If All Who Wanted To Leave, Left...

by Lady Liberty 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  Lady Liberty

  Hi everyone.

  My sister and I were talking today about how many would really be Witnesses if they were allowed to leave without any reprocussions?? What would the real count be?? I bet you it would be far less than 6 million!!! There are SO.....many who "fake it", and remain in because of fear of having all their friends and family taken from them. Since very few actually have friends outside of the organization, it doesn't leave much left when you take everyone else away! Just like Sickoflies Mom said when she said it was like trying to get out of the Maffia. They want you DEAD! Spiritually dead, dead to them, and they think, dead to Jehovah! Just a thought.

  Sincerely,

  Lady Liberty
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  serendipity

  I think a lot would leave, but shunning is so deeply ingrained that many JWs would still shun even if the WTS rescinded shunning.
• 

  TresHappy

  For some - to shun is just SO much fun!

  But in fact it's abuse!
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  looking_glass

  I think there are so many reasons that JWs will not change the shunning methods. Like LL said, it keeps people in. But it also allows people to be self-righteous, which is important to people who need to tear others down to build themselves up. If you are able to hinge your methods on "keeping the cong clean" you can pretty much do anything. Tell on eachother, police one another, keep WTBTS secrets, it goes on and on.
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  blondie

  Some areas used to be lax:

  *** w81 9/15 pp. 29-30 If a Relative Is Disfellowshiped . . . ***

  Consequently, Christians related to such a disfellowshiped person living outside the home should strive to avoid needless association, even keeping business dealings to a minimum. The reasonableness of this course becomes apparent from reports of what has occurred where relatives have taken the mistaken view, ‘Though he is disfellowshiped, we are related and so can treat him the same as before.’ From one area comes this:

  "One person who was disfellowshiped was related to about one third of the congregation. All of his relations continued to associate with him."

  And a highly respected Christian elder writes:

  "In our area some disfellowshiped ones with large families have been met, as they enter the lobby of the Kingdom Hall, with a fanfare of backslapping and handshaking (even though the disfellowshiped one was known by them to be still living immorally). I feel a deep concern that those who have been disfellowshiped need to see that their course is hated by Jehovah and by his people and that they should feel a real need to become genuinely repentant. What will help these disfellowshiped ones to change when they are continually greeted by all in their large families who know of their practices?"
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  greendawn

  It shows that the control tactics of the GB are successful to a large degree since they deter so many from leaving out of the fear of being shunned, a very strong deterrent.
  
  In an org with a very flawed ideology that's the only course they can follow so as not to quickly fall apart.
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  freedomlover

  I agree with this thought. I know of one person who told his best friend (while his best friend was exiting the JW's) "I just have to get up every morning and tell myself this IS the best thing to be doing. It is the the RIGHT was to live." He's still in.
  
  My dad confided in us that he wanted to leave 5 years ago, but only stayed because he feared losing his whole family. I think part of the reason he is finally considering leaving is because he knows he'd have me and my family still, my brother who was never baptized, and my other brother and sister (who are dubs) but when they found out about me they told my dad they would never shun me.
  
  Fear is never a good way to keep people under control. The dam breaks eventually, and then there is a massive cleanup that needs to be done to the poor souls who have been victimized.
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  MidwichCuckoo

  
  I'd love to be able to do an anonymous poll of 'Active JW' - secret ballot boxes would collect more honest responses and provide more acurate statistics.
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  stillajwexelder

  Hard to really approximate - I would safely say 10% - so you are looking at 650,000 less witnesses - that is quite a lot
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  willyloman

  This is one of those hypothetical questions with no real answer; the WTS is not going to make any changes this significant, so we'll never know.

  However, since we're speculating.... I think the shrinkage would be far less than you'd imagine. Why? Because the very changes that eliminated any penalties for leaving would so change the organization that it would enhance the JW experience rather than detract from it.

  To change the structure so that there were no penalties for viewing the "truth" and its doctrines as "optional" (see "Catholic Church") would make associating with the dubs more palatable, not less. What would shrink would be f.s. hours and meeting attendance. But they'd still be able to draw a crowd. The changes it would take to allow "association" to be a conscience matter would change the very structure of dubdom. Many who long to shed the high control tactics, the cronyism, the lack of love, and the endless treadmill of meetings, service, study, and all the rest, would have less incentive to pack up and go - once those characteristics of the organization disappeared.

  The organization would be a far better place with just a few major changes. Make meeting attendance, field service, medical treatment, and abhorrence of holidays truly conscience matters, and return the selection of elders to the local congregation, and dubs' esprit de corps would go off the charts. I imagine many folks on this forum who've left JWs who would go back if radical changes took place and the dubs became a live-and-let-live religion with mainstream characteristics and values. After all, most of us left family and "friends" when we broke our JW ties.

  But, of course, this isn't going to happen. They'd die rather than change.