Posts by Daniel1555

11

What the Australian Royal Commission says officially about Shunning!

by Daniel1555 in

this is an excerpt about shunning from the royal commissions latest (final?

) report: i think it is a must read and shows clearly that shunning also needs to be considered when child abuse is discussed and how cruel it is.. here the report:.

jehovah’s witnesses are counselled against associating, fraternising or conversing with a person who has been disfellowshipped or who has chosen to disassociate from the jehovah’s witness organisation.

Daniel1555

The Washington Post brought the story. There is a thread on that.

I think many more will follow, as was the case during the ARC hearings.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/28/australian-jehovahs-witnesses-protected-over-a-thousand-members-accused-of-child-abuse-report-says/

11

What the Australian Royal Commission says officially about Shunning!

by Daniel1555 in

this is an excerpt about shunning from the royal commissions latest (final?

) report: i think it is a must read and shows clearly that shunning also needs to be considered when child abuse is discussed and how cruel it is.. here the report:.

jehovah’s witnesses are counselled against associating, fraternising or conversing with a person who has been disfellowshipped or who has chosen to disassociate from the jehovah’s witness organisation.

Daniel1555

Even if the JW religions would have everything right, all their teachings being true and beneficial, the practice or teaching of shunning former members would make it a false religion in my eyes.

To use their own illustration.

What if you find a candy lying in stinky mud? Would you eat it?

The JW organisation doesn't even have a candy to offer ;-)

11

What the Australian Royal Commission says officially about Shunning!

by Daniel1555 in

this is an excerpt about shunning from the royal commissions latest (final?

) report: i think it is a must read and shows clearly that shunning also needs to be considered when child abuse is discussed and how cruel it is.. here the report:.

jehovah’s witnesses are counselled against associating, fraternising or conversing with a person who has been disfellowshipped or who has chosen to disassociate from the jehovah’s witness organisation.

Daniel1555

I think speaking to df'd relative must be a real problem for the gov. body.

They harshly portray their cruel stand in all their assemblies, now openly use the word 'shunning' in the title of their assembly talk, show it in a video how to go about shunning. They show it again in a video in their Nov. broadcast (just imagine the boy and girl where standing near the railway tracks or on a bridge on the edge to commit suicide and call their mother, and she doesn't take the phone according to these videos).

And now again in a Watchtower article.

11

What the Australian Royal Commission says officially about Shunning!

by Daniel1555 in

this is an excerpt about shunning from the royal commissions latest (final?

) report: i think it is a must read and shows clearly that shunning also needs to be considered when child abuse is discussed and how cruel it is.. here the report:.

jehovah’s witnesses are counselled against associating, fraternising or conversing with a person who has been disfellowshipped or who has chosen to disassociate from the jehovah’s witness organisation.

Daniel1555

And now compare that what the new WT study article from March 2017 says on page 19:

Paragraph 7

Each of us can examine his heart to see if it is fully devoted to God. Ask

yourself, ‘Am I determined to please Jehovah, to defend true worship, and to

protect his people from any corrupting influence?’ Think how much courage

Asa had to muster to stand up to Maacah, who was “queen mother” in the land! You probably do not know anyone who acts just like her, but there may be a situation in which you can imitate Asa’s zeal. For example, what if a member of your family or a close friend sins, is unrepentant, and has to be disfellowshipped? Would you take decisive action by ceasing to associate with that person? What would your heart move you to do?

11

What the Australian Royal Commission says officially about Shunning!

by Daniel1555 in

this is an excerpt about shunning from the royal commissions latest (final?

) report: i think it is a must read and shows clearly that shunning also needs to be considered when child abuse is discussed and how cruel it is.. here the report:.

jehovah’s witnesses are counselled against associating, fraternising or conversing with a person who has been disfellowshipped or who has chosen to disassociate from the jehovah’s witness organisation.

Daniel1555

This is an excerpt about shunning from the Royal Commissions latest (final?) report: I think it is a must read and shows clearly that shunning also needs to be considered when child abuse is discussed and how cruel it is.

Here the report:

Jehovah’s Witnesses are counselled against associating, fraternising or conversing with a person who has been disfellowshipped or who has chosen to disassociate from the Jehovah’s Witness organisation. This practice is known as ‘shunning’.

Even family members are instructed not to associate with a disfellowshipped or disassociated relative unless the association is unavoidable – for example, if they share a house with the person.

Violation by a Jehovah’s Witness of the decree against associating with a disfellowshipped or disassociated person may itself, in certain circumstances, be a disfellowshipping offence.

There is evidence before the Royal Commission of the difficulty that people experience in deciding to leave the Jehovah’s Witness organisation because of the fear of being shunned by friends and loved ones.

BCG told the Royal Commission that, when she decided to leave the Jehovah’s Witness organisation, she and her three children ‘were completely shunned, ostracised and actively avoided by members’ of the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses that she had left.

Disassociation

The Royal Commission heard evidence that a person who wishes to leave the Jehovah’s Witness organisation must ‘disassociate’ from the organisation. A person takes the action of 'disassociation’ if that person ‘deliberately repudiates his Christian standing’ and rejects ‘the congregation by his actions or by stating that he no longer wants to be recognised as or known as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses’.

Mr Geoffrey Jackson gave evidence that, if a person ‘definitely’ no longer wants to be subject to the Jehovah’s Witness organisation’s discipline and rules, they must actively leave the organisation by disassociating.

The Royal Commission heard that, if a person does not want to formally disassociate, they may instead choose to become ‘inactive’. Documents in evidence describe an ‘inactive’ person as a person who might have ‘failed to study God’s word regularly’, may be experiencing personal problems or may have ‘lost his zeal for serving Jehovah’.

