by tattoogrl333 42 Replies latest jw friends
When I first started studying that was me. Soaking it all up like a sponge. It was all new and fun and not having any other Bible training I didn't know any better.
I don't really have regrets but I sometimes kick myself for not doing my own research. I was a college student at the time, the library had 2.5 million volumes in it, and I never once thought to go look up Jehovah's Witnesses.
Tatoogirl keep asking questions. Its good for you. Hell, its good for all of us.
Tattoo:
You keep asking those questions. Re: Disfellowshipping, the posts from various ones on this issue are exactly what happens. In a lot of cases, repentance can have little to do with it. Cong politics and personal preferences of the comm and 'how many people know about this?' are issues that often overrule any 'mercy' or concern for the individual and their circumstances. The WT literature paints a very rosy picture of cong discipline, but in reality, it rarely works the way it portrayed by the WT. I have seen children of elders dealt with lightly while others guilty of the same infraction and just as 'repentant', DF'd and cast out in one hearing.
YHWHwho's comments regarding treatment of family members of DF'd ones is right on the money. And, interestingly, the WT mag always speaks against this very thing, but in practice, the whole family is DF'd in many cases.
GodRules is speaking from his experience, I would assume. However, let him be on the recieving end of a JC and he would likely sing a different tune, as I did.
I have to disagree with his statement about talking with disfellowshipped ones who have been reinstated, it is a very humiliating process and in order for you to be reinstated you must 'toe the line' and upon reinstatement that 'toeing' has to continue. Being honest in your feelings about how you were treated and what happened to you is not the answers to questions that will allow you to regain any priveleges in the cong. Many times, the reinstated one is forbidden to even comment at the meetings until a prescribed period of time has passed, sometimes months, or even years.
And you are often viewed by the cong as 'weak' from that point on and often, the fellowship of the cong is only slightly better than it was when you were in a DF'd state. It is never the same after one has been DF'd and reinstated. In most cases, if the DF'd may have occupied a position of responsibility in the cong, he never regains that position because, he has 'lost the respect' of the cong. In the cases I personally knew about, the BOE typically felt that 10 years was the period they wanted to wait before even considering such a person for appointment to any responsibilities.
Repentance before God is one thing, repentance before the Elders is quite another. I remember being told over and over again, "Just because they cry and carry on, doesn't mean they are truly repentant."
Or, 'They are more grief-stricken about being caught than repentant over the wrongdoing.' This in many cases where no one knew about the sin and the person came forward and confessed it.
Disfellowshipping sounds fine in theory but the application of it in the JW's is so far from perfect that it actually creates far more harm than good.
GR: you sed
someone trying to learn the truth about someone and going to ask his enemy
I beg to differ... Sometimes, the enemies have the best insight on the issue.
Reagan
I am the master of my fate/I am the captain of my soul.
