Today's Text - Shun Your Disfellowshipped Family Members & Friends!

by Divergent 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  Divergent

  Yet another sickening reminder for JW's to use emotional blackmail!

  Wednesday, June 22

  
  Stop keeping company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral.—1 Cor. 5:11.

  
  A heartrending experience for Aaron’s family is recorded at Leviticus 10:1-11. They must have been devastated when fire from heaven consumed Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu at the tabernacle. What a test of faith it was for Aaron and his family not to mourn their dead relatives! Are you personally proving yourself holy with regard to not associating with family members or others who have been disfellowshipped? We may not face as severe a test as that experienced by Aaron and his family. But what if we were invited to attend and participate in a church wedding of a non-Witness relative? No explicit Scriptural command forbids us to attend, but there are Bible principles involved in making such a decision. Of course, we try to avoid offending our relatives, but it is usually best to speak with them in a kind, though straightforward, way—well in advance of the event. w14 11/15 3:5-7

  See what they did there? They have made it explicit that shunning = proving yourself holy. In other words, if you do not shun, you are UNHOLY. If you are not holy, you are not acceptable to Jokehova. If you are not acceptable to Jokehova, then you will be destroyed at Armageddon together with those who you did not shun! A "loving" reminder indeed!
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  OneEyedJoe

  There's no explicit scriptural reason not to attend a wedding in a church, so why are they bringing this up? They claim scriptural principles apply, but provide none. If you go to the referenced watchtower article it links to a QFR from way back and the only apparent scriptural principles are:

  • "do not become unevenly yolked with unbelievers" - How does this apply? If they're saying that you shouldn't go to a wedding in a church because there will be unbelievers there, wouldn't that also apply to any wedding of an unbelieving family member, even if it was held at the courthouse or in someone's home? This "principle" does nothing to make their point that you shouldn't go to a wedding in a church.
  • "Get out of her my people" - I think we can all agree that this was not intended to literally mean to get out of a physical church building. Paul went to pagan temples to preach, so this scripture would condemn him as well if that were the case. There is no prohibition here on respectfully observing a wedding in a church. You're not joining up or donating money to false religion or providing any support or adherence simply by walking in the doors of the church building.

  I have a scriptural principle for them. Do not go beyond the things written.

  Edit: I guess I went off on a tangent a bit there, but this sort of thing shows them trying to go beyond even shunning DFed family to include breaking ties with family members that never converted. They influence the R/F JW to basically be a dick to anyone who's not a JW in hopes that any connections to normal people will at least die of attrition. So even if there's not explicit command to shun people that were never a JW (though lumping these things together will almost certainly result in some JWs interpreting it that way, and they know it) they are happy to try to get JWs to behave in a way that will result in their family cutting ties with them or otherwise "persecuting" them in order to keep the JW in the cult and "prove" that non-JWs are evil, selfish, and a bad influence.
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  problemaddict 2

  What is interestib to me, is they are certaimly making a push for people to shun properly. Meaning it must be a problem and possibly in their minds is causing those people to not come back.

  They have however also lightly pointed to faders, as potential shun targets. Not directly......but its there. So the way this is starting to go in the minds of the rsnk and file is to shun df'd ones (no brainer), but to ALSO shun those that SHOULD be df'd (in their minds). Meaning the ones that dont go bu they would say "know better". Or the ones that are off the radar but may celebrate a birthday.
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  Divergent

  OEJ, thanks for bringing up the other points. I thought the 2nd part of the text was stupid too!

  But what if we were invited to attend and participate in a church wedding of a non-Witness relative? No explicit Scriptural command forbids us to attend, but there are Bible principles involved in making such a decision. Of course, we try to avoid offending our relatives, but it is usually best to speak with them in a kind, though straightforward, way—well in advance of the event. w14 11/15 3:5-7

  If there is NO explicit Scriptural command as they themselves say, then it should rightfully be a conscience matter. HOWEVER, they say there are Bible principles involved (without providing any) and go on to say that "we try to avoid offending our relatives" and "speak with them in a kind, thorough, straightforward way--well in advance of the event." Which could ONLY lead to one conclusion - that JW's should NOT attend!

  JW's have gone way beyond the things mentioned, as what was said by OneEyedJoe!
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  ToesUp

  "What a test of faith it was for Aaron and his family not to mourn their dead relatives! "

  Sick!
  
  
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  Divergent

  Yup... so in other words, disfellowshipped family members should be treated just as if they are dead!
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  tor1500

  Hi OneEyed Joe,

  Great comment...would you be able to let us know what WT has the information you posted.

  I have a bunch of notes...for my own sanity....if you care to share the WT article..

  I thank you,

  Tor
  
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  punkofnice

  Let's hope this kind of inhuman demand will wake many up to the vile nature of this scam of a cult.

  Thwe watchtower has no idea what love is. After all, it is run by sick paedo lovers.
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  Divergent

  problemaddict2:

  What is interestib to me, is they are certaimly making a push for people to shun properly. Meaning it must be a problem and possibly in their minds is causing those people to not come back.

  
  

  Many JW's are fine with shunning - IF the individual involved is NOT a family member or close friend. If they are, then it's a different story altogether. Many JW's are not really following the rules that WT wants them to follow, hence the constant push to shun, shun, shun!!!
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  Divergent

  Punk, I do hope so too but I currently don't see people waking up where I'm at. I personally know of more than a dozen who did, but they've all woken up before me & I don't know of any recent 'wakers' apart from myself