Role Call, Number of Family Members Who Have Shunned You!

The Bethelite

Just one left, my sister. I haven't talk to her in over 15 years. The rest are all dead.

I'm not counting my ex wife and all her family....

pale.emperor

I'm shunned by:

1 parent (my mother, father died 15 years ago)

2 sisters

3 brothers in law

1 sister in law

4 neices

1 nephew

3 uncles

3 aunts

3 cousins

That's all the family I have. My overly-zealous parents cut off all non-JW family before I was born.

JW GoneBad

I know someone who is being shunned for nearly 15 years by his:

4 sisters

4 brothers

4 brother n laws

4 sister n laws

5 nephews

7 nieces

The parents, on the other hand, are rebels against the WT's cruel and harsh disfellowshipping/shunning doctrine. They demonstrate unconditional love to all their children including their ex-JW son.

My wife and I left in the 1960's.......... back in those days and into the 1970's a person could disassociate without being shunned. You just lived your normal life. Family would be disappointed but they wouldn't (in general) slam the door in your face.

When Bethelites tried to study the bible (not the WT publications) they were subjected, as of 1980, to being thrown out of Bethel and disfellowship as was GB member Raymond Franz.

Since Jesus welcomed two or three gathering together to study his words this was an extreme position to take by the WTBTS. Sought of Satan's position if you think about it.

Matthew 18:20

"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

The Society went on a witch hunt for anyone that wanted to follow Jesus' idea that two or three could gather together and read from the bible in Jesus name.

This bull shit lingers to this day.

How dumb is this?

In our case my one remaining JW niece (her uber JW mother died when she was 13) decided to shun us. She was born seven years after we left the religion.

Unfortunately I have forgotten the names of her children.

When a family member makes this kind of decision there is nothing one can do about it.

Of course we made sure to disfellowship them from our Will.

blondie

I am not officially shunned, but family members shunned us when we were still believing, husband elder, me pioneer.

Unofficially shunned even before we stopped attending

2 brothers

2 sister-in-laws

1 uncle

1 aunt

rest are dead

Is it worse to be shunned when you are a jw still or after?

Esse quam videri

Shunning is not necessarily a bad thing. It separates the quality from the riff-raff.

Saves you the trouble.

Still Totally ADD

Let's see. 1 Mother, 1 Brother , 1 Son, 1 Daughter-in-law, 2 Grandchildren. Except for the Grandchildren the rest are very toxic when it came to relationships in the past. Now it is very, very peaceful. My greatest hope is my Son wakes up someday. Still Totally ADD

stan livedeath

i was never shunned by my father and mother---both jw since the early 60's. both dead now.

however my daughter--49--has shunned me since she was 12 years old.

she, in turn has had 4 daughters--ive never met any of them. the younger 2 i dont even know their names. i know the oldest got married a couple of years back.

my older son--43--is d/f--he and i are in a good relatonship--however , his mother shuns him, and therefor has never met our mutual grandson.

last but not least, my younger son 41, shuns me. since he was in his early teens. i understand he is married with at least 1 kid, dunno the name or sex.

THIS IS NOT RIGHT

i hold the watchtower totally responsible for this wreckage of my family.

Pete Zahut

We are not being fully shunned by family members but are definitely being marginalized my nearly all of them. Some have "unfriend" us from social media once they realized that we were no longer attending meetings.

My wife's aunt and uncle have never met their daughters husband and their 3 grandchildren (don't even know their names) and they haven't spoken to her and one of their sons for over 10 years simply because they walked away. At a large family gathering, everyone was sitting in a large group eating and talking. Things got mighty quiet when one of the old aunties intentionally asked them in front of everyone, what the names and ages of their grandchildren were. They couldn't answer and were mortified in front of all the non JW relatives who had all of their children and grandchildren present.

The old auntie didn't let them off the hook and chastised them for it saying "Cant imagine bringing children into this world and them abandoning them simply because they didn't take up my religion". It was something to see the look on this Elder and Regular Pioneer's faces as they were called out on their unloving behavior. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

jp1692

I have been shunned by my two sons for over a decade. This causes me ongoing heartbreak. I try to reach out to them both from time to time, but so far to no avail.

They are both in their mid- to late-20s.

Of course, my ex-wife and all of her family shun me but I couldn’t care less about any of them. I left the religion because of who and how they are.

Let’s not forget all of the “friends that are supposed-to-be-closer-than-a-brother”!

Let’s review: It’s a cult!