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Part 3 - Shunning among Jehovah's Witnesses
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One must start by saying that shunning isn’t an exclusive tenet of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ beliefs.
Within the most orthodox Jewish communities, Cherem is the most rigorous form of ecclesiastical censure and signifies a ban for an indefinite period, during which no one was permitted to associate with, nor teach the offender, nor work for him, nor benefit him in any way, except when he was in need of the bare necessities of life.
Until 1983, the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law had a provision for a most severe form of excommunication, known as vitandi. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines this sanction as a decree demanding that “the faithful must have no intercourse with them [the shunned ones] either in regard to sacred things or, to a certain extent, profane matters”.
Among the Amish, shunning is also practiced. It is often termed Meidung, the German word for “avoidance”. The stated intention is not to punish, but to be used in love to win the member back by showing them their error. In the case of these very closed communities, shunning has a most devastating effect on the shunned individual, since previously he had virtually no social contact with others beyond his denominational community, thus leaving the shunned individual in a state of almost complete social isolation.
The Church of Scientology has also its own form of shunning, termed disconnection. This involves members in good standing to quit all communication with Suppressive Persons, or dissenters considered antagonistic towards Church doctrine and policy. Failure to cut ties with a disconnected person is in itself considered a Suppressive Act.
Other churches practice milder forms of excommunication, but this article will focus of the particular case of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Among Jehovah’s Witnesses there are several forms of congregational discipline. These may be divided between judicial and non-judicial actions.
On the non-judicial group, these actions may include “Local Needs”, where a local elder addresses the congregation in the Service Meeting with a local matter deemed by the Body of Elders as being worthy of attention; “Shepherding Calls”, where two elders encourage or give counsel in private to a member of the congregation regarding a perceived flaw or fault or other spiritually endangering situation; sometimes special assignments or recommendations are withheld from an individual based on perceived spiritual weaknesses of the individual; sometimes existing assignments or positions of responsibility are removed; “privileges of service” may be limited or withdrawn entirely; “marking” involves avoiding close social interaction with someone who repeatedly insists on wrongful behavior despite counseling from elders.
Serious sins will involve the elders of the congregation taking judicial action towards the member of the congregation known to be, or accused to be, or suspected to be guilty of a serious transgression. Only baptized Witnesses are subject to judicial procedures. These judicial procedures may result in formal reproof or disfellowshipping. Evidence of actions leading to judicial procedure may come from voluntary confession to the elders or from witnesses to the said action. A judicial committee of three elders is formed when evidence of serious transgression is deemed credible, and this committee will investigate the allegations. A judicial hearing is arranged, where the judicial committee takes on the role of prosecutor, judge and jury. After the charges are presented, and the source of the accusation is disclosed, the accused is given the opportunity to make an opening statement. If no admission of guilt is offered, witnesses will be heard, one at a time. Once all witnesses are heard, the committee dismisses the accused and the witnesses, and reviews the evidence presented and the attitude of the accused, as well as possible mitigating circumstances.
The judicial committee may decide that there’s not sufficient evidence to proceed with a disciplinary action; or that the sin involved isn’t serious enough to require a disciplinary action; or, in case of proof of serious sin, that mitigating circumstances and/or an attitude of repentance were verified, in which case verbal admonishment and formal reproof may ensue; or, if no evidence of sufficient repentance is verified, the disciplinary action taken by the judicial committee may be a decision of disfellowshipping the individual.
A person may appeal in writing from the disfellowshipping decision if he believes that a serious judgment error was made; if no appeal is made, or if the appeal is rejected, or if a second judicial committee upholds the original decision, a short announcement is made to the congregation, stating that “[name of member] is no longer a Jehovah’s Witness.” A similar announcement is made when someone takes the initiative to dissociate from the congregation. In this case the person writes a letter of dissociation, where he states the wish to no longer be acknowledged as a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In practical terms, the result is the same, and there’s no difference made in the announcement made to the congregation. In either case, no explanations are given to the congregation as to the reasons why someone is no longer a Jehovah’s Witness.
In brief, the above describes the procedure of excommunication practiced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The stated intention of the disciplinary action in the shape of disfellowshipping is explained in the book Organized To Do Jehovah’s Will, the basic procedure manual for all baptized Jehovah’s Witnesses:
“It is necessary to expel the unrepentant wrongdoer from the congregation, thus denying him fellowship with Jehovah's clean congregation. This is done to remove the bad influence of the wrongdoer from the congregation, thereby safeguarding the moral and spiritual cleanness of the congregation and protecting its good name (…)” (Organized To Do Jehovah’s Will, Ed. 2005, p. 153 – bold added by me)
Therefore, the primary reason for terminating someone’s membership from the congregation is to the benefit of the congregation, not to the benefit of the individual who is disfellowshipped. The spiritual interests of the disfellowshipped individual come second, although they are also apparently taken into account:
“The strong discipline shows love for the wrongdoer. It may be just the jolt he needs to come to his senses and take the steps necessary to return to Jehovah.” – Keep Yourself In God’s Love, Ed. 2008, p. 35.
