This is an account of my own experience of being disfellowshipped. I'm sure it will be familiar to many of you.
Ghostworld of the Excommunicated
Here's fun, though: Please feel free to sign the Ghost-Wall at the end of the story.
Ghostworld of the Excommunicated
by rory-ks 9 Replies latest jw friends
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DarioKehl
I just read your story. I am always curious to ask people for details on how they got discovered. How did your internet postings eventually get the attention of the elders? Were you posting anonymously or did you forget to close a window on your PC?
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rory-ks
Really, Dario, I have no idea about the specifics. Nobody told me who first discovered my writings, and I didn't directly ask. In a way it seemed to me to be a pointless question (although I am still very interested to know who came across them for the first time.)
I don't write anonymously, but it still meant that in order to find my stuff a person would have to have put in a pretty specific search request - "Rory Sullivan + Jehovah's Witnesses" for example.
The elders didn't even come to me directly when they first heard about it. A friend of mine (an elder) said, "They know about your website." That was it! I had "gone live" only about four weeks previously, so I was bowled over that it had been picked up so quickly. Those initial elders chose to keep quiet about it until six months later when more of the body got wind of it...and then that was that.
As you can see, I'm being quite vague about the whole thing because I simply don't know the details.
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Phizzy
Well written as usual Rory, you paint the picture so vividly of how this hateful cult shoots its wounded, whatever happened to the scriptural idea of loving Sheherd/Elders praying for and with you and "greasing you with oil " ? (James5v14).
Not much of that ever seems to go on, even if two Elders visit you and they have fooled themselves the mission is to "Minister to a sick one" , they will still ask the loyalty type questions to try to catch out, all the while the form they send off for informing the W.T of your excommunication is burning a hole in their pocket.
"By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves" John13v35 . I see no love whatsoever in the act of excommunication, and the total suppression of love in the actions of those JW's who go along with it, as ably demonstrated in your account.
Shunning is just the most hateful form of bullying. So Anti-Christ.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are not disciples of Jesus, they are not taught by him, and have no right to attach the word "Christian" to their religion in any way.
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C.O.B.E.Beef
Your writing is very compelling Rory. Im very sorry for the difficulty this has caused in your family, you have my best wishes for the future.
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00DAD
Rory,
Great essay. I loved the way you write from the POV of being sick and then dying, now as a ghost.
Of course the irony is that YOU were getting better, THEY are the sick ones. YOU are now alive, THEY are dead in their Spiritual Prison.
I hope you and your wife can once again be reunited in the real world.
00DAD
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rory-ks
Thank you for your lovely comments everyone. Eight have scrawled on the Ghost-Wall, as well ...though, admitedly one of those was me
Well, that's just about put it to bed for me. I had been planning the Ghostworld story for a short while - I gave myself six months of being disfellowshipped before I would publish, and now it's done. The demon is exorcised, and I doubt there will be anymore JW articles being written for ACFN.
You have all been very kind and supportive here at JWN, and I'll keep an eye on the Active Topics occasionally to see what the news is.
Love and best wishes to you all, and if any would like to keep in touch you can find me via ACFN.
(In this particular world, I'd rather be one of the GOTEs* than one of the sheep)
*Ghosts Of The Excommunicated
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Fernando
Thanks Rory - awesome!
I loved the way you describe the ironic reality that is the Watchtower:
Newcomers are only ever made familiar with a sanitised version of the Society's history. Furthermore, the set of beliefs you joined up with may not be the same a few years later. The organisation is allowed to change around you, and you are expected to change with it, but one is not permitted to change independent of the Society - not without serious repercussions. It is likened to Eve's rebellious eating of the fruit , the frightening punishment for which is expulsion from the "spiritual paradise".
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Fernando
Rory, may I echo OODAD's very perceptive words and pray that you and yours are profoundly blessed by the truth of them?!
"Of course the irony is that YOU were getting better, THEY are the sick ones. YOU are now alive, THEY are dead in their Spiritual Prison.
I hope you and your wife can once again be reunited in the real world."
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Fernando
The JWN network, although deeply challenging at times, has been an important part of my own growth and development, and an opportunity to give to others, who sometimes are looking for words expressing and validating their own highly arcane experiences.
We understand your desire to put the past behind you and move on to a much better future.
I pray you may be able to return from time to time, when the time is right...