by disillusioned 2 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Disfellowshipping often occurs NOT because of the ACTUAL "crime" , but because of the PERCEIVED ATTITUDE of the "sinner".
So who "perceives" that so called "attitude"?
3 self righteous no-bodies, who smugly feel they have the right to speak on behalf of God!
What if they just didnt know that person properly, or didnt like or understand them?
Stuckinarut2 "What if they just didn't know that person properly, or didn't like or understand them?"
This was EXACTLY the case with my experience. The two elders who "interviewed" us were not in our cong. One was from the cong that shared our hall, the other was a sub CO who lived 2 1/2 hours away. The 3rd elder did know me. I aux. pioneered with him and his wife just a couple of years prior to this happening. Point is, these elder's didn't know anything about my past. They were all younger than me and had no clue who I was.
When an old friend of my dad's, who was an elder in our cong at the time, called me to find out what was going on, he told me that he wished he would have been on my committee because he knew me and knew that I was not the person these other elders were making me out to be.
The 4 Scriptural steps required before anyone should be considered an outsider: Note that the congregation is ALWAYS involved before this step is taken, so the congregation would know the reason why someone is to be disciplined:
Step 1: "Moreover, if your brother commits a sin, go lay bare his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
Step 2: But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two more, in order that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter may be established.
Step 3: If he does not listen to them, speak to the congregation.
Step 4: If he does not listen even to the congregation, let him be to you just as a man of the nations and as a tax collector."
I understand that the main rationale for not publically disclosing the reason(s) for the decision to disfellowship an individual is based on strict legal advice to all bodies of elders (an announcement from the platform in the Kingdom Hall is by defintion a public announcement).
Potentially, an aggrieved party could sue the local body of elders for slander or breach of privacy, particularly if the circumstances surrounding the decision to disfellowship are in dispute (i.e., the individual denies allegations but others' testimony carries the day).
That said - ahem - the local kingdom hall gossip mill usually ensures that brothers and sisters have some idea about the reason(s) the individual was disfellowshipped. Years ago, within weeks of someone being disfellowshipped, there was invariably a local needs talk heavily alluding to the sin in question.
