I asked my JW friend today why Witnesses shun people including family. He said that the people here (this blog) are all posessed by the devil and that they certainly do not practice this. I said it would be very juvenile if they did. Who's lying?
Pretty much everything that was discussed today (from here) is rubbish from disgruntled people trying to settle a score.
As for the shunning thing, the 'problem' there is that (when it comes to family) it's practiced differently from family to family, and/or congregation to congregation. However - when it comes to disfellowshipped or disassociated people in general, the JWs of course do teach that you should not have anything to do with them at all, or say 'Hi' to them if you run into them (unless maybe if it's in a professional capacity, like if you work at the same workplace and have to cooperate with them in order to do a job).
-Do not think they won't be able to show you scriptures to support this, though. When you're an active Witness, the Bible is the absolute authority (
as interpreted by the WBTS), and so anything goes as long as they can find support for it in the Bible, and the argument stops there (as far as they're concerned). And they do have scriptures they like to quote to show that disfellowshipping and 'shunning' is the correct thing to do (for instance 2. John 9-11). Explaining that this is a cruel practice isn't going to get you far with most JWs, as
it's in the Bible, and therefore from God (also remember that the Organization is from God as well, so whatever they say goes). They do probably think those who have "fallen away" (like the people here) are "to some degree" demon possessed; there are scriptures they use in order to show this, like 1. Ti 4:1 (many of the scriptures they use are out of context, though). Evolution theory and any other theory or thought that may challenge the Bible (or their understanding of it) is regarded as demon inspired ideas, made in order to deceive God's people (2 Pet. 2:1,2). They shouldn't even have contact with people who defend those ideas (Rom 16:17,18). So it's not easy to break out of the JWs with all this in the back of your head, as anything from the outside that goes against what they believe is deemed to be demon inspired, and shouldn't be looked into.
Some may look into it anyway, and I'm sure a few active JWs believe (in secrecy) in evolution for instance (at least to some degree), but they won't say that in public in that case. They are "waiting on Jehovah" to sort the doubts out. Funny how he doesn't do that
now, since he has an organization he could do it through... I personally haven't looked too deeply into the UN NGO or the stocks in weapon industry, because those are not the reasons I have for dismissing the JWs. Those things are but a "bonus" to me, to show how human the organization really is. From a JWs point of view though, those things are for the most part made up, half truths, lies, or exaggerations, made in order to "beat their fellow servants" (Mat 24:48 - 50). Don't underestimate a JW and think they won't have answers (from the Bible). If it's one thing they're good at, it's slapping scripture in your face to prove their point. You have to take that power away from them, but that's a whole 'nother subject. -Again - not an easy org to get out of. (above scriptures were found in "Reasoning From the Scriptures")
that is funny. if you could, can you be a little more specific in what you need. there is so much information, and so much explaining, it would take multiple books. a web blog is way to small to hold all the information neded. it would look like a bunch of postings from jc........well, you all know the rest.