I doubt it will ever be sent to the elders in this form - maybe never at all. I know all the arguments about the futility of this anyway - but it may be a part of the eventual 'closure' for me - so I have kept it around. Anyway, don't know why I am posting it exactly - maybe that is theraputic too for some reason - I may have 'borrowed' a line here or there from other letters, but I think it is mostly mine - the Taylor quote was in Franz's books.
In his book entitled The Myth of Certainty, scholar Daniel Taylor, a dissident Catholic priest, makes this comment regarding those who feel a need to justify the particular institution that they claim has God’s favor. He refers not to Jehovah’s witnesses specifically, but much of it applies;
The primary goal of all institutions and subcultures is self preservation. Preserving the faith is central to God’s plan for human history; preserving particular religious institutions is not. Do not expect those that run the institutions to be sensitive to the difference
. God needs no particular person, church, denomination, creed, or organization to accomplish his purpose. He will make use of those in all their diversity, who are ready to be used, but will leave to themselves those who labor for their own ends.Nonetheless, questioning the institution is synonymous, for many with attacking God, something not to be tolerated….. Actually they are protecting themselves, their view of the world, and their sense of security. The religious institution has given them meaning, a sense of purpose, and, in some cases, careers. Anyone perceived as a threat to these things is a threat indeed.
This threat is often met, or suppressed even before it arises, with power… Institutions express their power most clearly by enunciating, interpreting, and enforcing the rules of the subculture
. Every institution has its rules and ways of enforcing them, some clearly stated, others unstated but no less real.The Bible would seem to indicate that correct Christian worship contains two major parts;
If there exists a particular organization that God favors,
it would be imbued with ‘truth’, that is doctrinal correctness. But of greatest importance, as bourn out by the Bible, it would overflow with the type of love that Christ demonstrated in his life. Jesus, Paul, and Peter made it clear that ‘truth’ was of no value without love. Prayers would just be a clatter of noise to Him in that case. Jehovah’s Witnesses spend much time claiming to have the ‘truth’, but Jesus’ clear identifier of those who were His was, not doctrinal truth but exceptional love.For if these things exist in You and overflow, they will prevent You from being either inactive or unfruitful regarding the accurate knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:8 NWT
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a sounding [piece of] brass or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophesying and am acquainted with all the sacred secrets and all knowledge, and if I have all the faith so as to transplant mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my belongings to feed others, and if I hand over my body, that I may boast, but do not have love, I am not profited at all. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NWT
“I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this is all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves” John 13:34,35
Perhaps the most significant failure of Jehovah’s witnesses to show that kind of love is the matter of routine expulsion, and the accompanying shunning, that is a hallmark of the Witness disfellowshipping dogma. Suffice it to say, that in spite of efforts to coalesce the two, I cannot find the love of Christ in this legalistic approach to dealing with wrongdoing. In a familylike love, wrongs are corrected lovingly, and family members given the benefit of the doubt, and loving embrace of the errant one, with a view to restoring dignity and keeping the family values intact. Disfellowshipping is just a rod of punishment held over the heads of the congregation, driven by fear, not by love. Any who fall short are threatened with loosing all association with family and friends, being shunned by those they love, being treated as ones unworthy of life.
