I may be late on this, but I was just thinking yesterday about how witnesses justify shunning. Mainly the scripture in 1 Corinthians that says to stop mixing in company with anyone CALLED A BROTHER who engages in various sins. Therefore if someone was to write a letter stating that they no longer wish to be known as a Jehovahs Witness, what justification do they use for shunning that person? That person may DA and live a clean life, even if they dont it shouldnt matter because they are not "called a brother". I know they didnt used to shun DA ones but that they likely changed the rule to entrap Ray Franz and a excuse to get him for eating with his employer.
What argument do Witnesses use to justify shunning DA ones?
by BU2B 14 Replies latest jw friends
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wha happened?
what justification do they use for shunning that person?
They read it in a WT and the GB speaks for God.
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LostGeneration
Itsacult.
In cults, there is no valid reason to leave, because if there was, it wouldn't be a cult.
In reality, it may have been spurred by the Ray Franz incident, but they would have had to do it anyway. As more people found out the real truth and DA'd themselves, they in turn would have talked to family still in. Then more of them would have left. Its a finger in the dyke solution, but it has held up to a degree for more than 30 years.
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Think About It
What argument do Witnesses use to justify shunning DA ones?
Because the WTS is prohibited by secular law from putting DA'd ones to death like in the Old Testament. The WTS has pretty much said any DF, DA, Apostate one is deserving of death.
Oh yeah......it's a bat-shit crazy cult.
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BluesBrother
1 John 2 : 18 -19
"Young children, it is the last hour, and, just as YOU have heard that antichrist is coming, even now there have come to be many antichrists; from which fact we gain the knowledge that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us. But [they went out] that it might be shown up that not all are of our sort. "
More importantly, as Wha Happened? said , The WT says so, and they must be obedient. It is claimed that the policy was formed on the hoof to catch Ray Franz, whom they wanted out but could not find a good cause . I don't know if that is true
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sir82
Since when does the WTS care about justifying any of their doctrines?
They just pluck scriptures out virtually at random, build a case out of thin air, and say "that's the way it is".
If fiscal necessity or desire for more control necessitates "new light", they just pick new scriptures, forget about the old ones, and "that's the way it is".
It matters not one whit whether the scriptures selected actually support the argument or not. Just the fact that there are scriptural references used, and that the argument is in writing in a WTS publication or letter, is enough to make it immutable fact. At least until more new light is made.
Regarding the OP, the WTS desires to control its members access to contrary points of view. Therefore, to accomplish that, they have decreed that disassociated people are to be shunned.
They have waved their hands, pointed to the scriptures BB referred to above (which of course have nothing whatsoever to do with the JW definition of disassociation), and Bam, "that's the way it is".
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rip van winkle
To CONTROL information.
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Terry
My former best friend has always been JW.
He succeeded in absorbing me into his family and religion eventually.
After I was DF'd in 1978 I don't know if I expected to be shunned by him or his family or not.
I had married into the family, you see. His sister and I were married for 9 years.
She died in a car accident in Texas while I was living in California after our divorce. Our 3 kids were with me in California.
I say all that to point out that this JW friend and brother-in-law and I were very close and had gone through a lot together.
When I moved back to Texas he picked me up at the airport. We spoke from time to time and then he moved about 300 miles away
and we didn't have contact for many years.
One day he popped up where I was working. He and his family had moved back to the area.
He wanted to have lunch and he invited me to a family reunion!
Now this seemed rather problematic to me! If not downright awkward!
His mom and dad, as always, were devout JW's and so was he and his wife.
I asked him point blank: "HOW CAN YOU be friends with me since I am Disfellowshipped?"
His answer was unique, to say the least.
He told me: "I knew you before you were baptised. We were already best friends. I know that since you were disfellowshipped you have definite reasons for never coming back. The purpose of shunning a disfellowshipped brother or sister is to SHAME THEM into regret which may motivate them to return for the love, fellowship and society of fellow believers. Since you are clear as to why that will not happen I have no reason to act as though it will."
I had never heard this one before! I didn't argue with him. (That came later:)
I attended the family reunion and we met for lunch once a week for about a year or so.
Then, the Watchtower printed articles making leniency toward DF people (or those who associate with them) completely impossible.
I stopped hearing from him.
He realized, I suppose, he had "gone rogue" in his application of "principle".
We had very interesting discussions for the times where he and I met. I gained considerable insight into how his cognitive dissonance worked for him.
I wrote this at the time about him:
"My JW friend doesn't allow any two doubts to touch each other for fear, like raindrops on a window, they will coalesce into a stream that will wash the delusion away and he'll be left feeling very foolish indeed."
My former best friend and I really love each other.
Sometimes love is stronger than the delusion of love.
I have to think it is similar to that old joke about the goldfish.
One is an atheist and the other a believer.
The second fish says to the first:
"Okay, if there is no God--WHO CHANGES THE WATER?"
If I talked my JW friend out of his fishbowl he'd suffocate in fresh air!
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problemaddict
I think Blues Brother hit it on the head as far as the response you could expect to receive if you took the question to a Kingdom Hall.
To DA oneself is basically to "choose the world" in their eyes, and it is the quickest way to inherit the apostate tag, despite the fact that scripturally speaking very few people even know what that word means or can be applied to. Probably one of the most overused words in the religion.
I remember a meeting where we had a visiting speaker. He was probably the hot shot elder in his hall. I introduced myself to his wife after the meeting. They came from a city where I knew a couple people so we made small talk. I asked about one younger kid, adn they mentioned that "his brother went apostate". I was a servant at the time, but I couldn't take the use of this word in regards to a young kid I had never met. I asked her if she knew God's spirit had left him and that jesus sacrifice no longer applied to him. She just looked at me. I also asked her if she could be sure he had taken a stance against Goid, had alligned himself with Satan, and was beating his former brothers. She just looked at me. I told her (kindly), that she has to be careful with such a word. Wether she realizes it or not, it is the worst thing you can call a person. You have to know someones heart to really make that distinction, so it isn't ours to make.
She got it. She apologized, and then her husband noticed his wife responding in the conversation, and he came up.
"Hows it going" he said.
"Fine this is ____, we were talking about so and so"
"Oh yea the apostate kid?"
His wife and I laughed. He excused them both. Warned the brothers about me on the way out. Could not be more hilarious, and this is when i was doing backstrokes in the kool-aid!
