Today's WT Study Stupidity About Df'ing

by metatron 42 Replies latest jw friends

  • ambersun
    ambersun

    If disfellowshipping is openly motivated by getting back with your cultish relatives, then what, pray tell, does that have to do with repentance towards God?

    Very good point. This is something that has ALWAYS bugged me right from the start, as it should be obvious to anyone that if a person has serious doubts about their religion, the situation is not going to miraculously change simply as a result of being shunned by their loved ones!

    What a wonderful, Christian attitude. Keep your doubts to yourself and tow the line like a good little JW, or we will make sure you will never speak to your loved ones again. As you say, what on earth has this got to do with repentance towards God??!!

    My own JW relatives know how strongly I feel about the shunning policy, and that the last thing I would do is crawl back to the KH on bended knee begging for forgiveness if they were to shun me, which should hopefully indicate to them how inaccurate this particular Watchtower study article is and will hopefully make them stop and think. One can but hope

  • John Locke
    John Locke

    I was sitting at the watchtower study yesterday in amaizment listening to people commenting that paragraph.

    One elderly sister related an experience from her life. They were 7 siblings in the family and one of her younger brothers was dissfelloweshipped. She said that all her siblings terminated association with him. And he wanted to communicate with them so much that he came back to the Thruth later. Another experience was given by the brother WT-study conductor. His best friend came back to the orgnization because he missed his family and friends.

    For me it was like WTF!!!! People, don't you see that the only reason these people came back was a severe emotional/pcychological pressure imposed by the organization??? that has nothing to do with truthfullnes of the religion....

    What a distorted religion...

  • Room 215
    Room 215

    As one contributor so aptly expressed it on another, unrelated thread "The WTS is the North Korea of religions." I can't imagine another religion as misanthropic as they.

  • Aussie Oz
    Aussie Oz

    I bet they didn't plan that meeting well!

    I mean, invite the public to a special talk and those that stay for the WT get to hear the real shunning policy in all its uglyness.

    great thread

    oz

  • AnnOMaly
    AnnOMaly

    I bet they didn't plan that meeting well!

    I mean, invite the public to a special talk and those that stay for the WT get to hear the real shunning policy in all its uglyness.

    That crossed my mind too. The Special Talk included discussing how to be peaceable and resolve conflicts, and it mentioned the Golden Rule - 'treat others as you would want to be treated' - how it is more proactive than just 'don't do any harm to anyone.' At one point our speaker (a real Society worshipper) said, 'Nobody likes to be ignored' and I smiled to myself, knowing he wouldn't for a second see any contradiction with the WT reasoning on DFing later. I hoped some in the audience would notice, however.

  • Gorbatchov
    Gorbatchov

    Lady Viola,

    I did not mean that there are no DF's here, but in The Netherlands most of the family stay in contact with the DF-fellow.

    I see it happen in the congregations and know also that the youth here is very liberal!

  • nancy drew
    nancy drew

    Sometimes when I hear that people keep trying to stay in contact with their jw relatives as if their doing the noble thing. i think it just encourages them to keep up their stance they think if you grovel back to them you might come back.

    It's best no matter how difficult to let them experience the pain of their choice, they started it by shunning you to make you come back so make sure they know you never will and say good bye and never look back

    Let them never entertain even a brief hope of your return so they can feel the full force of "jehovahs love" and what it requires.

  • WontLeave
    WontLeave

    The Bible doesn't seem to indicate an elite group of people get to decide who is and isn't "good association". Even if someone is a member of the congregation, whether because there is not enough evidence to oust him or because his misdeeds aren't the type to get him disfellowshipped, that doesn't necessitate him being "good association". Conversely, disagreeing with some arbitrary beliefs promoted by old men in NY which are not well- (or at all) supported in Scripture doesn't necessitate him being "bad association".

    The account of removing the man from the congregation in Corinth makes it clear that he was rebuked "by the majority" and not every person. Perhaps they were unaware of the situation and had no reason to shun the man. Without any first-hand information, how much sense does it make to shun someone based purely on the vague say-so of someone else; especially in a situation where some very flimsy reasons which are not supported in Scripture are used to remove people from the congregation?

    Thinly disguised under the veil of "unrepentant", the reason people get disfellowshipped is because they don't grovel before the losers in cheap suits. Ultimately, as long as you pay lip-service to repentance and kiss the collective butts of the JC, you can molest children, have sex with animals, commit all sorts of crimes, abuse your wife and kids, etc. without a problem. On the other hand, if the elders call you in because someone has issue with the music you listen to or the clothes you wear and you tell them to mind their own business, that may start you down the road toward being DFed. The worst sin a JW can commit is failure to submit to the hierarchy they deny exists.

    There are many in the Hall I see as "bad association" and most are elders. They are idolaters and that is an offence which is clearly identified in Scripture as someone with whom a Christian should not associate. Yet, these are not only allowed to remain in the congregation, but actually promoted to positions of authority over other members of the congregation, to demand similar wickedness from the laity. I believe the strongest statement that can be made would be to begin shunning these "brothers" who openly practice idolatry toward the Society, the Governing Body, and the literature. It would also keep with Scriptural admonition and not allow a double-standard.

    Keep in mind, "anyone called a brother" is who shunning is for and once someone is DFed, they're not a brother anymore. Why is nobody shunning the only people they're supposed to, but only those outside, "while God judges those outside"?

  • watson
    watson

    It seemed to me that this article was meant to distract the "friends".

    If the "friends" all believe that most disfellowshippings are for unrepentant sinners, then it makes it much easier to shun them. If it's because most just don't believe it anymore, have left the culture, and now live a normal life...well that could cause many more to really "examine" what they believe.

  • Found Sheep
    Found Sheep

    thinking back on how "wicked" they make Df ones look makes me sick. I can think of 20 off my head who were DF in my time as a JW and I have to say only one or two of them were "bad". I'm a better person now then when I was a JW.

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