It's always so heartwarming to receive all your answers and comments in this forum which allows me to put things into proper perspective in that I have returned to a sensible life where I can show real unobstructed love and care to my "worldly" friends now instead of those who only love you conditionally. If you stay in line with what the Borg does and teaches, then all will love you, if not then they'll shun you and the love stops, no matter how long it takes, yes even a lifetime of hurt and shunning. What is the Society trying to prove - of course I know very well that it's purely a matter of control over you otherwise half of all the witnesses in the world would leave the organization! For those people who are disfellowshipped and come back to the Borg afterwards: they mainly do so because they want to return and be close to their family members again after re-instatement. So would these witnesses go back with an ulterior motive? Yes of course, they mostly do not go back for wanting to serve God again, no they want a "normal" life once more where they can resume their relationship with their close family members by association! Suppose the Society would decree that when somebody is df'd you would still be able to associate and have close contact with your family members, but only the congregation would shun you...well in that case I am positive that those who will then to the Borg would do it for the right reason of wanting to serve God. That is one way of showing fairness and balance on the part of the Society by letting honesthearted people decide for themselves whether they want to return to God and serve him or be hypocritical and serve men... Of course the Borg will never agree to such logic..., they are more interested in letting their members remain in darkness in order to further embrace their agenda of manipulation and control... How sad and destructive a course!!
You are the music as long as the music last...............
I agree with you completely. I feel that the whole purpose of disfellowshipping can backfire on itself because of the person wanting to get reinstated just to they can associate again. I know people who have been disfellowshipped several times, and they always get back in. There are people who coninually practice sin and know how to work the system. They figure they will be out for so long, attend x amount of meetings, and then voila! reinstated! Sad, but true. The supposed idea of DFing is to move the person to shame for the sin committed. But, when a person has been out for an amount of time, what becomes their motivation? They want to speak to friend and family again. That becomes the motivating factor, not the past sin committed. It tends to detract from the real purpose. But, on the other hand, are we to allow gross sinners to worship with us week after week? I don't think so. I am not sure what the answer is. Maybe DFing is necessary in some extreme cases. But, maybe it is becoming outdated so to speak. Looking forward to your comments as well. I may be way off base on the subject.
Thanks Vita for the post - I agree with you that gross sinners who persist in their vulgar way of life should be excommunicated or shunned but only by the congregation. Now what could happen after a few years...the person who was a gross sinner changed his way of life, yet decided never to return to the meetings anymore. So even if the elders visit with that individual once a year but he refuses to attend the meetings, then he will stay disfellowshipped for as long as it takes, even the rest of his entire life. Now that's utterly wrong - I think it would be fair if that person can still associate with close relatives but only the congregation would shun him for a certain amount of time regardless whether he comes back to the meetings or not (Except of course if he persists in his wrongdoing, but nevertheless he should always have access to his intimate family) I personally believe that the wayward person should be "shaken" to his senses but not at all cost or through psychological terror... This was just my humble opinion, but it's done from a position of fairness coupled within the scope of enduring love.. Remember the reaction of the prodigal son and how his father accepted him back IMMEDIATELY? There is much to learn from that account in principle..
Take care,
:*) Richie
You are the music as long as the music last...............
