First, the DUMB...
First off, JW's teach that " those who simply cease to be involved in the faith are not shunned...Disfellowshipping does not sever family ties." (http://www.jw-media.org/beliefs/beliefsfaq.htm)
Then, I came across this question posed by someone from http://communities.msn.com/JehovahsWitnessesontheWeb/messageboard.msnw.
Here is their question: " I desparetly need to know, if anyone can answer a couple questions for me. I know of someone, who is comteplating disassociating themselves from the congregation, due to ongoing family situations.
1. When some disassociates themselves, is it possible to return and how so?
2. Why don't witnesses listen to rap music? I know about the vulgar stuff, but there are some rap songs that clearly don't degrade anyone "
DUMB! (the question about Rap music). Sheesh! In a perfect JW world, the only entertainment would be videos from the Society and, for your listening pleasure, Kingdom Melodies.
Now, The DUMBER...
The typical, non-suprising JW responses (if there are any typos it's because I copied the responses exactly as they show):
"rap music sounds to degrading for jw's! like ok well amagine an elder having rap music on!! LOL"
"due to the overwhelming amount of "bad" rap, most witnesses shun it altogether (although I've lived in areas where this was not the case)"
"My son asked the same thing of an elder and was told that the rap style of music is indicitive of "gang" association to most of society. In other words, when worldly people in general hear the term 'rap' they immediately think 'gang member'. (Uh, hi...This is Biggs here. Um, how can you say how a so-called worldly person views Rap when you're a JW? Also, when was the last time you associated Will Smith (aka Fresh Prince) with a gang member???) That is not the association we want to imply we have in any certain terms especially being representatives of Jehovah. As Paul said - we don't want to stumble others by our actions Philipians 1:9-10. Music is a conscience matter. (Oh, now it's a conscience matter? But you just said all that stuff about gang members. Now I'm confused...) You might see nothing wrong with a piece of rap music but that could imply indirectly to someone that is not a Witness that you like all rap music. (Sorry, but that statment is illogical. Example: I don't like Country music as a whole but I may like a select few songs from the Country genre. If someone hears me listening to one Country song, they're going to think that I like ALL Country music???) Or it may stumble someone that is a Witness but does not have a finely tuned conscience as of yet to be able to make a distinction. Finally, remember that Satan is incredibly deceptive. All he needs is a small crack in your spiritual armor and he can quickly turn it into a deep canyon. The mind and heart can easily decieve oneself into the following thought process - Well this song was not bad so maybe that song will be ok too. Pretty soon you are listening to songs that you would not have approved of because you have talked yourself into believing they are not so bad. (My goodness! Don't you have to do that with everything in life to determine if it's good or bad or whether you like it or not??? You are an idiot!) Afterall, how little poison is needed in the glass before you won't drink?" (HAHAHAHA! Hasn't the JW organization been touched by poison recently? (i.e., UN scandal and Pedophile cover-ups). Yet, you continue to drink their water!!!)
Finally, the BLIND...
This response shows how quickly a family member can conditionally love (or, in this case, not love) another family member. I will not add any commentary to the response below. I think it will speak for itself. I found it to be extremely sad and disappointing! However, I will highlight which terms that troubled me the most...
"This is a very sad letter. If a bro/sis disassociates themselves by writing a letter and formally advising the brothers that they no longer wish to be known as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, then they are voluntarily disfellowshipping themselves. And so those of their family who are still JWs can no longer socialise with them, eat and drink with them etc.
I know all about this as both of my daughters did this. It was years ago. It has caused much pain. I miss them tremendously, and we do have some limited contact (for instance my younger daughter phoned me two days ago to let me know that her baby had started crawling and that she (my daughter) was going into hospital for a big operation next Wednesday, which I had not known. But it has been very difficult and painful reaching a place of equilibrium where we have the "right amount" of contact. Just a little bit for essential things, but no more than is necessary.
And there are grandchildren concerned too who see me as part of the necessities of life :-) and during one of the painful periods I was forbidden to see them at all ... now however I can occasionally go to their place (a 4 hour drive) and pick them up and bring them to my home for the weekend, and then on Sunday night drive them home again. A huge amount of mileage but I do it because it's the only way I can spend time with the innocent childrenwho incidentally love Jehovah and see themselves as JWs because in their early days they were taken to meetings... Try to talk that person out of DAing themselves. It is too big a step. My daughters did not realise what they were doing. Their circumstances were not the same, but basically they did it (separately, and years apart) because they wanted to do "non-Christian" things and didn't want to bring reproach on Jehovah's name by people seeing them partying up (so to speak) and thinking "hey, I thought she was a JW". So their motive was to protect Jah's name, but instead, they cut themselves off from Jehovah and their fleshly family :-((((( "
Edited by - Mister Biggs on 11 June 2002 15:39:53