by crazycate 18 Replies latest jw friends
I have been inactive for 5 years now. Lately I am being treated more and more as if I were disfellowshipped, which I am not. Do any of you know of anything, in writing, that is encouraging members to curtail any and all association with former members who are no longer active?
Thank you for your time.
What a great achievement: 5 years inactive. Good that you do not appear to be feeling the need to 're-activate' yourself!
Oh, there have been many statements in publications over the decades about limiting contact with those who are not active in the organization. This is not a new move at all - and it does not even need to be "official" for it to happen. I'm hoping that one of our more astute posters such as Blondie will respond with lots of relevant quotations from the Watchtower's own mouth.
I left in 2007. i'm not DF but the consequences are almost the same.
All the so called friends and brothers will avoid you especially if they know you don't believe anymore, they consider you bad association and a danger to their faith.
My daughter has not talked to me since 2009.
Hope the best for you.
Crazycate there was a directive by the WTS. in recent years that states that people who have been a member
of the organization but left, should be treated in similar fashion as a DF member , this includes family members.
So take that as a possibility.
The forced mantra by the WTS. is anyone who is not a devoted member of the organization as they describe as
being worldly should be avoided as a means to maintain and hold on to individual spiritual strength.
I do know that if your'e inactive and express opinions that don't toe the "company" view you will be
treated as a DF person. I was recently warned about my associating with a couple of old friends
due to their 'poisonous thinking' although they're not DF. But I'm finding that it's not poisonous !!!!! the beers are cold and the conversations
are stimulating. However the "organised" book 2005 kind of hints that on page 155. After talking about rendering spiritual assistance
to inactive ones it states "However if the person who disassociates himself by repudiating the faith and deliberately
abandoning Jehovah's worship is viewed in the same way as one who is disfellowshipped. A brief announcement
is made to inform the congregation, stating: "(Name of person) is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses" "
I haven't heard anything lately, but I quickly got the cold shoulder as I've become inactive over the past 6 months. There was a brief elders meeting right before I went inactive to see how the elders could help me re-qualify as a servant again. I told them I just needed more time. With that time I learned TTATT and started doing less and less. On paper, I have a few hours of informal witnessing, but honestly I'm inactive. The time I count, although real, wouldn't be considered time by a JW because although it's spiritual conversation, it's not JW propaganda.
The pendulum seems to swing on this, I have been inactive a little longer than you, and a non-attender for the same time. My JW family do not actually shun me and Mrs Phizzy, but we are not invited to any of their functions of course, which is understandable, I think they know we would more than likely refuse.
What stings a little is that they do not inform us of family news, a pregnancy for example, but that may be laziness. This year, in small ways they seem to have reached out to us abit more, but it is only a slight "thaw".
What will be interesting is that early next year it is a big Anniversary for my aged JW parents, will we be invited ? Again, if we are, we will probably refuse, politely and kindly, as we could not stomach socialising with a large group of JW's. Yuk.
The DC this summer laid it on heavy about bad associations. There was a lot of labelling, even shunning within the BOrg is subtly encouraged. WT seems to want to isolate JWs to a stronger degree in the last couple of years. Rely on Jehovah, blah blah blah.
Phizzy, you make an interesting point, you actually avoid them. Interesting.
Kate xx
Bear in mind if you are still association with active dubbies and are "practicing sin", it doesn't matter how long you have been inactive for, you can still be regarded a spiritual danger and could even get called to a JC.
The www.jw.org website is clear to say that people who fade into inactivity are not to be shunned. This information is current.
Now, if they say something and then act differently ....
Eden
