Posts by Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

Here's a copy of an email I sent my parents a few months ago after my mother went on a rant about how disfellowshipping is STRAIGHT from the Bible. I never got a reply:

After being shown some scriptures in the kitchen this evening about the disfellowshipping arrangement, I promised to put down these scriptures and their context in writing for you tonight in a bid to avoid raised voices and abrupt termination of the discussion without my being able to express Biblical reasoning.

First scripture I implore you to re-read is Jon: 10b-11 “do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him. For the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.”

For context, please go back just a few verses to verse 7: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those not acknowledging Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” Verse 10a reinforces this by saying "If anyone comes to to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your homes…”

This is in reference to those who are KNOWINGLY denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or that he came in the flesh.

The second scripture is 1Cor 5:11 “…stop keeping in company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man.”

Again, context is very import here. This verse is highlighting a special circumstance that the Corinthian congregation was faced with: Verse one of chapter five refers to the man who is sexually immoral with his father’s wife and living with her. This is the person acting as if they were are brother, carrying on as though they were doing nothing wrong and, ultimately, acting like a hypocrite. And notice - in spite all of that - nowhere does this account instruct not to say a greeting to such a person. It’s simply saying not associate with him as normal because he is doing something very disturbing. Another detail to take note of: the scripture says, “But now I am writing you to stop keeping company with anyone called a brother--” so when one decides to leave the WT organization, they are no longer considered a “brother” or sister. How can this apply to ones who have disassociated? This scripture has nothing to do with refusing to say a greeting to these people in public or shunning them even in private (refusing contact).

The custom/tradition of disfellowshipping ones and the process of “applying for reinstatement” and undergoing a set period of time of “proving” oneself before contact can be made with family and loved ones is completely foreign to what the Bible teaches. One just has to consider the parable Jesus made about the Prodigal Son. His father saw the son returning from a distance and… subsequently sent three servants to sit with him, test him for repentance and gave him a full twelve months to sit outside the father’s home before even being acknowledged by his family? We both know that’s not how the account went. The father came running, fell upon his son and kissed him tenderly - in SPITE - of not knowing his heart condition. This is the essence of true Christian love, as taught by Christ. It is unconditional.

As for sinners who still wish to belong to the organization, WT offers us this scripture from 2Thes 3:14 “But if anyone is not obedient to our word through this letter keep this one marked and stop associating with him, so that he may become ashamed.” Verse 15 reconciles this with “And yet do NOT consider him an enemy, but CONTINUE ADMONISHING HIM AS A BROTHER.” Contrast this with the coldness of shunning as practiced by the Society with video dramatizations and WT articles urging family to not even answer the phone if their disfellowshipped son/daughter/parent is calling. Remember, the Prodigal Son’s father saw his son from a LONG WAY OFF and didn’t have the indoctrinated reflex to turn his face the other way.

I’m always asked why I don’t “keep my opinion to myself” and why I don’t just “drop it” and “leave things quietly.” To answer that in print, I’ll leave you with this quote from the January 15,1974 Watchtower:

“When persons are in great danger from a source that they do not suspect or are being mislead by those they consider their friends, is it an unkindness to warn them? They may prefer not to believe the warning. They may even RESENT it. But does that free one from the moral responsibility to give that warning?”

So long as I am alive, my conscience won’t allow a silent retreat without at least trying to reason with you from the scriptures. The grave will provide plenty of time for my silence.

16

Candidate for the Governing Body???

by DATA-DOG in

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dd 😎.

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

@punkofnice "Why is his mouth like that?" Well, if he's anything like Sanderson, it's because he was hungry.

69

Movie Titles that Describe Watchtower

by Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho in

i'll go first.... .

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

"Brothers, the New World is so close, you can almost taste it. Stay alive, 'til..." ad finitum.

14

What Would You Yearn For From The Good Old Days?

by minimus in

jw
friends

2017 and the world is probably more advanced than ever before.

prices are high for homes, food and comfort.

wars seem to rage everywhere!.

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

The Body Shop on Sunset Strip, circa 1984. Zoom in hard enough and you'll see my aura floating around Van Halen.

As a former blonde, I used to walk around in high school thinking I was Bobbie Brown out of that Warrant video clip, Cherry Pie. And this was in the 2000s.

1

"The good old days" The BEST public talk ever!

by stuckinarut2 in

this video is amazing!.

as we know, jw public talks often start at length with doom and gloom about how "bad the world is" and how things are going from bad to worse each year.... so, this is a great talk that really helps put things into perspective.. please do yourself a favour and watch it!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axiu0vrxo6w.

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

These 30 minutes were gold for me. In perfect time, too, since the day after I watched this I came face-to-face with WT's latest "IS THE WORLD OUT OF CONTROL" propaganda piece. If my eyes weren't open for data/stats like the ones discussed in this video, I would still be trapped in that depressing WT echo chamber of feeling like we're in the cataclysmic "last days".

38

"Life is so hard!...tribulation and problems abound!" Persecution complex of witnesses.....

by stuckinarut2 in

the meeting this week is mind-blowing in the way it fuels the crippling "persecution complex" of witnesses!.

paragraph 1 set the theme with this gem:.

does it shock you that you can expect to face many tribulations before you gain the prize of everlasting life?

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

Ja, I saw that article at my parents' house, @stuckinarut2. Even though I'm "out", seeing that article gave me the same depressed, sinking feeling I always had as a Witness. Just utter despair and fear. "OUR HEALTH UNDER SIEGE", "HUMAN ATTACKS ON NATURE", and "NATURE'S ATTACK ON HUMANS" were just some of the liberating and refreshing subheadings.

So I marched right over to my father's PC and promptly opened up this page and minimized it for him to discover on his own after I'd left, along with this picture:

http://kristenfrihet.se/english/sign6.pdf

23

It's My 25th Birthday!!!

by Cimarrona in

and i'm glad to alive and celebrating!

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Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

@Cimarrona Hope it was as good for you as it was for me ;).