First of all, thank you Zev for recording and listing the talk on the New Light on How To Treat Disfellowshipped Relatives. You did a great job.
Secondly, whole in the hell do these old geezers in Brooklyn think they are? Listening to another dub talk has raised my ire against them, again. How much can they distort the Bible and get away with it? How many families can they encourage to split apart and continue to get away with it? These people really piss me off!
Lets look at some points;
*** w81 9/15 28 If a Relative Is Disfellowshiped . . . ***
That will mean changes in the spiritual fellowship that may have existed in the home. For example, if the husband is disfellowshiped, his wife and children will not be comfortable with him conducting a family Bible study or leading in Bible reading and prayer. If he wants to say a prayer, such as at mealtime, he has a right to do so in his own home. But they can silently offer their own prayers to God.
Where does the Bible ever state that no one will be comfortable with a husband of a different belief conducting any type of study or prayer? Does not the Bible say it is the husbands REPOSNSIBILITY to teach the family and pray?
*** Rbi8 1 Corinthians 7:13 ***
13 and a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and yet he is agreeable to dwelling with her, let her not leave her husband.
If the man is to be slighted within his own household, my wife and children, at the insistence of the Watchtower, are they not encouraging the wife and children to leave the husband emotionally? Is this not a most effective cause of divorce?
*** Rbi8 Ephesians 5:21-24 ***
21 Be in subjection to one another in fear of Christ. 22 Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, 23 because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation, he being a savior of [this] body. 24 In fact, as the congregation is in subjection to the Christ, so let wives also be to their husbands in everything.
Can a wife be in subjection to her husband, IN EVERYTHING, if encouraged to slight him within their home? Does this not obligate the wife to listen to her husband, if he were to decide to teach beliefs contrary to the JWs? Of course, she should be free to believe as she wishes, but where does the husband ever lose the right to teach the Bible as he sees fit?
*** Rbi8 Ephesians 5:31 ***
31 For this reason a man will leave [his] father and [his] mother and he will stick to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
Can they be one flesh with a printing corporation between them? Many times, they have lauded a mate for leaving a religion and coming into the JWs, yet, if reversed, they condemn it.
What do they use for justification for this ripping of families apart?
*** Rbi8 Matthew 10:37 ***
37 He that has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me; and he that has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me.
As we all know, the me mentioned is Jesus. What arrogant bastards the Watchtower are for equating themselves to Jesus. Many leave the Watchtower to find Jesus.
*** Rbi8 Matthew 18:17 ***
17 If he does not listen to them, speak to the congregation. 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.
Another they use for justification of their emotional blackmail they call shunning. Lets look at this. A man of the nations! Who are they? They were nonchristians, where they not? Yet, JWs go out door to door visiting these men of the nations often. They speak to them and encourage them to come be sucked into the cult. Logically, if they are shunning DFd and DAd ones as men of the nations, should they also not be going out in service peddling their Watchtower crap?
Tax collectors?
*** Rbi8 Mark 2:15-17 ***
15 Later he happened to be reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many of them and they began following him. 16 But the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, began saying to his disciples: Does he eat with the tax collectors and sinners? 17 Upon hearing this Jesus said to them: Those who are strong do not need a physician, but those who are ill do. I came to call, not righteous people, but sinners.
If they truly believed they had the truth, would they not heed and follow the example of Jesus? Would they not encourage all to be helping the weak ones and not shunning them and making their lives so miserable, they come running back to the cult or worse, commit suicide? And who was complaining about Jesus reclining and eating with tax collectors? The Pharisees. No, the Watchtower does not equal Jesus, but it appears they do equal the Pharisees.
Some points borrowed from The Beacon article on shunning;
There were two kinds of association for religious worship:
1) public meetings, such as at the temple and in synogogues, which anyone was allowed to attend; and
2) private gatherings of the different sects.
Christians and Jews participated in both. Christians, met in private homes, usually over a special meal with prayer. A presiding minister hosted the meal using either fellowship funds or personal funds. (Acts 20:20; see the footnote in older editions of the NWT)
Christians were instructed to "greet" one another with a kiss. (Rom.16:16; 1.Cor.16:20; 2Cor.13:12; Ti.3:15; 1Pet.5:14) When Paul sent his "greetings" in a letter to the Christians in Thessalonica, he requested that the "brothers" be greeted by a "holy kiss" on his behalf. (1Thess.5:26) It was by this sign that Judas betrayed Jesus. (Luke 22:47,48)
Clearly, Paul did instruct Christians to expel from the congregation's fellowship any person who was purposely practicing willful sin. The disassociation would quite naturally exclude them from being greeted by the identifying "holy kiss," as well as not being allowed to share in meetings and the meals for Christian worship and prayer. However, Paul's instruction did not prohibit normal conversation or witnessing to former members. Nor were they barred from attending worship in the temple or the synagogues. Jesus, the apostles and Paul, along with the rest of the Jews, worshipped God both publicly in the temple and synagogues, and privately with small groups in various homes. (Acts 5:42) It was from the private Christian fellowship for worship that sinners were excluded.
For sake of brevity, I will stop at this point. Clearly, the Watchtower is not following the examples of Jesus, yet use a distortion of scripture to justify their steel grip on cult members.
To quote an often heard euphemism around here, F**K the Watchtower!
Lew W