Thus, disfellowshipping is regarded as a measure of discipline, a form of “tough love” from Jehovah’s organization, which may help the wrongdoer to come to its senses and return to the congregation.
Once the announcement is made that someone is “no longer a Jehovah’s Witness”, the relationship of the congregation towards the disfellowshipped or dissociated individual changes radically. How does the Watchtower Society instruct its members to treat disfellowshipped or dissociated individuals?
In the official website of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, www.jw.org, in a section of Frequently Asked Questions, the visitor may encounter the following question: Do you shun former members of your religion? The first paragraph answers:
“Those who were baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses but no longer preach to others, perhaps even drifting away from association with fellow believers, are not shunned. In fact, we reach out to them and try to rekindle their spiritual interest.” – November 6th, 2013
This part of the answer seems to indicate that those who “were baptized … but no longer preach … drifting away from association with fellow believers” are considered among the “former members”, although no publication of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is clear about such statement. These are Jehovah’s Witnesses that, due to several circumstances became inactive and faded out from the congregation, not being subject to any disciplinary action by the local body of Elders. True, these inactive individuals are still considered fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses and, despite perhaps some lukewarm treatment by others active in the congregation, they continue to enjoy fellowship with their brethren Witnesses. But the Watchtower Society is clear enough about how those who were subject to disfellowshipping are to be treated:
“If, however, a baptized Witness makes a practice of breaking the Bible’s moral code and does not repent, he or she will be shunned or disfellowshipped.”
An article in the Watchtower magazine stated the following:
“The expelled person is not a mere man of the world who has not known God nor pursued a godly way of life. Rather, he has known the way of truth and righteousness, but he has left that way and unrepentantly pursued sin to the point of having to be expelled. So he is to be treated differently (…)the Bible commands Christians not to keep company or fellowship with a person who has been expelled from the congregation. Thus "disfellowshiping" is what Jehovah's Witnesses appropriately call the expelling and subsequent shunning of such an unrepentant wrongdoer. Their refusal to fellowship with an expelled person on any spiritual or social level reflects loyalty to God's standards and obedience to his command”. – The Watchtower, 1981, Sept. 15, p. 20-26; “Disfellowshipping – How to view it.”
Quoting the above article from the Watchtower, the book Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All The Flock (A book on congregational policies only available to active Elders, Ed. 1991, p. 103) instructed:
“Disfellowshipped and disassociated ones are shunned by those who wish to have a good relationship with Jehovah.” – added bold by me.
It’s interesting to note that in the article of 1981, the Watchtower acknowledges the difference between “expelling” and “shunning” as two separate stages of the procedure of disfellowshipping, as does the Pay Attention … book; whereas in the jw.org website (as of November 6th, 2013) the Watchtower Society simply equates shunning with disfellowshipping. This will be brought to notice further on this article.
How strict is the order to shun the disfellowshipped or dissociated individual? Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that even a simple polite greeting may be enough to be classified as “sharing in that person’s sins”, as the following passage of the said Watchtower article reads:
“As distinct from some personal "enemy" or worldly man in authority who opposed Christians, a disfellowshiped or disassociated person who is trying to promote or justify his apostate thinking or is continuing in his ungodly conduct is certainly not one to whom to wish "Peace." (1 Tim. 2:1, 2) And we all know from our experience over the years that a simple "Hello" to someone can be the first step that develops into a conversation and maybe even a friendship. Would we want to take that first step with a disfellowshiped person? … All faithful Christians need to take to heart the serious truth that God inspired John to write: "He that says a greeting to [an expelled sinner who is promoting an erroneous teaching or carrying on ungodly conduct] is a sharer in his wicked works.”
Failing to keep strict avoidance of contact with the disfellowshipped person may bring the member in good standing to be under scrutiny from the congregation Elders. The 2010 edition of the book Pay Attention to Yourselves and All the Flock states:
“If members of the congregation are known to have undue association with disfellowshipped or disassociated relatives who are not in the household, elders should counsel and reason with those members of the congregation from the Scriptures. ... If it is clear that a Christian is violating the spirit of the disfellowshipping decree in this regard and does not respond to counsel, it may be that he would not qualify for congregation privileges, which require one to be exemplary. He would not be dealt with judicially unless there is persistent spiritual association or he openly criticizes the disfellowshipping decision.” - pp.114-116
Elders in each congregation are instructed to keep a stern watch so that members of the congregation keep strict avoidance of the disfellowshipped / dissociated individual. A member of the congregation may lose privileges or even get himself disfellowshipped if openly and repeatedly challenges the shunning policy. This is perceived as a real possibility by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are thus psychologically coersed into accepting and sharing in the practice of shunning disfellowshipped and dissociated former members whom they considered to be part of their spiritual family up until then.
Eden
