(FAQ WT site) Do you shun former members?

by D wiltshire 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  D wiltshire

  Here's some thing right from the Official JW site under fequently asked questions.

  Do you shun former members?
  Those who simply cease to be involved in the faith are not shunned. In compliance with the Scriptures, however, members can be expelled for serious unchristian conduct, such as stealing, drunkenness, or adultery, if they do not repent and cease such actions. Disfellowshipping does not sever family ties. Disfellowshipped members may continue to attend religious services, and if they wish, they may receive pastoral visits. They are always welcome to return to the faith.—1 Corinthians 5:11-13.

  Is this the whole truth or are their a lot left out?
• 

  somebody

  There's a lot left out of that, to deceive the public.

  This:

  Disfellowshipping does not sever family ties.

  
  is a lie too. There are many more lies on that site too. It's all to look good to rake more members in.

  peace,
  somebody
• 

  jurs

  Hi D,
  i JUST went over this with 2 elders last night. i asked I asked Jay Moore (elder) if he was going to shun me. he said YES. we also went over1 cor5:11-13 as well as the scripture as well as 1 cor. 6:9 on who will not inherit the kingdom of God. i am NOT guilty of any of those things but i WILL be shunned . my situation was crystal clear to him. i don't care what the official web site says that aint how it is !! jurs
• 

  jurs

  WOW, i just read my posting. i need to proof read before i hit send. hope it made sense.....jurs
• 

  bigboi

  Hey All:

  Well, they do have a point. Even though they won't make eye contact with you, speak to you or have any association whatsoever with you, they're still your mother, father, brother, sister, cousin...well you get my point.[8>]

  "it ain't what ya do. it's how you do it" quote from the song "True Honeybunz" by Bahamadia
• 

  Francois

  D-
  There are members of my family with whom I lived while going to college in another state who haven't spoken to me in 16 years. My best friend in college, who moved back to Georgia with me when I graduated hasn't spoken to me in 24 years. Shunning in the JWs is total, complete. If you go to a meeting, you're shunned utterly. Not spoken to. People look straight through you. It's nasty.

  Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.
• 

  ros

  It is an unmitigated, pure, bald-faced, unadulterated LIE!!!
  AND THEY KNOW IT!!! No JW or exJW is so ignorant as to believe that preposterous balogne. What is amazing is how they get away with such hypocracy in view of the fact that every JW/exJW KNOWS its not true! It makes JWs "sharers in the lie" imo.

  (And this is in my good mood.)
• 

  waiting

  Hello D. Wiltshire,

  Do you shun former members?

  Those who simply cease to be involved in the faith are not shunned.

  The WTBTS did not answer the question. A "former member" is not the same thing as a "member who simply ceases to be involved."

  BIG DIFFERENCE. A non-involved member is still a member. A former member is no longer a member - and they didn't answer the question they presented to themselves.

  Disfellowshipped persons are former members, so are Disassociated persons. And they are completely shunned - especially Disassociated ones - they're considered quaintly as belonging to Satan and devoted to destruction at Armageddon when God kills everybody who's not one of Jehovah's Witnesses (and the mentally unstable who can't make their own choice.)

  In compliance with the Scriptures, however, members can be expelled for serious unchristian conduct, such as stealing, drunkenness, or adultery, if they do not repent and cease such actions.

  Clever, eh? "Shunning" has not much to do with the act of "expelling." They can go hand-in-hand, but are not the same thing. Two distinctly different actions. Btw, a person can easily be repentent of serious sin and still be df'd. Also, a person can be df'd, repent, cease such actions - and still be shunned and df'd for the rest of their lives.

  And, btw, we are definitely taught to shun disfellowshipped and disassociated members - whether they've committed a sin or not. They have been marked by the elders and that's enough proof.

  Disfellowshipping does not severe family ties.

  At least the WTBTS lied right out in the open about the above. Remember Richard Nixon and the nickname he was bestowed with - Tricky Dicky? Same principle here - doubletalk and lies.

  Nice to meet you - welcome to our forum.

  waiting
• 

  D wiltshire

  They only mention 3 things you can get DF'd for (stealing, drunkeness, and adultery).
  I amagine if the would put a complete list of all the things you could get DF'd for what would it look like how many people would want to join.
  Here's a patial list I can think of I'm sure there's lots more:
  Speaking against the Org., Buying a lottery ticket, celibrating birthdays, celibrating christmas, giving some one Ray Franze book, holding a belief different from the Org.,not believing the WT is God's Org., unrepentantly takeing a blood transfution, working for a church, joining the Army, running for office, working for Philip Morse, dealing cards at a casino, smoking pot, saying Rutherford was a drunk etc...
• 

  Seeker

  These are not legal lies, or public relation lies, and that's the key to understanding the statements. Yes, of course, they are doublespeak, designed to deceive. In that sense, of course they are lies. But now that the WTS has been taken over by lawyers, legalspeak is the name of the game. Let me demonstrate how everything they said is technically true, from a legalspeak perspective:

  Do you shun former members?

  Those who simply cease to be involved in the faith are not shunned.

  Correct, and I'm an example. I walked away, and had no sanctions, and I am not shunned. Unfortunately, I'm the exception that merely proves the rule. Most people who walk away are forcibly DAed. I was an elder, I knew how the game is played, I got out on my terms. Most exJWs are not that fortunate.

  Note, however, that the question asked about 'former members' in general, but the answer only dealt the the specific cases of those who 'cease to be involved.' That is a subset of all exJWs, and the only group that even has a chance to avoid the shunning. Even among these ones, they are often unofficially shunned.

  This response is technically true under some very specific limitations.

  In compliance with the Scriptures, however, members can be expelled for serious unchristian conduct, such as stealing, drunkenness, or adultery, if they do not repent and cease such actions.

  Here are many of the other cases. They lump all such ones together as if they were all wrongdoers and therefore deserving of whatever punishment they get. What a worldly person does not know is that how a JW defines "unchristian conduct" is not at all what most people think of by that term.

  Disfellowshipping does not severe family ties.

  Correct. Your biological mother is still your biological mother, your biological father is still your biological father, etc. This legalspeak depends on their definition of "family ties." They are speaking in the sense of biology, whereas everyone else knows this is silly, since of course biological ties can never be broken. But a wordly person hearing this will think, 'Hmmm..ok, so they aren't cut off from their family in a sociological sense.' and that, of course, is not true at all.

  The WTS, while treading carefully to not lie in a legal, very narrow technical sense, did manage to be deceptive. They lied while telling the truth. Just like lawyers and PR spokesmen.