There are certain laws already regarding shunning. Governments and agencies that give money to any group that practices mandated shunning should not get funding.
Example 1: A couple with 2 children. The husband commits adultery, is disfellowshipped and the wife chooses to divorce him. She gets custody of the children and he gets visitation rights.
She immediately begins demonizing him. Instead of helping the children maintain contact with his children, whom he had a good relationship with before, they are now refusing to see him. The law says he has rights. he hasn't abused the. He pays child support. But she won't let him near them and has made them too scared to go. She is actively teaching the children to shun their father because he now serve Satan. This is called "alienation of affection" and it IS against the law in many places.
Example 2: Due to the court seeing the above, the judge decides that it is in the best interests of the children to place them with the father and she now has visitation rights. When she has them, she takes them to meetings and out in service. She studies with them and yup demonizes Dad again. alienation of affection The judge now insists on the wife not taking to the kids about the religion or taking them to meetings or out in service. So she gets her mother to study the Bible with them. You see where this is going?
Example 3: A 15-yr old boy doesn't want to go to the meetings. He isn't doing anything wrong or hanging out with a bad group of kids. He is just fed up and doesn't want to go anymore. His parents insist and he digs in his heels. Arguments gets worse and the elders are called. Publications and the Bible is read but nothing is going to change this boy's mind. So the parents throw him out of the house. he has no where to go. They don't find another place for him. They don't try social services for a foster home. Just throw his things out of the house and let him figure it out.
First of all this is against the law. Parents have a legal responsibility to care for their children, generally as long as they are minors. That includes giving them a home and the things they need to physically and emotionally survive. It includes a formal education generally until they graduate high school. And if you can't do it, find someone who can. You don't just throw them out of the house like yesterday's garbage.
Second, this is your flesh and blood that you are supposed to love more than anyone else. Where exactly is the love? Threats of punishment, isolation, shunning. This is emotional abuse and it is wrong. Period.
Example 4: A couple has a baby and the DRs say t needs a blood transfusion. The HLC is right there to make sure the no blood policy is enforced. The parents, believing this rule comes from Jehovah (not the WTS) are devastated. One parent, caves in and signs the papers for the baby to get the care it needs. She is disfellowshipped and then shunned for saving the life of her child. She continues to go to meetings but no one talks to her. Her husband barely talks to her about anything to make sure he isn't crossing a line. With all of this, plus her hormones going wild she is suffering from post-partum depression and attempts to commit suicide, believing everyone will be better off without her. neglect = emotional abuse
Example 5: A sexual abuse survivor grows up and decides to go to the police about sexual abuse that happened when she was a child. She went to the elders at the time but they covered it up and forbade her from talking about it or she would be disfellowshipped for causing divisions in the congregation. She has suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder since the abuse and got no help for that. Because the elders did nothing when the abuse was reported, they are arrested. She is disfellowshipped. they very thing she was most scared of. Now she is alone to fight through the past and get through a daunting legal process. And yes everyone is shunning her for doing the legal, moral and ethical things. And since she did go to the police other victims of the same abuser are coming forward. Now they are all shunned but heck at least they have each other. Right? denial of legal rights and emotional abandonment
Example 6: A JW finds out that her daughter who was disfellowshipped is dying of cancer. She has been shunning her daughter for 12 years. The mother desperately wants to see her daughter again but her elder husband keeps reminding her that he will shun HER if she goes to the hospital.
All this shunning. The anguish, the isolation, the sheer cruelty of it. Any agency or government that gives money to any religion that does this to people doesn't deserve the money. They get it because they are supposed to be doing "good works" with the money. Not treating people like garbage that you toss away.
JWs pride themselves on showing love for each other, for their neighbors that they preach to. But heaven help the one that says I don't want what you are offering or I want out or that broke a rule.
ALL groups have a legal right to decide who can be part of the group. Who is in and who is out. That isn't in question.
But how you treat people who don't want to follow your rules or don't agree with them is a whole other story.
