Un shunning

by zeb 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  zeb

  With change looming large on the horizon what will those people do who make a wt/career of shunning should it become just a 'conscience issue'.
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  slimboyfat

  Who is that?
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  joe134cd

  I think it might get to the point that if Wt wants to keep its tax free status as a charity then it may be forced to do away with shunning.
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  Simple Minds

  hopefully they can learn to treat all people with dignity

  everyone should be allowed to express there thoughts and feelings with out fear.
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  Half banana

  Zeb, are you making the suggestion that some easing up on the strictness is coming because some specific statements have been made--- or is it the from the defensive and ambiguous comments made by the GB in the Aussie Royal Commission?

  Either way, to lessen the pressure on both the shunners and the shunned would not I think do the Borg any favours. The reason being that it would inevitably allow the light of apostate thinking to shine into their dark lives.

  Let's hope it happens.
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  zeb

  I meant that there appear on so many postings on this overall site the sad stories of people who have been given the full shun treatment by (particularly) family who seem very keen to do so. So where would the shunners be if it became optional or as I said a wt ' matter of conscience' they would not have any (wt) excuse to shun but have to decide for themselves.
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  punkofnice

  It's a control tool that the WBT$ uses. Yes, it's evil and unChristian, but then, we're looking at a greedy corporation, not a genuine religion.

  They won't stop it unless they get more money if they do.

  Imagine if JWs started talking to DF/DA people that had woken up to the lies of the corporation. How many would walk away from the greedy business?

  Stop shunning? Not unless it gives the GB more money. It's that simple.
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  konceptual99

  Playing devils advocate here....

  What relationship does shunning have with tax? You can try and promote shunning as a human rights issue but you can't force someone to talk to another person. There are clear rules around how a disfellowshipped person should be treated and it's made clear in the questions reviewed before baptism. You join the club knowing the terms of membership.

  Of course it can be argued that shunning produces a framework of mental coercion to ensure compliance but equally no one is physically prevented from leaving. No one physically forces you to go to the meetings. Jehovah's Witnesses are by no means the only religious organisation that have shunning. There are loads of other organisations that have charitable status with far more extreme views. If you tried to tax the JWs for having some practices that are not the most liberal and inclusive in the world then it's going to have massive implications.

  I think it's a hard enough job to try and question the charitable status of Jehovah's Witnesses on high profile questions like charitable works and child abuse policies. Imagine the field day WT lawyers would have fighting restrictions based on shunning.

  Punk is absolutely right - until not shunning brings in more money that shunning then it's use as a control tool fair outweighs anything else.
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  BluesBrother

  " shunning should it become just a 'conscience issue'."

  i do not see that happening for a long time yet... See this from the Feb 2016 Study WT "Learn From Jehovah's Loyal Servants

  7 A conflict of loyalties may arise when a close relative is disfellowshipped. For example, a sister named Anne [1]received a telephone call from her disfellowshipped mother. The mother wanted to visit Anne because she felt pained by her isolation from the family. Anne was deeply distressed by the plea and promised to reply by letter. Before writing, she reviewed Bible principles. (1 Cor. 5:11;2 John 9-11) Anne wrote and kindly reminded her mother that she had cut herself off from the family by her wrongdoing and unrepentant attitude. “The only way you can relieve your pain is by returning to Jehovah,” Anne wrote.—Jas. 4:8.

  If anything they are re-inforcing the position.

  
  
  
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  slimboyfat

  I'm not sure. They already changed shunning policy in the mid 1990s. For a number of years it was policy that an unbaptised publisher who committed a DFing offence and removed as a publisher was to be shunned like a DFed person. What happened to those people who were being shunned when the policy chafed? Were they unshunned?