Seeking Reinstatement

by Quendi 22 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Quendi

  No, I'm not seeking to be reinstated so don't worry. But I did want to raise a point in relation to this. I know this was true in my case and I've seen it in others I have talked to about this. But have you noticed that when people talk about the reasons they are seeking reinstatement or why others who are disfellowshipped or disassociated should the reasons are to freely associate with their friends and families again or to dodge death at Armageddon or eternal damnation in Gehenna's basement? I know those were my reasons for wanting reinstatement before I woke up and walked away for good. And have you also noticed that love for God and Christ are very seldom mentioned as reasons? In the overwhelming majority of cases, that love isn't mentioned at all! And certainly, when questioned by a judicial committee, the applicant isn't asked how much love for God has motivated him or her to seek reinstatement. All the committee wants to know is if repentance has been shown, does the sinner accept the WTS as the sole channel of divine communication with mankind, and will the applicant grovel at the committee's feet. For me, this is just one more proof that the WTS is certainly not "Jehovah's organization".

  Quendi
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  KingDavidwasframed

  Agreed
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  Heaven

  Yes I would agree. My uncle reinstated himself because he wanted to be able to see his daughter (who had died because she refused a blood transfusion) in Paradise.

  Boy, when you say it like that, it just sounds so messed up. Sigh.
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  TimothyT

  Totaly agree Quendi! I was discussing this with my papa not so long ago. From my own point of view, almost everyone i know who has wanted reinstatement want it because they miss their families and friends. If this is the case, then it seems to me that their reasons for returning have little or nothing to do with their believing in the organisation, or maybe even Jehovah for that matter. In fact, i bet the majority couldnt care less about the organisation . They are just sick of being blackmailed that they would rather conform just to see the ones they love again. I dont nescesarily think that is a bad thing either.

  Would Jehovah want people to worship him through blackmail and coercion? (2 Corinthians 9:7) I think not! That is why i will never return, because i refuse to give into their attempts at blackmail.
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  No Room For George

  Seeking reinstatement into a man made religion supposedly out of love for God, is the same as acquiring business property insurance from the Gambinos because they do good work.
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  Magwitch

  Dear Quendi, I so agree. Even the the society often states that a person returned because of the strict stand the family took against them.
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  00DAD

  I can only share my personal experience as an former elder for 20 years coupled with the comments of those I personally knew.

  In the instances which I was involved or others that were described to me by friends close to me and known to be reliable, the overwhelming majority of people that seek reinstatement do so for one reason and one reason only: They want to be able to have fellowship again with their family and friends .

  Everything else is just rhetoric and b.s. I knew it, my fellow elders knew it, and certainly the individuals getting reinstated knew it. But we all had to go through this silly little contrived charade where they told us what we wanted/needed to hear in order to grant their request. That's why so many are never very active, if at all, after their reinstatement.

  It's embarrassing now to admit that I was ever involved in this travesty.
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  00DAD

  Further, after I was disfellowshipped, I worked towards reinstatement for nearly two years ONLY so I could have fellowship again with my two sons.

  Then one day a few months ago, it hit me: I realized that was the one and only reason I wanted to be reinstated. I still believe in God, but I have totally seen through the hypocrisy of the WTBTS/GB. In fact I was waking up to that back in 2004 and it was this awakening the ultimately led to my DFing in 2009.

  I realized that if I "went back", I would have to also go back to pretending to be someone I wasn't, someone I didn't want to be and to someone that would again be a hypocrite pretending to believe in something I didn't. I couldn't do that.

  I love my sons very much and miss them dearly, but that was just something I just couldn't do. I hope that someday they realize this and understand how important it is for me, as for everyone really, to be true to yourself and to not submit to the hypocrisy of others just for the sake of family.

  • "No one should be forced to worship in a way that he finds unacceptable or be made to choose between his beliefs and his family." - Awake, July 2009, p. 29
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  Quendi

  The Society's own figures show that only one-third of those who are disfellowshipped or disassociate themselves ever return. That is a damning statistic if ever there was one about how fruitless and unloving the entire judicial arrangement is. When I pointed this out to my judicial committee, they could say nothing in rebuttal and looked very uncomfortable. I want to say that I especially appreciated what 00Dad has shared with us. It amazes me that the WTS has persisted in this practice despite the overwhelming evidence of its ineffectiveness. Furthermore, there is the corrosive effect that engaging in it has had on everyone involved: the elders, the applicants for reinstatement, their friends and families, and others. Surely it can see what 00Dad has called the travesty and hypocrisy that is involved.

  I think the reason it has kept the disfellowshipping procedures in place is because of the power and control it gives the organization over the rank and file. All the talk about upholding divine standards and keeping the congregation clean is simply a smokescreen for the organization's real agenda. Magwitch raises another valid point when she says that the Society acknowledges that peer pressure and the desire for association are major factors in the decision to seek reinstatement. But as is so often the case with WTS practice, it strains out the gnat while gulping down the camel. The Society thinks that desire for contact with friends and family is the proper motivation for seeking to return to the organization whereas love for God and Christ shouldn't be a factor at all. Small wonder, then, that its recovery rate is so low. How unlike the example of real shepherding that Jesus Christ set.

  Quendi
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  MrDarkKnight

  @Quendi...When I decided to become inactive, my 12 year old Son said he was concerned that I would die at Armaggeddon. His statement stabbed me in the heart particularly because I WAS THE ONE WHO TAUGHT HIM THIS! As I sat there looking at him I could not help but ask myself the question, What is the difference between teaching that the wicked will die at Armaggeddon or that all wicked people go to hell?

  Witnesses pride themselves in stating that a loving God would not torture people for all eternity, but have no probelm embracing a loving God who would terminate the lives of men, women and CHILDREN because they did not listen to Jehovah's Witnesses.

  I do not wish to be separated from my son which is why I chose the abrupt fade and inactivity rather than disassociation. I moved to another state to make it more difficult to be reached. I am slowly working on his thinking, so that he will see what he is learning for what it is and I can save him from a life of misery.

  With regard to the judicial process I realized today that as an elder I put FAR more people OUT of the organization than I brought in. And you are right. People miss the community and their families and that is why they want back in.

  However, many Witness families are VERY liberal and they associate with their disfellowshipped family members no matter what the organization says. You find this particuarly in matriarchal families where the women really have nothing to lose by ingoring this rule. In these families the DF'd ones MAKE NO ATTEMPT to return. Why? They HAVE NO REASON to return as they have NOT LOST what matters to them, their families. My ex-wife's family was this way. Her father was DF's for 26 years. When my ex-wife's family got stricter with him, her father did the routine and was reinstated even though he never stopped smoking or overdrinking. It was an honorary reintstatement. He died not too long after his "reinstatement."

  The whole judicial arrangement is unscriptural, unloving and inhumane. I am sure many Witnesses have ended up in therapy due this "tough love" as they call it.