Mormon lady shocked at JW disfellowshipping policy

yaddayadda

Was talking to a Mormon friend about the JW policy of shunning disfellowshipped persons. She was pretty shocked to hear that JW totally ignore disfellowshipped ones, not even saying hello, even family members. Told her that you have to spend months attending their meetings to grovel your way back and the whole time no one talks to you, not a word. She said "but that's humiliating!"

I asked her what policy the Mormons have. They said Mormons have both disfellowshipping and excommunicating (can't quite recall what the difference is but the latter is worse as it involves a kind of judicial committee and you are officially removed from the roll of Mormons) but in both cases NO ONE knows except the top dudes in your local church. It is kept confidential from the rest of the flock. It only affects the disfellowshipped or expelled Mormon in that they are not allowed to tithe anymore or get involved in certain activities. But otherwise there is no announcement and you are treated the same as normal. You are never shunned by other mormons unless you request no contact.

And if a Mormon becomes inactive, ie, stops attending their services, the elders in the church visit them ONCE A MONTH until the person is activated again or requests the visits to stop. And others in the church will often do little things to encourage you to come back, eg, leaving kind notes and cakes at your door.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn all this. Funny how a 'false religion' clearly has a much more loving, merciful policy for how it deals with congregation members struggling with sin than JW's. Seems to me that Mormons are fulfilling John 13:35 in this matter much better than JW's are.

Yadda

bigdreaux

that is interesting

Gopher

The Witnesses are a performance-based religion. You're only about as good as your last few servce time reports.

If you are having 'spiritual problems' and don't get them quickly resolved, you are a burden to the flock and need to be excised. Only if you are DF'd and then come back to the JW's on their terms will you be regarded as human. But even then, the stain of DF'ing folliows you throughout your life in the organization unless you move far away.

yaddayadda

Only 2 responses to this? I guess the 'friends' board is for meaningless fluff only.

R.F.

I'm in agreement with Gopher here. The JW religion really is performance based. It's all too easy to fall below WT company standards and then be viewed as nothing. I feel so sorry for anyone that holds the JW disefellowshipping policy in high esteem.

reneeisorym

I'm curious if this is really the truth about the Mormons. I know that you, yadda, are telling the truth but I wonder if the Mormon lady was being really honest about their activity. I know that JWs have a way of not telling you what really goes on.

I remember hearing that in Utah, its bad when you are DFed. There are a huge number of Mormons so if you are DFed, people stop buying from you if you are self employed or you can get fired if you work for someone else. But I don't know that first hand and my memory may be failing me a bit.

38 Years

I have a close friend who is Mormon and she said the same thing Yadda's friend said. They do disfellowship and excommunicate on really serious matters, not the offenses Brooklyn has made up to be serious. They do not shun family and non-family members at all. They have some other strange beliefs, but they do take look after their congregation members and will help out physically, spiritually and financially. I would never become Mormon, but I have bounced some of the dubs beliefs and practices off my friend and she thinks it's just about the worst stuff she's ever heard.

bluebell

So are there any "religions" out there who do act the same as the dubs or are the dubs the worst for this kind of excommunicating behaviour?

moshe

how a 'false religion' clearly has a much more loving, merciful policy

At some point many ex-JW's come to realize that there is no true or false religion, just religions which have more love and charity than others and don't require a lot of your money or time to belong. It is not unusual for a Mormon to spend 15% of their income on tithes, local & regional Stake church funding and widows and orphans funds. I would keep my door closed to the Mormon elders when I left, too.

yaddayadda

Thanks for your replies. Yes it would be interesting to know what the policy is of other churches that are kinda similar to JW's.

Does anyone know what the Seventh Day Adventists and Christadelphians do?

Yadda

Mormon lady shocked at JW disfellowshipping policy

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