I thought the article was neither balanced nor biased. As noted by someone else above it was a typical attempt by a journalist to "sum up" a very complex issue. She cannot possibly grasp the complexity of the JW's beliefs as the relate to shunning yet she wants to present something to the public that will help them account for the talk of said shunning as possibly having a connection to the murders and suicide. I think it will depend on how much this writer really wants to understand and how much effort she is willing to expend in helping her readers reach an objective conclusion as to whether there may indeed be such a link.
Hi Wendy,thank you for your article in The Oregonian about shunning among Jehovah's Witnesses. I'm sure you have only the best of intentions and you must know that it is terribly difficult to understand ideas and beliefs that are foriegn to your own. It takes a certain amount of dedication and a lot of time to really grasp the language and ideolgy of a religious organization and it's membership with which you have only casual contact. I will not suggest that you spend an inordinate amount of time on such an endeavor unless you really have such an interest. But I will suggest that you take at least a little time getting some background information about the beliefs of the Jehovah's Witnesses from several sources. Some of your statements are misleading and do not reflect the actual practices of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
I realize you are relying on the information of actual Jehovah's Witness "elders" and may even have read certain statements in the literature published by the Watchtower Society, the legal corporation used by the Witnesses to publish and teach their message to the world. What you do not yet grasp is that the Jehovah's Witnesses have constructed a language that can be used to say one thing but mean something quite different from what the average reader of your paper will comprehend. There is debate about whether this has been an intentional exercise of the Witnesses over the years but it has nevertheless come to be the common way among the Witness community. They call it the "Pure Language" and encourage all members to learn this language and to remain in unity inside their "Spiritual Paradise". This allows for them to make statements like:
"This discipline comes from violating the stated laws of God"
or
'To get kicked out, baptized members must display a pattern of "serious un-Christian conduct"'
To your readers this means something like "the JW's kick people out who don't follow the Law of God as outlined in the Bible and who are not living as Christ lived. That's no different than several other Christian churches."
What the Jehovah's Witness understands is this:
"I will be disciplined if I don't follow the rules as explained to me by God's only channel on the earth in this time of the end, as appointed by Him through His Son in 1914 as the Faithful and Discreet Slave class of annointed kings who will rule over the earth after the war of Armageddon."
and
"To disagree with any of the interpretation of the Watchtower Society is un-Christian since Christ himself has revealed these interpretations and is using the Watchtower to publish them to all honest-hearted people in all the earth. If I do not agree and teach these interpretations as they are explained to me I will be disfellowhipped and shunned until I recant and show by my actions, for several years, that I believe I was wrong to disagree with the interpretations of Jesus himself as printed in the Watchtower publications."
Wendy, I know it seems incredible to suggest that these few words quoted by you in your article can be understood in the convoluted and complicated manner I am attempting to explain to you. But this is just an example of how the Witnesses have learned to communicate to the outside world while at the same time keeping the real understanding of what they mean to themselves. When they say they strictly adhere to the Bible what they mean is that they strictly adhere to the understanding of what the Bible means as explained to them by the Faithful and Discreet Slave. If you are a Christian, when you say you believe in the Bible and live your life according to what you read in it you mean you try to modify your habits and actions according to how you understand what you read in the Bible. You read what it says and you act accordingly. For a Witness it is not that simple. No Witness is allowed to read what the Bible says and accept it as simple and clear direction for their life without first subjecting their own interpretation to that of the Watchtower. And if the Watchtower changes their interpretation you are required, yes required, to accept it and make it your own or you will not be considered "in the truth" and will be treated as an outsider.
This same requirement to adjust your own thoughts to be in line with the dogma taught by the Watchtower is found in every facet of a Witnesses life. It simply is not allowed to make your own choices in matters of faith and doctrine. The Watchtower enforces this unspoken rule (similar to the Amish "ordnung") by wielding authority through a heirarchical system of "elders". If you are in every way an exemplary Christian in your actions yet fail to accept the doctrines peculiar to the Watchtower Society you can be disfelowshipped. This threat keeps many would-be disenters in line and silent.
I have over twenty years of experience as a Witness and my father and mother each had over fifty years. Both my father and I learned the doctrines so well we were often used to teach others the accpetable way to worship. I have only touched the surface of the intricately woven fabric that makes up the real thoughts of a Jehovah's Witness believer. May I suggest that if you want to learn more you do a search for works by James Penton and Steven Hassan. You will come to realize that the Jehovah's Witnesses are much more than another Christian religion. You would do your readers a favor by helping explain the differences between their fairly common understanding of the words JW's use to explain their belief and the understanding the JW's themselves have of those same words. Once you do this you will read your article, as written, in a quite different way than perhaps you initially intended.
At any rate, please keep up the fine work. I believe people need to know more about this religion that is busy in the neighborhoods throughout the US and the world in an effort to convert honest hearted people to "the Truth".
Sean
