Great experience Rowan - thanks for sharing!
Yet another "Shunning is good for you, honest!" quote in the June 15th 2013 Watchtower
by cedars 104 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Justitia Themis
marking
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
For every "Robert" there are hundreds that leave and never return. Even more nonJWs are disgusted by the practice and would never have anything to do with WT because of this hateful practice. The Service Departments all around the world have files filled with those little cards that get sent from judicial committees.
From their website: "We do not automatically disfellowship someone who commits a serious sin. If, however, a baptized Witness makes a practice of breaking the Bible’s moral code and does not repent, he or she will be shunned or disfellowshipped. The Bible clearly states: “ Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. ”—1 Corinthians 5:13."
Evidently, their interpretation of "breaking the Bible's moral code" includes not adoring the WT clergy and vowing submission to a group of cracker-eating, wine-sipping crazies in Brooklyn.
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Mary
Who would want to have contact with family like that? --Not me
Unfortunately, I remember someone on this board who went and got reinstated a few years ago so he could have contact with his family who was 'just like that.' Bunch of self-righteous assholes didn't care one bit that he was driven to the brink of suicide. Ironically, they were fully aware that he was an apostate when he faked his reinstatement. The only thing that mattered was "appearances".
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Quendi
I’ve noticed something about WTS-speak that has infiltrated my own speech and which I am working hard to root out. When speaking of different situations, the WTS often does not talk about the people involved. Rather, the organization is fond of using the word “ones.” An example has been cited already when The Watchtower talked about a “balanced view of disfellowshipped ones.” This has the subtle effect of dehumanizing everyone involved because we are not talking about living, breathing disfellowshipped people. Rather we are talking about disfellowshipped “ones” and can thus refuse to acknowledge and recognize their humanity.
While it is true that recently the focus has sharpened on disfellowshipped family members and those words as well as “relatives” have been used in the literature, the organization still endeavors to get its followers to dehumanize their former friends and fleshly family. Sometimes it is subtle and then there are times when the WTS stoops to name-calling and ad hominem attacks to get its point across. We’ve been talking a lot about the latter since that has come to the fore more recently, but I don’t think we should forget the indirect approaches which the organization also likes to use.
Quendi
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Quendi
Thanks for sharing your experience, rowan. It has only strengthened my resolve to never return to the cult. I also appreciate the point Billy the Ex-Bethelite made about the many who do not return. Only one-third of those who leave ever get back into the cult. As I told my judicial committee, that is a failing grade in anybody’s book and is evidence that this procedure does not have any scriptural or divine backing. Furthermore, the assertion the WTS makes that serious sinners are not disfellowshipped if they sincerely repent is a lie. You can be judged guilty of “practicing sin” as I was and no amount of contrition will prevent your disfellowshipping. My judicial committee told me that they didn’t want to put me out, “but we have no choice but to disfellowship you.” That judgment was based on the arcane and inhuman rules in the Flock guidebook all elders have.
Quendi
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Calebs Airplane
Watchtower Writing Department... You've been busted recycling yet again!
And you're not even good at it anymore... By the way, no normal human being (JW or not) talks like this:
"Had my family associated with me even a little, that small dose would have satisfied me"
Those are not words that would come out of anyone's mouth... get real...
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erbie
So, by his own admission, he went back for the reason of association?
They seem to approve of that.
That's very enlightening.
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00DAD
Quendi: This has the subtle effect of dehumanizing everyone involved because we are not talking about living, breathing disfellowshipped people.
This is an important point and just one more example of how the WT writers manipulate the emotions of the R&F.
As Quendi pointed out, they depersonalize and dehumanize the people that either leave the organization or are kicked out. The WT almost never talks about how those that are DF's and shunned are affected personally and emotionally. If they do, it is only in the context of how it "moved them to repentance" or some such nonsense.
WT publications studiously avoid even alluding to how shunning affects the one shunned.
Conversely, there is a a strange and disproportionate amount of indulging the flock in reference to how shunning others affects the ones doing the shunning. They turn it around and make out as if the WT/JWs are the victims, they are the ones injured, they are the ones in so much pain.
Don't get me wrong. I'm sure it is painful for many family members to shun their loved ones. And I'm also sure that in many cases the circumstances or actions that led to the person getting DF'd or DA'd affect them personally, perhaps even deeply. But the way the WT handles the subject is one in which those that remain in the organization are encouraged to view themselves as the victim. There is a deliberate cultivating of a victim mentality among the flock by the GB. There is constant reinforcement of learned helplessness among the sheep.
The writers of WT literature have demonstrated a clear pattern of deliberately playing with the emotions of R&F JWs in order to manipulate and control. They are not interested in helping their people become healthier, stronger individuals. On the contrary, they want them weak, afraid and docile.
They deliberately take advantage of human frailties to divide families, to separate loved ones from one another simply to maintain control.
When I became a JW four decades ago I was attracted to the ideals of a worldwide brotherhood of people united by the teachings of Christ and principles of unselfish love; a brotherhood where none are above another, but all are equal.
I still cherish those ideals. They are beautiful.
The ugliness is the way that this organization has misled so many by holding out these ideals to intice us to join. Once we're in, they change the rules. Those in power are in control. Everyone else is to be controlled at all costs, even that of ruining families with total disregard.
I used to sometimes feel ashamed that I had once been fooled by the lies of this religion. But then I realized that there was no way I could have know. They lied to me, I believed them. I trusted them even.
They are the ones that should be ashamed, but they are not. Even still, I am ashamed of them.
00DAD
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minimus
THEY SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!