In thinking about our Lord’s command quoted above, it bothered me to see how these disfellowshipping rules created such conditional love among the Witness brotherhood. Witnesses must be willing, by organizational dictate, to cut off even the dearest friend or family on the word of a three man committee and a 10 second announcement. It is amazingly ironic that the result of this letter to you, though given in love and with respect will result in precisely that. I cannot imagine Jesus ’shunning’ Peter over his sin of denial on the night of our Lord’s sacrifice, or Thomas for doubting, or the apostles for sleeping in the Garden, can you? These sins were great ones, but the forgiveness was greater still
Under the guise of ‘protecting the flock’ this is done. Even in cases such as mine, in which I have little or no contact with witnesses on a daily basis, it is deemed necessary. How is it that Jesus could show confidence in the faith of those who associated with him, even eating a meal in the home of known sinners, or allowing a harlot to entreat him while in the company of his disciples, but Jehovah’s witnesses feel a need to ‘protect the flock’ against sinners who are no longer sinning, but have just failed to return to ’the flock’? Jesus sought to restore, heal, nurture, mend the broken, and willingly forgive even the most hated tax collectors and harlots. And he was not fearful that the faith of his apostles was so weak that it would not withstand such association. Yet, as witnesses we were commanded to never speak again to someone who perhaps sinned just once, privately, and confessed. In many cases this hurtful ’shunning’ continues for the entire life of the person, no matter if they have long ago become a good and decent person, since they did not return the congregation. I personally know of several persons who never returned, yet they are far from ’bad people’ now. They live well ordered lives, and have decades ago left the sin for which they were cast off.
As a caveat to all this, I admit that the disfellowshipping system has it’s root in scripture. A careful and objective view of those texts in I Corinthians chapter five would indicate the very distinct possibility of misapplication by Jehovah’s Witnesses. The verb tense of the sinners that would be ’removed’ from the Christians would indicate that those so disciplined would be active, ongoing in their sins. Further, there is no group designated to make the decision [as in a formal Judicial Committee], but it would rather seem that Paul was indicating that individual Christians would arrive at the need to break association by what they saw, much as he indicated in other places, such as 15:33. Association was most likely resumed at the point that the individual was no longer sinning actively. This would allow a consistent Christianity in which healing and succor was the main ingredient, not shunning at a time that might be the turning point in one ‘remaining in the Christ’ or not. In addition, since the early Christians met in ’house churches’, the expression to ’remove the wicked man’ might have been a literal meaning in those days. A brother who had a meeting in his home would not wish to have one there who was espousing contrary activity. Jehovah’s Witnesses do, for all intents and purpose, just the opposite. They allow the judged sinner to attend the meetings, but refuse to have any conversation with them, in application of 2 John verse 10. But the context there shows this to apply only to those who have become ’anti-Christ’, not to those who still accept Christ, but who may have fallen into sin of some sort. The end result of this Watchtower ruling [which has changed several times by the way] is a split of families and close friends. Some grandchildren have never gotten to know a lovely grandparent due to a ’sin’ that was committed decades before. Though the sin is long forgotten, the ruling remains in effect. Divorce, broken homes, loss of family. All of these have been the result of this ruling. Some have committed suicide due to thinking that Jehovah no longer loves them. How could a God of Love ever intended this to be the case?
Christ will judge. Not organizations. I have elected to serve the God of Love that I find in the pages of the Bible, rather than the God of Hard-hearted Discipline that I find in the pages of the Watchtower magazine. Christ is my foundation. Institutions can’t fill that need. All religion asserts itself to be the exclusive choice by God. Christ tells us he will know his sheep wherever they are found. Individual wheat growing among a mixed crop of Christianity. Jesus warned;
“Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU! Get away from me, YOU workers of lawlessness. Therefore everyone that hears these sayings of mine and does them will be likened to a discreet man, who built his house upon the rock-mass. And the rain poured down and the floods came and the winds blew and lashed against that house, but it did not cave in, for it had been founded upon the rock-mass. Furthermore, everyone hearing these sayings of mine and not doing them will be likened to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain poured down and the floods came and the winds blew and struck against that house and it caved in, and its collapse was great.” Matthew 7:21-28 NWT
In my relations with others I choose to accept the Christian view of love and forgiveness. We carry no bitterness nor rancor toward our former associates. Jesus used that initial bitterness to lead us to him, but it is passed. We love Jehovah‘s Witnesses, and wish they returned such affection. We wish to do as Peter admonished in all our affairs, and so we seek peace and love with God‘s blessing;
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble, do not repay evil for evil or insult for insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
For, “whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and [his] lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it. For [the] eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer; but [the] face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord . Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone that asks you to give reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ, may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good, than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit. 1 Peter 3:8-18 NIV