Why Shunning is as Far Away from Christianity As You Can Get
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in the concept of “shunning.” This is where a certain person is “marked” in the JW society as “unfit for association” for a variety of reasons.
My argument is that there are no circumstances of which Shunning should be the most “Christian thing to do.”
Picture the Jesus of the Gospels. Kind, caring and impartial even to gross sinners. Of course he did not condone what they were doing, but he did have compassion for them and the path that they chose for themselves.
Someone who chooses a destructive course of life is the LAST person who needs to be pushed away. Why are they choosing this destructive lifestyle? It’s a great question for anyone to ask when someone they know approaches a “dark side they don’t want to follow.”
This doesn’t mean that keeping this friend at “arms length” emotionally is not their best option, which of course can be helpful. But eternal exile until the offending party changes is an ineffective at way helping that person and plain selfish on the part of the person shunning.
Think about it? Why would someone choose to never again attempt to help a friend out? Emphasis on the NEVER. There can be only one true reason for this and it doesn’t involve the sinner, it involves the person doing the shunning.
A Jehovah’s Witness would say that they are putting “Jehovah first” but that is a lie. They are putting THEMSELVES first. The ONLY reason why a person would CHOOSE to NEVER allow someone into their life again, while they live what they deem destructive behavior, is because they feel their spirituality is at risk, and in turn their ETERNAL LIFE.
It’s their reward they are hoarding. Their friend is not worth the POSSIBILITY that they might lose out on the New World. Emphasis on the word possibility.
To illustrate (the JWs LOVE this word): You have a dear friend of many years. You and this friend are at the lake with many other friends. Your friend swims out into the deep part of the lake and you are in the shallows and can touch the ground with your feet. You told your friend not to swim out too far because you know they are a poor swimmer and it could be dangerous. They swim out there anyway and sure enough they get a cramp and start to have some trouble.
As they blatantly start to drown you look the other way. First, you told them not to do it and they are reaping the consequences for their actions, second you are not a great swimmer either and there is a possibility that they might take you under as well. So you yell to the people around you that your friend is having trouble, which are much further away from you.
Your friend is saved by a stranger and resuscitated using CPR. This fiasco could have been wholly avoided if you would have acted swiftly and helped.
How would you tell this to your friend after it was all said and done? How would your friend feel about the reasons why you DID NOTHING yourself?
My guess is the friendship would end. You have acted selfishly and would put your own safety above the life of a friend.
The same goes for shunning someone you love because of a fear that you might lose out on eternal life.
Are true friends and family not worth the risk? Do Jehovah’s Witnesses know for SURE that they would “drown” if they tried to help a spiritually drowning loved one?
Erring on the side of caution, with a friend’s life at stake. Does this sound like the mark of Jesus’ true followers which would have so much “love amongst themselves” that they would be easily identified among the masses?
Your choice.
-Sab