dead. This meant to me to assume that all d'Aed people were apostates. It seemed reasonable to me. Why else would anyone choose to leave. I was so niave.
But I do know for a fact that the reason they changed the announcement was because it can be considered slander to announce someones indescretions.Totally a legal descision.
I personally think if they are going to disfellowship people,other members of the cong have a right to know why they can't talk to them. It sure would cut down on the gossip, Which would, in turn allow the sisters to spend more time feeding the homeless and such.....lol
My brother was just d'fed for drinking too much. His wife left him three days later(conveinient) I have heard countless times from others in my town that he had been d'fed for cheating on her and thats why she left him. He has never cheated on her and he is now quite upset about the rumours. I hear a scriptual divorce coming her way.
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It's nothing more than words. The reason a person is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses means nothing - da'd/df'd - the punishment is all the same so what does it matter? I could care less if you tell me someone was ousted for smoking, drinking or immorality or if they left because they just didn't believe in the crap any longer. I'm not about to judge anyone by watchtower standards and for them, shunning is to be applied to the person regardless of the reason they are no longer 'one of them'. They see it all as only black and white.
I break it down into levels. If you are a JW, baptized, in good standing and an elder lets say.....your rating is an 11 - with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.
If you are a worldly person - you are a level 0.
If you are disfellowshipped you drop immediately to a level 1 - only because you can repent and get reinstated. You are after all imperfect so you make mistakes, but you can work toward righting those wrongs. You'll be judged every step of the way and even after, shunned and cast out, but heck - it's only loving discipline.
If you are dissasociated, I figure you drop to a -1. You left Jehovah willingly so Satan has you by the neck and is squeezing. Again you will be judged and shunned.
Now - if you are a disfellowshipped person who ends up with a worldly person, then you are quite obviously not repentent and have now entered the worldly theme park, where women strip naked for your pleasure all day and your nights are fueled by booze and porn. Satan has fooled you into believing that the world is a good place. The shunning would likely get worse and the judgement still stands. You have now moved to a level of -2 - especially if after being df'd and being in the world, you now want to DA yourself because you realized when you were DF'd that it's all a load of crud anyway. sammieswife.
