by Vanderhoven7 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
JWs see shunning as a loving provision. But if a Mennonite gal is shunned by her parents and friends for converting to JWism, would this be seen as a loving provision or as evidence of persecution? How about parents beating a daughter who converted to Jehovah's Witnesses?
I wonder if their is anything in the literature about this?
I can't find the reference, but didn't the WT condemn excommunications by the Catholic church?
Of course, the WT religion is "the truth," so whatever they do is loving, right?
A JW has challenged the idea that JWs would interpret as persecution someone being shunned because they have left their parents religion to become a JW.
Seems axiomatic - no?
Of course they would consider that persecution.
Shunning is being mean not loving. From my scriptural understanding any appointed by God has the right to issue a discipline to his community the way he seems fit.
The JWs has taken an extreme position on that regard. They apparently did this deliberately to prevent their flock from being awaken by sincere fellow witnesses whose bible studies have shown the flaw of the GB teachings. They create people who end up worshiping the Organization than worship God.
They even end up condemning themselves. If Bro A left insist on a bible doctrine different from what GB teach, he is thrown out as an apostate. Later the same organization will make change and start to teach what Bro A had insisted upon. What's the implication? That JWs have persecuted Bro A for his stand for the truth.
Secondly shunning is not biblical. They keep leaning on 1cor 5:11. I believe they know that there position with regards to that scripture is wrong. They are good at claiming they don't know what they actually do know.
VANDERHOVEN7:
A loving provision? Hah! I was a victim of ‘soft’ shunning back when I was in the Witnesses because I refused to allow them to interfere in my business about my job. That’s what JWs do: they meddle.. I had a few friends and stayed on the fringes of the congregation.
But, I certainly wasn’t going to quit my job to conform to anybody’s ‘expectations’ of what a spiritual person was OR to be ‘more popular’. And what value would that be now?? Zero.. I actually thought JWs were morons to imagine that being mean or ignoring somebody would make that person ‘come around’.. Thankfully, these tactics didn’t work on me or I would be regretting it today.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences Ding, Linda and LongHairGal.
I am looking for the Watchtower that stated that people shouldn't have to choose between their family and religion...that might shedsome light on this issue.
Vanderhoven,
Will this do? (It is a screen-shot, so hope it is kosher?)
Thank you Hopeless1
"No one should be forced to worship in a way that he finds unacceptable or be made to choose between his beliefs and his family." - Awake, July 2009, p. 29
Shunning a loving provision or persecution?
Apparently it depends on who is doing the shunning.
Jackson found the article I was looking for.
Excerpt from the WatchTower 2005 Sept 1 Article “Mennonites Search for Bible Truth”
A few days later, the church elders came to the home of Johann’s family with an ultimatum for the interested ones: “We heard that Jehovah’s Witnesses visited you. You must forbid them to return, and unless you hand over their literature to be burned, you face expulsion.” They had had just one Bible study with the Witnesses, so this presented a formidable test.
“We cannot do as you ask,” replied one of the family heads. “Those people came to teach us the Bible.” How did the elders react? They expelled them for studying the Bible! This was a cruel blow indeed. The cart belonging to the colony cheese factory passed by the home of one family without collecting their milk, denying them their only source of income. One family head was dismissed from his job. Another was turned away from buying supplies at the colony store, and his ten-year-old daughter was expelled from school. Neighbors surrounded one home to take away the wife of one of the young men, asserting that she could not live with her expelled husband. Despite all of this, the families who studied the Bible did not give up their search for the truth.
Notice that the expulsion is labeled as “cruel”. When a JW is disfellowshipped, what happens between him and his JW clients if he is a businessman?
I know a woman who was a professional massage therapist. Before she was even read off from the platform, the elders from her “not judicial” committee called her JW clients and informed them that they should no longer go to her. It was an incredible drop in income.
Anyone who is DF'd, forcibly DA'd or who disassociate for conscientious reasons loses their whole social network overnight. Some lose their jobs as a result. Some are kicked our of their homes.
Why can WatchTower call the expulsion of Mennonites cruel while calling expulsion of JWs a loving provision?
Why is it cruel when Mennonites break ties with a member who changes religion, but it's perfectly fine for JWs to shun another JW who changes religion, or, God forbid, simply disagrees with the Governing Body on a doctrinal matter?
