Just a little background, my cousin is 38 and hasn't attended meetings for nearly 20 years. She was disfellowshipped back in the mid-80's for fornication but had been reinstated sometime later.
Two weeks ago, the Witnesses came a knocking on her door, someone she knew, encouraging her to come back to the meetings since she hasn't gone for 15 years. Then, a week later, another elder and the circuit overseer came knocking for the same reason, so she decided to go to the Thursday night meeting. Then on Sunday, she went for the talk, and was told she had an elder's meeting at 12:30 that afternoon. After just two weeks and 1 1/2 meetings, they announced that she was disfellowshipped, mainly for living with a worldly guy and also because she smokes. She told them she would quit and would get married, but it didn't matter. They said that even if she did not smoked and was married, they would still disfellowship her for living 19 1/2 years in sin! She was shocked this was her punishment for trying to go back... no encouragement, just disfellowshipping! What really kills her is her sister-in-law's teenage niece, who is also a Witness, recently went out and got drunk, had sex and got pregnant, and she only got reproved by the elders. Yet 20 years ago when my cousin committed fornication and didn't get pregnant, she cried and was truly repentant, and they disfellowshipped her anyway.
What a bunch of crap! The elders totally set her up to be disfellowshipped. She said if she knew this was going to happen, she never would have answered the door when they called. Now she is shunned by members of the family. I can't believe what a bunch of sneaky backstabbers the elders are and the tactics they pull to turn someone in.
YellowLab