And what happened to the other Peter? That is, the apostle Peter? Didn't he publicly disown Jesus three times the night before Jesus was killed? In effect, Peter disassociated himself at that time. Was he shunned? Did he have to wait years, or forever, for further assignments? I don't think so. All Jesus did was give him a look, and Peter was immediately accepted back. In fact, only a few weeks later, Peter was given some weighty assignments and carried them out, albeit with a couple of baubles. Ultimately, Peter was faithful.
What if that had happened within the Watchtower Society? I doubt that the defector would have been allowed back in so soon, let alone be given such weighty assignments. And, if He &$#^ed up again (remember, Peter had more corrections coming when he hid from the Gentiles upon other Jews seeing him), he would have been banned for good. Not only that, no one would have been allowed to even speak to Peter. Remember, Jesus did not initiate shunning Peter for disowning him three times that night.
Even Judas Iscariot did not get shunned the way the Tower shuns apostates. Remember, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus and was cut off from being an apostle for that. Ultimately, Judas hanged himself. But there is no indication that he was shunned for it. To me, what Raymond Franz did could not possibly have been as serious as Judas Iscariot, since Franz did not get an innocent person killed. Nor did Franz initiate shunning the Watchtower Society (he never did disassociate), which disowned him one big time. Either way, the Puketower Society is not living up to Christ's example. Raymond Franz did try to live up to it, but was stopped from succeeding. No, shunning disassociated people is not scriptural.
