Nearly 500 migrant children taken from parents -- that's nothing compared to JW disfellowshipping

by FatFreek 2005 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  FatFreek 2005

  Several months ago the news was intense about the hundreds of families broken apart by U.S. immigration. Many children were sometimes separated by their parents, sometimes for weeks at a time.

  "Still separated: Nearly 500 migrant children taken from their parents remain in U.S. custody” Aug 31, Washington Post

  While that was all bad, JW disfellowshipping makes those cases pale in comparison. That many JW families are broken up every 2.3 days, each week, of every month, of every year.

  Think about it -- when a JW is disfellowshipped he or she is separated from his or her family as well. But depending on how the victim handles this emotional blackmail, that DF person would not be reinstated for many months, perhaps a year. In my case -- 41 years and counting since I refuse to be blackmailed.

  According to WT’s own statistics, some one percent of their membership is disfellowshipped annually. And if we believe their membership numbers, that translates into more than 82,000 last year.

  Think about it – In one weeks time, nearly 1,600 disfellowshippings happened during 2017 which means that most of those fracturing rituals at the hands of some judicial committee of 3 men resulting in broken families.
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  Tameria2001

  Now just combine that number with other religions/cults who do the exact same thing as JWs and shun. I really hate religion. It's not just the JWs who do this, but other mainstream religious people do it as well. My aunt asked me if I was going to church, and when I told her no, that was the last I heard from her, and that was over five years ago. It wasn't just her, I haven't talked with her grown children either after that. It doesn't take long for word to spread. These were people that I knew very well growing up and spent quite a bit of time with.
  
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  ElderEtta

  Good research fat freak Shame Shame Shame on Watchtower
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  WTWizard

  The migrant situation results when parents try to get in illegally. They know the risks, and they still want in. The alternative would be to have anyone that wanted to annihilate native Americans to get in, claim to have children, and then watch them as they murder and rape native Americans. They usually bring their children as a shield to do this, and the full shame belongs on those parents that do this.

  On the other hand, the washtowel scams people to get in, and then holds them hostage for breaking stupid rules. The worst that happens is that people leave because they don't believe the washtowel abides by the bible, that the bible itself is full of horses***, or both. In this case, it is the washtowel that must bear the whole blame.
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  Simon

  It's a different situation: with illegal immigrants there is also the added factor that many of the "families" are really trafficked children who very much should be separated from those claiming to be their parents.

  The issue isn't really how many are disfellowshipped, it's why. If there are real grounds to disfellowship someone then wouldn't we want that to happen? We can't complain if the WTS doesn't evict those guilty of child abuse for instance and also claim they are guilty if and when they do.

  The aspect that affects most people is that those who just want to leave often can't because they are then labelled apostate and disfellowshipped in absentia. There sometimes isn't any way to revoke your membership without risking some tension with family (depending on the local congregation and family concerned).
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  FatFreek 2005

  There sometimes isn't any way to revoke your membership without risking some tension with family (depending on the local congregation and family concerned).

  Disfellowshipping, by current Watchtower rules, involves far more than "some tension". Some tension is a huge understatement.

  There may be a few exceptions. But in my case 41 years ago in 1977 when I proudly took my stand, made my exit, my two boys decided to remain with their mother. Not a problem -- then. We continued for a few years to spend precious father/son time together, nothing spiritual, of course. Go to the beach, take certain trips, discuss school problems, etc.

  Early 1980s the society changed their rules. Had I known about those new rules, which then prohibited family association, I'd have probably taken a different route to exit when I did in 1977, now known as fading. Four years too late.

  The disfellowshipping has never been the problem which, in turn, separates families. It's the punitive measure that goes along with it. The remaining family members are held hostage with the threat of being disfellowshipped themselves -- or keep their forbidden relationships secret, always looking over their shoulders for fear of reprisal.
  
  
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  Finkelstein

  The Watchtower Corporation has broken apart hundreds of thousands of families through disfellowshipping and separation practice since its inception, use that as an comparison to a few 500
  
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  FatFreek 2005

  You are very fair and kind, Finkelstein. Based on your comment, however, I decided to do a compilation I've been thinking of for a long time. Based on WT numbers, how many have been DFd over the years?

  Thanks to JWfacts and Paul Grundy's table, "Worldwide Watchtower Statistics", I used his figures from 1962 through 2015. I assumed "Average Publishers" is what WT uses for their 1% estimate of DF people.
  

  I then built a simple spreadsheet covering 54 years beginning with 1962 and its average publishers of 920,920 through 2015 with its average publishers of 7,987,279.
  

  Using this data, the result we're looking for tallies to more than 2,000,000. Again, that's an estimate based upon 1% of each year's average publishers. Keep in mind that we're ignoring, for lack of data, the years before 1962 beginning with 1952 when Watchtower disfellowshipping actually began. We're also ignoring the years 2016, 2017, and this year, 2018.
  

  While the calculated number is 2,126,017 I feel more comfortable using the "more than 2,000,000 number".
  
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  Finkelstein

  Its sad statistic from a Christian perspective and a human one as well.

  Take that number FF and think about how many people committed suicide from this disfellowing practice and things get even sadder.
  
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  FatFreek 2005

  So true, Finkelstein. Suicides are too often a forgotten casualty of disfellowshipping, or should I say the punitive consequences of disfellowshipping.