Did You "Care" About Disfellowshipped People? (page 3)

BabaYaga

Yes, I cared and worried about them all, even when I was a small child and I didn't understand. What am I talking about? I don't understand it now! It is cruel and ludicrous!

I cared so much I secretly wrote letters and visited to encourage one person, a friend of mine. I was found out and counseled.

When I was counseled on this "illicit visitation of a marked one" in the back room, the elders thought that something awful must have been going on... drugs? Heavy petting? Nope. We just read the daily text together and laughed and talked.

The rest of the story is too sad, you don't want to hear it.

crapola

Yes I did and recently I apologised to 2 different ones for shunning them for years. And they both were so understanding and seemed very happy that I made the effort to let them know my feelings.

I just never understood how totally ignoring someone who was spiritually sick to begin with was the right thing to do. I mean ,I kinda understood the really close association thing might not be good for you, but to completely ignore someone to the point of not even saying hello was just stupid.

Blithe Freshman

At first I believed a df'd person must be really bad. But then one of our congs young ones was df'd and I knew some of the circumstances and I doubted. Then another was df'd and I couldn't shun them. But they shunned me. That raised more questions.It started making me sick how people talked of them.I started shunning the shunners, then I got shunned. I still worry about those kids.

Blithe

purplesofa

A sister I knew worked at the electric company where I paid my bill. I was DF, I felt horrible being DF, scum, lowly, unfit to live.

I paid my bill to the sister and she then showed me a picture of her daughter. I was so touched, I knew this sister loved me, she was going by the counsel of the GB, yes, but just that gesture made me feel so good.

I could never shun DF people. I made it a point to recognize them in some way.

Online it was easier to drop a line every so often and check on them and let them know I cared.

Always ending my mail with...........Don't forget we have a lunch date in paradise!!!!!

Oh well, always for the underdog....

purps

minimus

Because we were reared to look the other way if we saw our DF'd aunt in the street, it wasn't difficult for us to ignore any JW that got disfellowshipped. Only when the smokescreen was lifted did I see the inhumanity of it all.

keyser soze

I did, but more so as I got older. Even as a kid, though, I remember feeling bad for them when they came to the hall and no one would talk to them. But when I got older and wiser, I came to realize how arbitrary the whole DF'ing process was. It was all contingent on how repentant a group of imperfect men believed the person to be. I saw people being df'd, and not missing a single meeting after that, eagerly waiting for the 6 months to be over so they could apply for reinstatement. It just didn't make sense that they were so evil that I couldn't even say hello.

AllTimeJeff

My dad was DF'd for many years while I was growing up, reinstated when I was 11. Later on, my brother was DF'd, got addicted to drugs, and thanks to the shunning teaching, I did nothing to help him when he needed it most.

I cared a bit too late to help my family, but at the time, I was an indoctrinated cult member. I thought I was doing what YHWH wanted. As I have said many times, it was the suicide of my brother that woke me up (or started the process) that something wasn't right.

Towards the end, I cared about DF'd people all the time, but that was because of my own personal lessons learned as to the real human cost that shunning produces. It is a SICK, WARPED, TWISTED, AND DISEASED way to view people and their service to god.

Did You "Care" About Disfellowshipped People?

Lucky Calamity