Were you aware of the shunning policy when becoming a JW (page 2)

Xanthippe

for the born in's, were you fully aware of the shunning policy and it's potential repercussions when you got baptised whilst young?

I knew about disfellowshipping because it's the one question I got wrong when the elder studied with me before my baptism at fifteen. All the other kids there got it right but I said it was for punishment, I just couldn't swallow the 'it's an act of love' nonsense.

So he went over it all again and asked if I understood now but I still saw it as punishment. They still let me get baptised!

When I left home at nineteen my friend in the new congregation, yeah I still went stupid me, was talking about a woman she know whose son was disfellowshipped and she'd said to him he was dead to her. Her own son! I was shocked, I think that was the first time the shunning sunk in. I knew then I could never do that to a child of mine.

HereIgo

I was baptized at age 16 and was absolutely clueless to the shunning arrangement and a host of other illogical and senseless man-made rules. I heard the team "disfellowshipped" every now and then but didn't know too much about it. As I got older, the practice was the main reason why I left the org. I refused to believe it was something a true Christian would participate in.

carla

My jw was not aware and did not believe it when he joined up. He insisted it must be a very rare thing meant only for the worse 'sinners'. Now? his mind is so utterly taken over by the borg he uses the company line of 'they made the choice themselves', they choose to be shunned, etc....

makes me sick.

ssn587

I wasn't aware of all or in fact any of the negatives during studying only a few years afterwards. My neighbor was in a study being friends I informed him of the negatives, and he subsequently told them to take a hike, he evidently mentioned me as his source and being pissed off the couple who had been studying with him called Bethel on me I just told them to leave get off my property or I would remove them physically, they left. Never heard anything about it afterwards.

LoveUniHateExams

To the OP: I was vaguely aware of the shunning rule but I was determined to become a JW so it wasn't initially an issue.

I was no doubt encouraged to feel that way by the 'loving' brothers and sisters.

pale.emperor

I was born in and i was aware that we shun disfellowshipped ones. I had no idea that people could disassociate. I thought you could just go on your merry way and continue being friends with witnesses. It wasnt until i was about 24 that i learned if you leave you get the same treatment as a disfellowshipped person.

And remember, since infancy i was taught the disfellowshipped people are the ones who wernt sorry for what they did. So i thought shunning them was right. A picture was instilled in me of a self rightous, rebel sitting in a JC with 3 elders pleading with the person to repent. How wrong i was.

stan livedeath

when i was in--i remember a few getting d/f---for adultery / fornication. this was back in the day when the reason was announced. we werent supposed to talk to those. but most got reinstated after a year or so.

i resigned in 1971...but attended a few meetings now and then--to keep my wife company after she nagged me into it. no-one shunned me--it was as if i was just an outsider--which i was.

it all changed in 1981. i had an affaire with a married sister--she was d/f'd. apparently it was also announced at the meeting that i was now an apostate--and should be treated the same as if i was d/f. but no-one had the courtesy to tell me--either verbally or in writing. not that it bothered me--i never went to another meeting after that.

biblexaminer

The Scriptures say to "let him become to you as a man of the world".

This is for they who'd reject the moral principles that Christians of the time were expected to adhere to.

First, it wasn't to apply to they who would inquire why the leaders of the religion, behind our backs, joined the UN and betrayed us.

Second, JWs DO NOT treat anyone "as a man of the world" when DFd.

Which man of the world do we shun? We go to their doors and invite them to commune with us on Scripture. Even if they don't want it, for God's sake, we try to do an end run on their mind and get them to talk Scripture.

"I'm not interested", they say. We say "but why" and refuse to leave. No shunning there.

But dubs that ask "how it is that we can take fractions of blood donated by apostates of Christendom but we can't donate blood ourselves?" .. these, our brothers, WE SHUN.

hypocrites.

paladin1

I had five jw's study with me back during 1968-1969 on short term studies. This was the exciting time period for the 1975 fiasco. Well not one of those five jw's mentioned anything about marking, shunning or disfellowshipping policies.

I worked with a young man who was df'd by an elder who worked for the same employer and was shunned. This happened during the early 1970's. This shunning policy started up big time around 1980 and is on the increase.

If I knew back during the 1960's what I know now, I would not have had anything do with baptism.

jesscd

As a born in I was quite aware of disfellowshipping when I was baptized at 13. But it really didn't matter - back then in the early 80's unbaptized publishers could get "disassociated" and treated as some disfellowshipped. Pretty much as a born in we were already screwed because at least where we lived if you weren't a publisher by the time you were 5-6 years old you were considered to be from a weak family. Most of us kids had seen what happened if you didn't tow the line - watching 11-12 years olds sitting at the back of the hall without their parents because they got caught in some small infraction at school like trying smoking.

Were you aware of the shunning policy when becoming a JW

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