The Jehovah’s Witness organisation still considers a person who chooses to become ‘inactive’ to be a Jehovah’s Witness and therefore still subject to its rules and disciplinary procedures.

Furthermore, that ‘inactive’ person will remain the concern of elders and others in the congregation in relation to the ‘rendering [of] appropriate spiritual assistance’ to that person.

Mr O’Brien told the Royal Commission that a person who chooses to become ‘inactive’ rather than disassociating entirely from the Jehovah’s Witness organisation is able to retain their ‘spiritual and familial association’.

It is clear that members of the Jehovah’s Witness organisation who no longer want to be subject to the organisation’s rules and discipline have no alternative but to actively leave (or disassociate from) the organisation.

Shunning and survivors of child sexual abuse

It is conceivable that a survivor of child sexual abuse may no longer wish to be part of, or subject to the rules and discipline of, the Jehovah’s Witness organisation at all. This might be the case especially if they feel that their complaint of abuse was not dealt with adequately or if their abuser remains in the organisation. As discussed above, a survivor’s decision to actively leave (disassociate from) the organisation would typically result in that person being shunned by other members of the organisation.

Also, it is conceivable, if not likely, that a survivor’s entire family and social networks comprise members of the Jehovah’s Witness organisation. A survivor of child sexual abuse may therefore be faced with the impossible choice between staying in an organisation which is protective of their abuser in order to retain their social and familial network and leaving the organisation and losing that entire network as a result.

Mr Geoffrey Jackson gave evidence that the decision to disassociate and leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses was a ‘difficult’ one that can be ‘personally devastating because [a person] can lose their whole social network and their families’.

The Watchtower & Ors submitted that the Royal Commission’s consideration of the practice of shunning is ‘outside the Terms of Reference and has no immediate relevance to institutional responses to child sexual abuse’. We do not agree with this submission. In our view, it is clear that the practice of shunning is an inextricable component of the institutional response to child sexual abuse (bold is mine).

The Jehovah’s Witness organisation’s practice of shunning members who disassociate from the organisation has the very real potential of putting a survivor in the untenable position of having to choose between constant re-traumatisation at having to share a community with their abuser and losing that entire community altogether.

The Jehovah’s Witness organisation’s policy of requiring its members to shun and actively avoid those who leave (or disassociate from) the organisation:

• makes it extremely difficult for a person to leave the organisation

can be upsetting for those who leave and for their friends and family who remain behind

• can be particularly devastating for those who have suffered child sexual abuse in the organisation and who wish to leave because they feel that their complaints about it have not been dealt with adequately or because their abuser remains in the congregation.

8

Article: Jehovah's Witnesses condemned for using 2,000yo rules regarding child sex abuse

by AndersonsInfo in

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-28/jehovahs-witness-handling-of-child-abuse-condemned-in-report/8063798.

by michelle brown.

jehovah's witnesses use of 2,000-year-old protocols when dealing with abuse complaints has been condemned in a report by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.. last year, the commission examined the experiences of two abuse survivors within the jehovah's witness organisation.. it also looked at evidence from case files that recorded reports or complaints of abuse by just over 1,000 jehovah's witnesses.

Daniel1555

Great Report of the Royal Commission.

In the Guardian Report you can download it fully (also on the Royal Commission website).

What they write about shunning is fantastic and needs to be discussed in a special thread as well.

38

Blood Ban Not Going Away Anytime Soon

by baldeagle in

at the recent circuit assembly in our area (nov 19/2016) a talk was given in the afternoon entitled “jehovah will resurrect the dead” it’s clear that the prohibition on blood is not going away anytime soon.

many of us here have expressed the hope that this death dealing policy would be softened or become a complete conscience matter.

not the case, jw’s are urged to not give in and to focus on the resurrection hope.

Daniel1555

That guy has creepy ears....

Is he an elf? A Watchtower house-elf 😂

24

2 elders just came to my door. I smiled and told them no.

by schnell in

not playing their game, as i've learned here.

they came to my door to find me with a full beard and a nightmare before christmas hoody, playing a video game where the characters "do not act according to bible principles", and i happily answered the door.

i simply smiled and told them no when they asked if i have a minute.

Daniel1555

Well done

19

Christian Longo on death row – is he up for a new trial?

by Bonnie_Clyde in

for those who don’t remember, longo was a life-long witness (even a one-time ministerial servant) who strangled and/or drowned his wife, mary jane, and their three children, zachery, sadie and madison.

longo has been on death row in marion county, oregon, since 2003.. http://www.biography.com/people/christian-longo.

well, yesterday i talked to a woman who works with one of mary jane’s sisters who told me that longo was coming up for a new trial.

Daniel1555

I don't know anything about this case.

But the death penalty is an out of date and most horrible thing that doesn't belong into a modern democracy.

37

Just curious - is apostasy grounds for divorce?

by LifesNotOver in

i know only adultery is supposed to be grounds for "scriptural" divorce.

i'm a wicked apostate in their eyes, but my believing husband and i still can't get a divorce that would allow him to remarry.

we currently are separated - i have left him.

Daniel1555

Welcome

Very courageous of you to go through all of that

I am in a similar situation but am 37.

I was disfellowshipped for apostasy. Even before that, my wife (a fanatic JW) separated. After more than a year I filed for divorce and we were divorced.

Elders can only give advice not to divorce, if there is no scriptural grounds for it. They don't hinder a couple; they just tell them that they are not free to marry again.

Only if you tell the elders that you had sex with someone else, your ex is free to marry again.

If not he would be disfellowshipped and go through the reinstatement process if he started to date.

I wish you all the best.