Do you think those at the top realise that it's their fault - suicide as a result of being disfellowshipped?

by jambon1 61 Replies latest jw friends

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  jambon1

  I have been stunned to hear of two suicides in our area recently.

  This adds to the other 3 that I have known of from the past.

  The two recent suicides resulted from 1-the person being gay & hearing a horrific talk at the kingdom hall & 2-the person with problems who was disfelloshipped & then took his life the next week.

  It astonished me that JW's in general don't rebel against this sort of thing. It's an appalling lack of support which leads people to feel distressed, abandoned & unloved. How the witnesses in the locality can just sail on without giving the cruelty of these measures serious though is beyond me.

  But on a higher level, do the people who lead the organisation (CO's/branch comittees/governing bodies) give any thought at all to how seriously wrong they are to carry on with this practise? Do they not realise the cruelty behind it, how it effects people & the death toll as people struggle to cope with their measures of discipline?

  Do they realise that the punishment of disfellowshipping is not a punishment that fits any crime (apart from perhaps paedophilia). That it is extreem & that it is so utterly cruel?

  It makes me feel genuinely upset & sad that people are shunned. And it makes me angry that witnesses in general don't seem to have a problem with it.

  Shameful.
• 

  cobaltcupcake

  They take the comfortable position of blaming the victim.
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  sir82

  They probably realize it, but rationalize it away.

  "Jehovah says to do it that way, so we do it that way."

  If someone believes an authority figure is giving him direct orders, it is astounding the amount of pain and cruelty one can inflict. There have been dozens of psychological studies on this.
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  irondork

  jambon1: How the witnesses in the locality can just sail on without giving the cruelty of these measures serious though is beyond me.

  It may not be evident on the surface, but don't be so quick to conclude that all of them are just sailing on. Although things like this will never phase many of them, many others are seeing it. One ingredient at a time, doubt is beginning to simmer.

  Give the good guys time to wake up.
• 

  problemaddict

  Irondork is right. Many people do NOT shun their loved ones and friends. Many people do NOT think that disfellowshipping for these "infractions" is scriptural. Many people do NOT think that it is a loving arrangement and that their obedience to God himself is at stake when shunning others.

  Of course.....many do think that.
• 

  jambon1

  Irondork:

  Indeed, I agree. Perhaps my use of words could have been better.

  I realise that many witnesses will feel utterly dejected & disillusioned about such things.

  It's just a great shame that this practise cannot be exposed as a form of abuse by the authorities & stoped.
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  DesirousOfChange

  It will take successful litigation to change the disfellowshipping policy.

  I would think that a family member might have a chance at a successful lawsuit for damages if the "sinner" went in to "confess and get spiritual guidance" and ended up being disfellowshipped and it resulted in their suicide. Trained spiritual leaders (which is the claim made by WTS regarding the Elders) can be held liable if "malpractice or negligence" can be proven. Of course, the WTS would make every effort to distance itself and its pocketbook from the lawsuit, but I believe juries and judges are becoming "sensitive" to the effect Cults have on innocent victims members.

  It's just like the rest of corporate America (I say America as the US court system lends itself to greater monetary rewards), you have to affect their profits. It's all about the money.

  
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  Finkelstein

  There have probably been thousands of suicides which can be blame directly and indirectly at the WTS.

  I know of two locally which can be directly in response to the WTS's lamenting for years that 1975 was going bring the end of the world.

  The WTS. is known to be totally apathetic concerning personal lives and they certainly do not know anything about human psychology.

  They want people to read their books and literature and they'll use whatever means they can think of.

  There have also been many unfortunate suicides caused by people coming to terms with their sexuality,

  when they do and want to be open about it with their family, they get shut out by their own JW families

  and of course JWS who they knew in their halls.
• 

  NVR2L8

  Nope - look at what happens when you leave Jehovah and refuse the lovingly help from his organization...goes to show that Satan's world can only lead erring one to despair...
• 

  steve2

  Any person who feels they have no way out of a difficulty other than to kill themselves is in need of good solid practical support. They need to be taken seriously and interventions taken to ensure they are kept safe.

  That said, you cannot lay the blame for such an act at the door of a religion because that is tantamount to saying it caused the individual to conclude they had no choice other than to kill themselves. People feel driven to acts of self-harm and suicide for all sorts of reasons. Relationship break ups, employment loss, financial strife, shame over behaviour, and so on.

  If you suggest that there is an incontrovertible link between suicidal gestures and being disfellowshipped you'd have to demonstrate that such a reaction is a natural consequence of being shunned. It is not - otherwise most of us here would be dead by now.

  And before there are any cries of how "unchristian" the disfellowshipping policies are, remember that the "source book" of those policies is the Bible. True, the JWs have conveniently put their own loveless slant on the enactment of disfellowshipping - but, to go back to the point I started with, suicidal people and/or concerned others need to provide good solid and safe help. There is a safe way through the despair. Yet to suggest disfellowshipping has a straightforward causal link to suicidal behaviour is drawing an extremely long bow.