DFed for opening an xmas present.

JimmyYoung

This last week I stopped at an antique store that I go to now and then. The lady who owns it is about 62 and very nice. I was looking at a vintage 1963 Ouija board. and I said to my wife can you imagine if we had this when one of the elders came over. The owner looked at me and said were you a JW? I said yes and she held out her fist for a fist bump. She talked to me for about 45 min and even had tears in her eyes talking about how her family would not talk to her. She was DFed and took the time and effort to get reinstated then faded away. She was DFed because she was at her office work and they did a gift exchange for Xmas. She did not buy anyone anything but was given a gift and opened it. Someone ratted on her and she was DFed for opening a xmas gift. That is not the behind the curtain reason. She was engaged to an elders son by coercion and then said she did not really love him and broke it off. Since then she was a huge target of the elder and his family. Even though she was reinstated the elder and family have told her family they are not to associate with her because of her not going to meetings. I told her she really needed to get on line and talk to others on JW sites. It really helps. This is some 40 years on and its still a cause of pain for her.Anyone ever hear of getting DFed for opening a xmas present?

jp1692

A JW can be disfellowshipped for anything three elders can agree upon.

Let’s review: It’s a cult!

iwantoutnow

Hmm hard to imagine that one.

I bet there is more to the story.

StephaneLaliberte

it depends on the attitude also. For instance, if, when confronted with her "terrible sin", she replied: Are you serious? You're gonna hold this against me? Its about your looser son isn't it?. Then, yep. that's what happen. Besides, JP1692 is right. As long as three elders agree, anything goes.

Incognito

JWs consider a marital engagement as a promise which is equivalent to already being married prior to the legal formality. As she broke-off the engagement, she broke her promise and so committed a sin and will likely have been 'marked' by a few of the elders whether or not she knew it. Some elders will often recall a person's sins, better than an elephant, even decades after a person has been reinstated and is supposedly 'forgiven'.

Since she committed a 'sin' which in itself she could not be disfellowshipped for, the elders were probably looking for anything else they could use as a potential excuse to DF.

Listener

Did you get a chance to talk to her about her broken engagement? That's also a big problem in JW land and I would have thought that the Elders raked her over the coals about that too.

LongHairGal

JIMMY YOUNG:

I am sure the real reason is because she rejected a JW guy and his parents’ noses are out of joint. That’s the unforgivable sin.

Everything else was just trumped up in my opinion to make her look bad in the eyes of people in the congregation - and to enable the rejected guy to ‘save face’ after the fact.

WTWizard

Opening a present is not, by itself, an act of worship to the sun (as they claim celebrating Christmas is--and its roots are, in fact, part of celebrating the rebirth of the sun). But, if the hounders rule it as "brazen conduct", they could get you for "brazen conduct". Even going online could be "brazen conduct" if they nag you once for it, even if it is common in the congregation that everyone else is encouraged to do it.

In fact, any act could be termed "brazen conduct". One could be disfellowshipped, for instance, on "brazen conduct" charges if they are asked to learn Spanish for field circus, and instead they decided to learn German. Or even refusing to learn Spanish is enough, if they decide it is "brazen conduct".

Think that is bad? When Noahide Law is in full effect, the authorities in charge could decide that anything could be "tying into energy outside joke-hova" or "blaspheming god". By going along with this "brazen conduct" rule, they are preparing the astral, and the congregation, for full imposition of Noahide Law. Just as harmless at first appearance, just as deceptive, and then they wonder why I will not go to boasting sessions. Or why I "disfellowshipped" the whole religion, and joke-hova itself, for this deceptive practice.

At least with Sharia Law, as bad as it is, what you see is all you get.

AnonymousExJw

Incognito. Someone in my local congregation did just that and was never disfellowshipped, or reproved (As I know, it may never have been publicly announced, but I doubt disfellowshipping was ever done, as we were still allowed to speak to that someone)

I also think it does also depend on certain congregations, and Elders (sometimes). This is where I think the power gets to their heads and they abuse it, but the Governing Body does have a lot to say in what they do, and how they go about with the so-called "Loving" help (Or cruel punishments as I call it).

JimmyYoung

I know when I was at a certain congregation I was at odds with a elder he was gunning for me. they even called a couple of commodities I don't think they were judicial. But the only thing that stopped me from getting DFed was my Grandfather was a highly respected elder. Other wise it would have been rail road city.

DFed for opening an xmas present.

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