by desib77 12 Replies latest jw friends
Are there other religons that practice disfellowshipping type tactics? When I tried to explain my situation to my husband's family they mentioned that it was like excommunication or shunning. I just wondered if this is a common practice at other religons and what type of sin would call for such punishment. Surely it wouldn't be as small as attending another church like the JW's.
Just curious...anyone know?
I heard that the Amish practised shunning.
Englishman.
Mormons and Amish practice a form of shunning. Technically, the Roman Catholic Church can excommunicate someone but it is usually reserved for people who actively fight against church doctrine.
Blondie
Mormons, Christadelphians, Seventh day Adventists....hmmm..not sure how many more....don't the Roman catholics as well?
Many churches practice this. There are lots of independent churches scattered everywhere that are high-control. They may not be a part of a major church organization, but that does not make their shunning any less harmful.
The Plymouth Bretheren do, I believe, though the "Open" bretheren don't.
Interestingly, if you look at the other beliefs of those "churches" they often have their quirks, including general hard-line attitudes.
Don't know about recent policies, but the Catholic church excommunicated my step-father when he divorced his first wife....later he married my mother and his status remained unchanged.
Frannie B
The way I would interpret you question would not be, "do other religions have the provision for some sort of excommunication/disfellowhipping action in their rules", but "do any religions exercise this provision as the kind of constant threat/punishment that the WTS does?"
No mainstream organization uses this type of punishment with the frequency or to the degree that the WTS does. Yes, Catholics have excommunication - but they won't even use it on Hans Kung, who is way off the reservation on what he writes about theology.
You have to go to the offshoot groups like the polygamist Mormons written about in Under the Banner of Heaven, or the Worldwide Church of God, to find groups that are as militant on this sort of thin in practice.
I have several morman friends and have attended their church. We've talked about these a few times. While they do have excommunication and disfellowshipping for serious 'offenses', they do not have a policy of shunning. When someone is disfellowshipped, members of the congregation are suppose to fellowship that person and help them get back into full activity. I think JWs shunning family members and friends is totally heartless and goes against the scriptures they profess to believe in. For the most part, I think dubs are isolated and unique on using this as a control mechanism. If you're a morman and don't attend church or smoke and drink or go to "R" rated movies they're not going to disfellowship you, much less excommunicate and shun you.
Heck, I even have one morman friend who is not active, drinks when we party and his other morman pals only kid him about it. We also go to "R" rated movies. It's not like they're going to run to their elders and rat them out. Mormans have a lot more freedom to think for themselves. Now the Amish... I think they do the shunning thing for serious offenses. Too bad, I like the Amish, but disowning family or friends is cruel.
yeah, double edge, good point that I made poorly:
Look at two aspects of the use of df'ing: the use of the punishment ('cause that's what it is) and the severity when it's used. Even when someone gets kicked out of mainstream denominations, they rarely get the full-courst shunning - they'd probably have to have horns growing out of their head.
