Is this a newer hard line stance or has it been similar for the last couple of years? there clearly must be a problem in this area in regards to nations that appear to have far stronger family units not adhering to the previous warnings, the WT article definitely has a barf alert comparing Jeehobah's feelings when the angels rebelled in heaven! well how the hell would they have know his feelings?
WT 15th Feb 2011;Treatment of DF'ed/DA'ed Family Members
by jookbeard 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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JustHuman14
they do have problems with Nations that have strong family bonds. I can tell you about the Greeks and general the people living in Mediterranean Sea, that have the same ethnic characteristics.
My personal expierience shows that most of the DF'ed JW's have communication with their family. I know a family that one son is an elder the other son DF'ed and they go on family trips together, and family gatherings!!! In my case many relatives of mine still speak to me, even some of my long time JW's friends!!! And I know MANY cases of ex-jw's who still take care of their parents and having social gatherings with them.
GB cannot have control on everything as much as they desire. Family BONDS in some countries ARE STRONGER than their EVIL POLICY...
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Black Sheep
The current policy is on their official website and is an article from 1988.
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Pahpa
The Watchtower is a "slippery slope" when it comes to the official view
on this subject. When a person asks if the Watchtower encourages
shunning as part of its policy, it usually says that it is a personal
decision made by each individual member. As with other matters,
it puts the responsibility upon its followers, not upon itself. What
the Society doesn't tell the public is that its policy has been
clearly understood and followed by Jehovah's Witnesses for
decades.
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Sapphy
Seems like Satan wasn't disfellowshiped. God talked to him in Job, and Jesus talked to him on earth.
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DesirousOfChange
Seems like Satan wasn't disfellowshiped. God talked to him in Job, and Jesus talked to him on earth.
But perhaps that qualifies as "necessary family business" ??????????
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Mad Sweeney
Could someone quote the article?
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jookbeard
MS- it was on my Facebook today on the Watchtower Uncensored page
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punkofnice
No matter how hard or soft they are on DFing it doesn't change the fact that it is NOT scriptural.
The nearest thing to a JC for a start is the trial of Jesus........................need I elaborate?
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Anony Mous
Interestingly courts in Europe have decided that disfellowshipping can be construed as a hate crime. Even the US has decided in recent legislation that one cannot be discriminated against based on religion or sexual orientation and so certain DF cases can be re-argued in court. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard_and_James_Byrd,_Jr._Hate_Crimes_Prevention_Act)
Also, the 'persecution' in Russia is basically an investigation in religious extremism and hate crimes by their government: http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1161
Asbest's acting Public Prosecutor Aleksei Almayev defended the FSB seizure of the literature but denied that it had been a raid. "It was a search and the literature was taken as part of the investigation," he told Forum 18 on 22 July. "They just took one or two copies of each publication. There was so much literature that there were not enough staff to take it all."
Almayev also defended the investigation into the Jehovah's Witness literature. "It's not a witch hunt." He said it was launched after complaints from "citizens of the Russian Federation". Asked who had complained, he responded: "Catholics, Orthodox, Buddhists and Muslims – they all believe their rights have been harmed by this literature."While several Jehovah's Witness magazines, including "Watchtower", are among the publications being investigated, Almayev insisted that no court has the right to ban an entire magazine. "The court would determine that a concrete article in a concrete issue of a concrete magazine had violated the law," he maintained. "Of course they can't ban the whole publication."
Yet this is precisely what Sivulsky fears. "It's not logical from a legal point of view, but we're afraid that they'll ban all issues of our journals, not just individual articles or individual issues," he told Forum 18. The lawyer Pchelintsev agrees. "The Jehovah's Witnesses are right to be worried. The court could deem the whole publication extremist under the Extremism Law and then anyone distributing it would face prison and the religious organisation itself could be closed down."And I've heard the same line from other sources in recent past - the Russian government is looking to see whether JW's are extremists and whether or not DF'ing and the blood issue is wrong. The only literature they have outright banned in court at this point are ~30 WT articles where it 'encourages' to hate those that are DF'ed and maybe also some about blood but so far the list has not even been published yet. They haven't banned the Bible nor the full religion, the ban is not enforced (supposed to be voluntarily retracted by the WTBTS) and there is no documented proof of violent encounters with authorities. Off course on the last assembly (2010) it was said that they had 'seized all our literature' and they are 'banning the preaching work'. No such thing has happened so far, the JW's are off course playing the victim here and saying - but it will be.
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