by NotFormer 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Do disfellowshipped ones who want to be reinstated still have to sit up the back of the Kingdom Hall, away from everyone else, not allowed to speak to anyone?
For those who have been through it, what was it like? When did you realise that it wasn't worth it and finally decided to stop playing the game?
Is your life better now?
There’s nothing in the literature, it’s up to the DF’d one, unless the local BOE makes their own rules, which does happen.
Yes, this is what I was told by the elders -- to sit in back and tell anyone who tries to speak to you that you are DF'd.
Questions From Readers: "Since it is not required that a disfellowshipped person sit at the back of the hall, there should be no objection if a disfellowshipped child sits next to his parents, wherever they are sitting." WT 8/15/13 p. 8
(this includes non-minor children living at home).
Blondie: SMH! How "merciful" of them!
Is this "clarification" related to the pressure being put on them by governments about the disfellowshipping and shunning of children?
Is this "clarification" related to the pressure being put on them by governments about the disfellowshipping and shunning of children?
I'm sure it is. I have seen many "adjustments" made by the WTS, driven by a negative legal experience because of treatment of df'd jws. In the past the WTS announced people as being df'd and name the specific sin, in an announcement from the stage at the "service meeting." It was also announced at other congregations the person had attended in the past in the area. They finally adjusted it to "is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses."
2021 "When we hear an announcement made at a Christian meeting that someone we know and love “is no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses"
I want to bring this topic BTTT because I have another question about disfellowshipped people seeking reinstatement: are disfellowshipped people expected to go out in field service? I think that the answer would be no, but I don't know. If not, then I assume that attending meetings is the only way to show that you are keen to rejoin.
Is someone reinstated ever held in the same esteem by the congregation as they were before disfellowshipping?
Has anyone disfellowshipped ever risen through the ranks to greater heights?
NOT FORMER:
I have been out for years. Nobody in the congregation is supposed to speak to a disfellowshipped person, so I do not recall a disfellowshipped person going out in the ministry.
As far as whether a reinstated person holds the same ‘esteem’ held before: generally I would say it depends. I would say No at least for the first year for people to warm up to them. If it’s somebody’s family member in some elder’s extended family - it might be like nothing much happened at all.. Whereas somebody else in the hall could still be shunned to some degree even after being reinstated.
Unfortunately, this is a cult-like religion with class distinctions that shouldn’t exist in the first place - so therefore some people are viewed better than others. I’m a ‘Fader’and was never even disfellowshipped but I swear that some people from certain families were viewed better.. My ‘sin’ was that I worked and didn’t pioneer.🤷🏻♀️
When you ask if a formerly DF’d person could rise to ‘greater heights’, I’m assuming you mean can they be an elder. I can’t say for certain but if many many years passed and the person is an older person - I suppose it might not matter if they were DF’d and reinstated as a teenager.
