This cliche' may get oversaid, but it is much like the Eagles song Hotel California where you can "check out any time you like, but you can never leave." My husband was DF'd last month. We have been inactive for about 7 years and have only stepped inside the local KH for a couple of memorial services. Most of the community knew we had stopped going to the KH, but when asked we usually just told folks we were 'slackers,' as we have mostly JW family and wanted to avoid dealing with the shunning business. It took only mentioning the SilentLambs issue to one person to get the elders riled up. So yes, inactive does not stop them.
Can inactives be D/F'd?
by tabbycat 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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skin
From the Bible "NO", unless the inactive one is.... (1 Corinthians 5:11 & 13)
11 But now I am writing YOU to quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man
13 while God judges those outside? "Remove the wicked [man] from among yourselves.
From the Watchtower "YES", and the (Wt 1952 pg 137)
IS IT proper to disfellowship? Yes, as we have just seen in the above article, God put out of his congregation those that were opposed to him and that were corrupt. He disfellowshiped them. He got rid of them, and he advises us to do so with such persons. At Titus 3:10, 11 (NW) we read: "As for a man that promotes a sect, reject him after a first and a second admonition, knowing that such a man has been turned out of the way and is sinning, he being self-condemned." So there is authority in the Greek Scriptures for anyone that starts sects or divisions to be rejected after he has been talked to a first and a second time and still he does not change his course of action.
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We have other authority, too, in Romans 16:17, 18 (NW): "Now I exhort you, brothers, to keep your eye on those who create divisions and causes for stumbling contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and avoid them. For men of that kind are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own bellies, and by smooth talk and complimentary speech they seduce the hearts of guileless ones." Here we have a plain statement from God’s Word that we should get rid of these persons that cause offense and divisions within His congregation. We have the authority, we have the right, and it is proper to get rid of them. They have no place in the congregation of God. Christ Jesus even disfellowships on what we probably might think less grounds than all of the things described above. Just because a person is lukewarm, and he is neither hot nor cold, Christ Jesus spews him out. He also declares, at Revelation 3:16 (NW): "So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth." Well, that is a disfellowshiping. Christ Jesus is not going to have any lukewarm persons permanently in his organization. You are either for him or against him. You will either come into the congregation of the Lord God and be his minister or eventually go out into the Devil’s organization. You cannot pussyfoot. You cannot be lukewarm. You cannot be passive. You have to be positively for the Lord God. -
blondie
My understanding is that inactive cannot be DF'd just for not attending meetings and turning in time. But if you are in that status and the BOE can prove through the means of the 2 witness rule or circumstantial evidence (being pregnant and unmarried, e.g.), then they have DF'd such people even though they have not been associated for some time and may not even be known as a JW by only a handful of people.
Nothing can stop the individual active JW from personally marking an inactive person as being "bad association" and shunning them. But it will not be a process where the person's name is announced from the platform by an elder.
I'm sure it has not reached the stage where the elders put down on the S-77 (?) form to Bethel, Reason for DFing: not attending meetings and turning in time. They will at least make up something else officially.
Of course, we know that individual elders can misrepresent and lie even to the headquarters for their own personal ends and make an exception to any written policy of the WTS. But so far the WTS will make more problems for itself if it starts DFing (or DAing) people who have merely stopped attending meetings and turning in time. I wonder what they would do to JWs that kept attending meetings but stopped turning in time?
Blondie
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dh
my brother was df'd after a year of not having anything to do with jw's.
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blondie
So he was DF'd for not attending meetings and not turning in a time slip? He wasn't accused of anything else? He wasn't invited to a JC and failed to show and was then DF'd in absentia? He hadn't had any discussions with the elders or other JWs that they might have minsiterpreted as being a desire to no longer be a JW?
I wonder what the put on the S-77, S-79 forms to the WTS?
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rebel8
I have been wondering....what is BOE?
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blondie
Body
Of
Elders
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tabbycat
Well, it's been about 12 years, but I still feel like I'm looking over my shoulder!
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jwfacts
If its been 12 years it is very unlikely they would ever disfellowship you. An inactive husband i know is about to get d;d because his wife has just turned 'apostate'. The elders are trying to say he must have influenced her. They cant prove it so he getting done for 'loose conduct', which in this case was showing disrespect for the elders by walking out on the elders meeting.
Family dont have to shun you but generally will. The articles swing back and forth on it, but a recent kingdom ministry started to push the hard line again and suggest families do need to shun their loved ones -