I spent last night reading 1 Corinthians 5 in 6 different translations I have. Then spent several hours reading commentaries on that chapter that have been published on line. Unfortunately there's no escaping the fact that to practice the christianity described in the Bible, shunning is a requirement. All of the commentaries interpreted the chapter to go beyond disfellowshipping in the church or congregational setting - it was about ceasing to have any association with that person. Several, such as the New English Bible, are even stronger than the NWT when it says "root out the evil doer from your community". The definition of evil doer is given in the preceding verses... "any so-called christian who leads a loose life, or is grasping or idolatorous, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler..." "sexual immorality" (which we know in the bible includes adultery). All commentaries agreed this chapter was referring to unrepentant sinners calling themselves christian. One commentary even went way beyond the WT and said family members living in the same house should not eat with the one shunned.
Obviously we could argue til the cows come home as to how far shunning should go according to the Bible. But I'm beginning to find it difficult to take seriously anyone who believes the Bible is God's Word who doesn't agree with shunning at least in the circumstances described above. So if Rachel gave everyone the impression she was unrepentantly having an affair, what choice did her congregation have but to shun her, if they claim to be Christian? Does that make them a cult or does that make Christianity a cult?
The more research I'm doing the less seriously I'm taking the many knee-jerk anti JW views and allegations on this board. No doubt they are prompted by personal experiences in their own congregation (if they were Jws) or other agendas, but they serve a purpose in prompting more research. Would any church or religion or individual that claims to be christian stand up to the level of scrutiny that we put the JWs under here? I guess the issue for me that's emerging now is whether I really think the Bible is true and/or whether I can worship a God that endorses shunning (and many other things I have a hard time accepting from the Bible).