Is this true? Do the elders really do it like this?

by Julia Orwell 44 Replies latest jw friends

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  AnnOMaly

  "I just feel sometimes people only hear the side of the "poor me" disfellowshipped one and think "how nasty to shun" family is unloving. The disfellowshipped one makes the decision to leave. ... "

  Back-to-front. The person never decides to leave their JW family. The person is undergoing disfellowshipping from a religious community. The person has (usually) broken the community's rules and is no longer accepted as a member of that religious group. On the other hand, the JW family is choosing, influenced by the dictates of the religious leadership, to break off contact with their relative.
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  talesin

  Apognophos (interesting handle - care to share what it means? :))

  It was at a District Convention. And sorry I was not clear, he asked me to meet at the KH that Wednesday night so he and his father (another elder) could talk to me about coming back. There was no mention of a judicial committee. I was blindsided. I loved this 'brother', too, and it broke my heart.

  The poignant thing is, I remember the sadness in his eyes ... he ended up drinking himself to death, literally. By his early 60s, he had dementia due to alcohol abuse. He just wasn't cut out to be an elder in a prominent family. RIP George C., you were a good man. :'(

  Back then, at least around here, people who had 'left the Truth TM ' for a couple of years, were not bothered by the elders. It was so obvious they were on a witch hunt.

  xo

  tal
• 

  AuntConnie

  I SWEAR TO JEHOVAH, I HAVE NOT TALKED TO MY MOTHER IN SIX YEARS AND SHE IS NOT DISFELLOWSHIPED. WHEN MY DAD HAD A HEART ATTACK TWO YEARS AGO, I WATCHED THE AMBULANCE LOAD UP MY DAD AND DID NOT EVEN WAVE "GOOD BYE!"

  These are the type of human beings we are, we come to your door but don't tell you how we will teach you to hate your fleshly family and turn a good heart into a dark one filled with hate.
• 

  Julia Orwell

  I wish I'd known that, Aunt Connie.

  They tried to get between me and my fleshly family but that's the one thing I never let them do. I'm closer to them after 14 years a JW drone than I ever was, but that was because I decided the WT was wrong about them - all the demonising of 'worldly' people never seemed to describe them, and I wondered why Jehovah 'chose' me and not them, because I've always viewed them as far better people than me. I still do, and have apologised profusely for years of me being a douchebag.

  They forgive me and have always forgiven me unreservedly. The JWs could learn from my parents.
• 

  Apognophos

  @talesin: Aha, thanks for explaining. Sad to hear that that older brother must have been unhappy with the machine he was a part of, but wasn't able to find a way out. I heard that an old friend of mine who has always been an upstanding Witness recently stepped down from being an elder, and I'll probably never know why, but perhaps something was bothering his conscience. Oh, "Apognophos" means "away from the darkness", loosely. When I was a true believer, but feeling despondent over my situation, I used to post on the Internet as Gnophos. So now that I've learned TTATT and am trying to move towards a happier life, I'm leaving the spiritual and emotional darkness :-)