When did the Watchtower start the shunning?

by Tameria2001 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Diogenesister

  steve 2 This was decades before Ray Franz -so it is incorrect to say disfellowshipping only came into force after Ray left Bethel - although his departure sparked a conflation of disfellowshipping and disassociating in terms of both leading to being shunned.

  What on earth are you on about Steve 2

  As usual you haven't read things properly before jumping in with your two left feet.

  Disfellowshipping was a thing long before Ray left Bethel. As was shunning the disfellowshipped one. No one suggested otherwise.

  What happened in 81 was that the order was given to shun disassociated ones .This was done because Ray was living with, and working for, a disassociated jw.They therefore ensured Ray was breaking the rules by associating with someone who must be shunned.

  Essentially Ray was DF for not shunning.

  This of course blocked the last escape route for any JW wishing to formally leave the religion without being punished and shunned by family and friends, since they could no longer disassociate without consequence.

  The final nail in the coffin when it came to freedom of conscience for JWs.

  Edit: Convention talks this year have, for the first time, intimated even the inactive JW be shunned. The screws tighten!
  
  
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  Finkelstein

  Because the WTS and its organized religion the JWS was built upon flimsy unsubstantiated doctrines such as 1914 and the rest, it would be expected that there would be enforced controls to what its associated members would say about its established doctrines.

  In reality the Watchtower Corporation was born out apostasy from its very beginning, as the Gospel it preached was tainted with commercialism and all of the top leaders of the organization knew that.
  
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  Wild_Thing

  If you really want to know when shunning was first ordered to occur, it was in the late 1800s/early 1900s when Charles and Maria Russell were separated.

  Charles didn't like Maria expressing her personal views about the Bible and other issues. He wrote letters to her friends and family ordering them not to speak to her or allow her to visit.

  Shunning within the Watchtower society runs deep. It was only a matter of time before it became official policy.
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  Finkelstein

  Its really part of I've god the power of god though me self identity.

  Oppose my doctrines and you are opposing god and therefore an agent of evil rebellious Satan .

  Back in Russell's day there was a struggling competition of who's doctrines or theology was right.
  

  None were but there was money invested in publishing and men were making themselves a public notoriety through public talks and news.
  
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  ScenicViewer

  Shunning within the Watchtower society runs deep. It was only a matter of time before it became official policy.

  An excellent observation about Maria Russell being shunned before Watchtower officially taught shunning!
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  Sigfrid Mallozzi

  Actually, shunning goes back to the Garden of Eden, where after Adam and Eve sinned and consequently Jehovah put Adam and Eve out of the Garden and posted Angels to guard the Garden from the shunned to returning to the Garden.

  However, Satan was able to walk into a meeting and talk about Job with Jehovah in front of all the other angels and he gave permission to persecute Job but not kill him. Satan wasn't shunned, because he wasn't considered a threat. But eventually, Satan was Demonized and supposedly is now excommunicated.
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  Sigfrid Mallozzi

  Personally, in my old short life, the shunning thing has grown from the Ray Franz days trying to minimalize damage. There was a Watchtower article in the early 1980's that started to tighten the screws on non-active persons. I remember couples having to rearrange their wedding parties, best men, bridesmaids, invitees etc because appointed elders sprung into compliance.
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  zeb

  from a small note i made one day.

  74 wt Shunning.. "Each family must decide. such a one parent or gp has the natural right to visit their blood relatives and his/her offspring"

  then with the 15-9-1981 there was a flip flop.

  We all need to keep strongly in mind that all these flip-flops/changes/ new light etc are a very strong indication ( a revelation?) that the wts is not directed by a supreme being unless he is very confused and even capricious.

  I have rarely commented on shunning. I see it as a bloody minded chicanery created to bolster the power grid of the gb and go f*** the individuals involved.

  If you have a sibling or child that goes off the rails there remains a chance they will sort themselves out and so what if they don't believe what you believe? What you believe as a wt follower changes from time to time. How would you shunners feel if you had a child shunned and them suicide only to have the reasons for their shunning then become 'old-light' and no longer in vogue?
  
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  Vidiot

  Tameria2001 - "When did the Watchtower start the shunning?"

  About three seconds after people started figuring out they were wrong.