by bsand20 28 Replies latest jw friends
I am not DFd but I have not ever applied the advice from the Society on how I treat disfellowshipped ones.
I talk to them when I want. I keep in touch with all my DFd friends and family.
Funny, no one has ever said a word to me about this. Not elders or anyone else.
Rather, some have come up to me and told me they admire my actions.
Im not sure why nothing has ever been said but it wouldnt change anything I am doing anyhow.
It would not make me want to be a JW,however I think it would be great if people stopped the hate.
Individuals have more power by saying No to shunning. Stand up for your JWs rights and say no to shunning.
Millie210 You set a very good example of not giving your power away! Great Job!
My brother who attends has mental illness and I would not want to develop family ties with him.
But I sure do think many family members are making choices and shunning just an excuse to not associate.
If the Shunning edict was revoked by the GB, I would tell those who were shunning me: 'Now it's MY turn to shun YOU!!!'. Let them wallow in their own self-created misery. I would not forgive, period!!! Especially if those who had shunned me were members of my family.
jws unofficially choose to shun jws that are merely inactive, or have only missed a few meeting for good reasons. Some use it to hide their vindictiveness behind, loving being judgmental and self-righteous and being validated.
It's not what isn't done, it is what positive thngs are being done.
I'd be on the phone calling my sister, her husband, my youngest brother and his wife. I love them. I miss them. It would be like receiving them from the dead. They have no contact with any of us family that are not JWs. They carry it to an extreme. We are dead to them. I know my sister, though, if the governing body said she could speak to me, she'd be busting her butt to find my phone number.
They allowed someone to control their free will! Therefore, they must be held responsible for their actions, by voluntarily shunning family and friends. I would be respectful, but reserved with my dealings with such people.
As mentioned jws already shun inactive ones, so they will most likely do it to former members under the guise of conscience. With the biblical admonition about bad association.
It wouldn't make a difference in my life. I don't have family in, just friends, or at least they were. I'm still very hesitant of continuing contact with a couple I knew at the KH. We considered each other as family, but the belief system is too dangerous for my girls to be around them again regularly. The same thought applies to my other friends too. Now that I know TTATT I want to protect my girs from it forever.
Wow. That's a tough one. I doubt they will ever stop shunning. Even if they publicly ( as they do now) say they do not shun, it would be understood.
I used to have friends that moved away( prior to internet) and we would talk only a couple of times a year. We just picked up where we left off without it feeling uncomfortable or awkward. I always knew they loved me and they knew I loved them.
Honestly if my family shunned me for any length of time it would be very difficult to let them back into my life I would not be able to trust them. I would need for them to apologize but doubt that I could pick up where we left off.
It will be good for the people who are in, but for as who lost 10-20-30 years of contacts with relatives, it would mean nothing. My nieces and nephews do not know me, so do my cousins. My biological father is dead. I would gain nothing from the end of the shunning policy.
It would only be of academic interest to me because, since leaving, I've become far too self-respecting to ever again put myself in the company of people who willfully turn off and on normal human affection like a light switch.
