by Simon 55 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Even most secular entities practice a form of shunning called locking you up and putting you in jail which results in separating you from society and your family if you break the rules.....Fisherman
Jail Is Confinement not Shunning..
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...... .........WATCHTARD..
Oh, the part about people being thrown into prison for committing felonies?
Yeah, I agree, that is a form of "enforced shunning".
So, 2 JW teenaged kids bonk each other, and that merits enforced shunning as much as first degree murder? Got it.
To make things crystal clear for the pedantic among us: The issue is the JW method of enforced shunning, and the degree of shunning enforced, for "sins" that range from "trivial" to "well within the normal range of human activity".
I don't think it's accurate to compare normal imprisonment with JW shunning. That simply isn't a fair and accurate comparison. As outlaw outlined there is a difference between confinement and JW shunning.
Persons confined are still able to communicate with their loved ones outside through phone calls and family visits. Also, prisoners are able to communicate with each other. By contrast JWs shunning means that the shunned cannot communicate with relatives (except in extreme circumstances of if they live in the same home) and the shunned are even told not to communicate with other shunned ones!
Clearly the social isolation that shunning brings is actually worse than the social isolation that comes with normal imprisonment. Only solitary confinement is comparable to JW shunning.
sir82 said:
So, 2 JW teenaged kids bonk each other, and that merits enforced shunning as much as first degree murder? Got it.
To make things crystal clear for the pedantic among us: The issue is the JW method of enforced shunning, and the degree of shunning enforced, for "sins" that range from "trivial" to "well within the normal range of human activity".
My cousin ( who was disfellowshipped 15 years ago) told me the reason he was disfellowshipped was due to fornication with his girlfriend. To clear his conscience he admitted that he was fornicating to the Elders.He was ''marked'' the first time.
Later,he was followed around by Elders (who caught him coming out of his girlfriends house). The sneaky Elders would follow him to his girlfriends house, hide in their car and wait until he came out.
That was 15 years ago. He married his girlfriend and to this day he is still paying for this trivial activity. He paid his due by being thrown out of the congregation. The ''enforced shunning'' is cruel punishment.
As I posted earlier as to how he was being treated at his mom's funeral and grandfather's visits and hospital visits,he still is not welcome in anyone's home who is a Witness,isn't invited to any weddings, graduations or any family gathering. His own dad told him unless he returns to the meetings he won't have any contact with him and his wife.
How long can you punish someone for something they did 15 years ago? And, how many times did you see members divorce ( due to adultery ) get disfellowshipped and years later returned with their new partner and all is forgiven?
If he kicked you out would you retaliate by vindictively using legal means or other means to try to get back at him or his website? If you did, it would reveal a lot about the kind of person that you are.
Fisherman, I realize what you are saying. However, I don't think it is fair to compare getting kicked off a forum to the JW form of shunning.
If a person gets kicked off this forum, there are no other repercussions other than they cannot make posts anymore. That is all that will happen to a person - they can still hug their kids, have supper with Gramps and Gramma, etc, etc...
It would be silly to retaliate against an action that has so little consequence for your life. It is not silly to fight for your family back.
"for committing felonies?"
In the USA people do not only get thrown into prison for committing felonies but also for lesser "crimes" The only difference is the amount of time in jail. People are also remanded to prison for "civil "contempt of court when they violate a court order such as not paying for court ordered child support (which is not a crime). So, people go to jail for civil reasons too. Not that this information matters.. but just for your information if you did not know this already.
cheers
Fisherman, I realize what you are saying. However, I don't think it is fair to compare getting kicked off a forum to the JW form of shunning.
All forums that moderate get accused of "being like hitler" at some point. Of course for ex-JWs the accusation instead becomes "you are like the governing body" and the comparison is made to being disfellowshipped.
It is nothing like the same and it trivializes the genuine pain and hurt that real disfellowshipping does.
"Because they do fear the laws that they cannot win."
Yes. That is the thing that undermines a critical difference between Watchtower's shunning program versus the instance Watchtower leverages from scripture.
The biblical instance has the local church membership informed precisely the sin for which the subject should be shunned. It didn't matter what the local "judicial" ramification could have been. But that's not what Watchtower does, and has never even attempted.
Telling is all the time and money Watchtower has spent over the years with legal wrangling to let parents opt to let their children suffer premature death rather than acquiesce to blood transfusion, yet Watchtower has at no time spent the same time and money assert a right to inform local church members of the sin for which a particular person should be shunned. Watchtower has never fought legally for this right because Watchtower does not want to always inform local membership of the supposed sin for which a member is to be shunned for.
Watchtower likes the circumstance where it can orchestrate the shunning of a person who's sin is to demand answers to questions that deserve answer.
