by startingover 21 Replies latest jw friends
I was quite afraid of being DFd as a kid... I was even more terrified of being chastised by an elder...
Whenever I would be rebellious or seem to lean towards getting into trouble, my mum would threaten that she would tell the Elders and then noone could help me Scared the s*** out of me LOL
My first recollection of someone being df'd was my sister's best friend, I think for sneaking out of her room at night. Back then it was automatically a year and not a day sooner. It scared the you-know-what out of me and I had a horrible fear of getting df'd (not sinning...just getting caught).
I always thought that people should do something or not do something out of love for Jehovah, not fear of being df'd.
I was more afraid of my dad than anything else. The elders could have kissed my pasty, white ass. It was what my dad thought and what he might have done to me that struck fear into my little JW mind. As a result, I played the good little JW game until I was able to move out on my own. Soon as I left home, I left the Kingdumb Hell forever. I disfellowshipped them. I shun them. I wonder if that bothers them?
Dork has paraphrased my situation also. When I was a kid my dad would literally beat my ass with a belt or his fist (depending on his mood,but I am not bitching though because it made me strong ). I was terrified of pissing my dad off. Since he was an elder for most of my growing up, that in turn made me scared of the elders SOMEWHAT. Then I left home , just like dork did.
I agree with TweetieBird. I always thought something was wrong. The fear of being disfellowshipped versus the fear of sinning. It didn't make sense to me that we were more afraid of being d'fd than anything else. When I was young, I was scared of disfellowshipped people too -- thought they had an infectious alien disease. I was afraid to even look at them. How sick is that, to be scared to look at other humans? Horrid, disgusting, hateful religion. They need to go DOWN!
No not really, there were other issues but that one never affected me. Mind you I've seen my mom and others going out of their way with the whole damn ceremony of avoiding someone who was Df to make sure even not to rub shoulders with them. Personally I found the whole ritual rather neurotic.
I never feared df'd ones (maybe cuz the few I knew were mostly cousins) and as time went on I grew to feel sorry for them and a bit pissed off cuz I didn't like the whole shunning bit.
I still remember the very first disfellowshipment announcement I ever heard like it was yesterday - it was like a death sentence being pronounced.
Eerie silence as the brother on the podium announced that the presiding overseer would be coming up to make an announcement to the congregation....then the disfellowshipment announcement and then a look of shock on all in the congregation...the mother of the individual sobbing and immediately getting up to leave with the rest of the family...horrifying to all concerned....kind of like a witch trial...but instead of hauling them up on the platform to tie them to a stake just banishing them from the 'kingdom'...
I don't remember having much of an awareness of DF'd people at a young age... but I remember friends reflecting on this as teens and talking about how afraid they were of brother so and so or sister so and so because of them being DF'd.
I was never afraid of disfellowshipped ones.
They never said why they were disfellowshipped, I asked why one man was df'd and I was just told not to talk to him.
Another brother was a close friend of my father. I knew he started smoking and he never tried to hide it. He claimed it was needed to lose weight. He died 8 years ago and his wife is now my stepmother.
A sister about five years older than me was df'd after she allowed a worldly man into her apartment. He slipped her drugs and raped her. I remember that night well. She was living in an apartment above ours and she came down to my dad screaming. The police were never called. Days later she moved away and she wasn't at the KH when the announcement was made.
