by survived75 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Could you please tell me just what happens at the congregation level when a baptised brother gets divorced?
Does he just go ahead and do it legally or must he let the elders know? The situation I am wondering about is a fellow who was separated from his non JW wife for several years after she quit attending the KH. He divorced in order to marry another dub.
Is it possible that elders may have encouraged the brother to divorce his wife of many years?
Why would they do that?
They are known to encourage divorce from all sorts of reasons.
1.) Not a Jdub
2.) Becomes an apostate
and many others.
Sorry..... I added that last part as an afterthought.
To clarify it ...Would the brother have the elders subtle approval for divorcing his DA wife (from whom he was separated) and marrying his current wife who is a publisher? I am talking subtle pressure here. (This is an older very devout brother of many decades of service.)
(The brothers former wife had a history of ,at least once that I know of, telling off the elders when approched for unsolicited spiritual counsel. She clearly let them know that she did not approve of all things JW)
In fact I had hoped to get more of a response for the first part of my question. Do people planning divorce just go out and do it? Is it any business of the elders as to why? Is any legal reason for divorce acceptable to the JW church or must it be adultery etc?
I would say most JW's would seek the advice of the elders before they obtain a divorce.The elders would probably encourage them to stay married unless there are scriptural grounds like financial or spiritual abandonment, but you would only be able to re marry if there was adultery.
I am going through this right now.
My elders DID NOT encourage divorce, in spite of the fact that they agreed my husband was mentally and emotionally abusive. On their counsel, i went back to him for a while, "to see if it would work". But when the elders told him he needed to change some things and he said, "I don't think I can." I knew it was over. That comment didnt give me anything to work with.
I found the elders discouraged divorce in my case, no matter what.
But I just got to the point where - the thought of spending eternity with that man, made me not want to be there.
Whew!!!!! That was therapetic! And I'm not sure I answered the question......
In my case my husband was disfellowshipped. When I divorced him I was told I was not free to marry unless he either released me or got re-married. I got married again and several months later they looked me up and called me (I had faded and had not been around for nearly a year.) They wanted to meet with me (JC I'm sure) to discuss my adulterous marriage. I told them I had nothing to discuss with them and to please leave me alone.
I've seen first hand the Witnesses advocate for a separation based on the law of absolute endangerment of spirituality. The Witnesses physically moved a friend's wife out of their home and set her up with a Witness roommate.
In my opinion, all Witness marriages fail . . . the lucky ones divorce.
pure hell........oompa
divorce in that organization is a big open forum for everyone to get a full view of your personal life with a big handful of slander. I have never met a bigger group of news-whore-mongers than those in my congregation that were "in the know" with my divorce. It's a big pile of crap in a bag saoked in gasoline on fire on your porch and to put it out u know u are going to step in crap. Ah yes, and we are spirit led..............
