When the Witnesses Viewed Disfellowshipping as Unscriptual
This is an excerpt from the January 8th 1947
Awake magazine. Please do not take my
word for it, the magazine is in the public domain. Once you have established that this is a
genuine article from The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society please read it with
the ‘Shunning’ talk on the Friday of this year’s (2016) convention in mind;
Are You Also Excommunicated?
IF YOU are one of the 138,000,000 people in the world that were born
and raised as "Protestants", then you are already excommunicated by
the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. This means that you are looked upon with the blackest
contempt by the Vatican being cursed and damned with the Devil and his angels.
Says the Catholic Encyclopaedia: With the foregoing exceptions
[infidels, pagans, Mohammedans and
Jews], all who have been baptised are liable to excommunication... Moreover, the
Church excommunicates not only those who abandon the true faith to embrace
[protestant] schismatic or heresy, but likewise the members of heretical and
schismatic communities who have been born therein.... This is
canon law which the Roman Catholic Hierarchy seeks to enforce on the pretext
that it is God's law.
The authority for excommunication, they claim, is based on the teachings
of Christ and the apostles, as found in the following scriptures: Matthew 18:
15-19; 1 Corinthians 5:3; 16:22; Galatians 1:8,9; 1 Timothy 1:20; Titus
3:10.
But the hierarchy's
excommunication, as a punishment and "medicinal" remedy (Catholic Encyclopaedia)
finds no support in these scriptures. In fact, it is altogether foreign to
Bible teachings. —Hebrews
10:26-3L
Where, then, did this practice originate? The Encyclopaedia Britannica
says that papal excommunication is not without pagan influence…
It’s hard to reconcile the
opinion Jehovah’s Witnesses expressed in this article with their current insistence
that not only is disfellowshipping Theocratic but shunning can now even be
applied to ex-Witnesses who have simply drifted away or those who decided that
they did not believe what they were being taught.
When did excommunication (another
term for disfellowshipping) change from unscriptural and of pagan influence to suddenly
gaining scriptural backing? And where is
the scriptural precedence for shunning those that are not even
disfellowshipped?
Just consider the ramifications of this direction from
the Governing Body;
Any child born into the religion and raised as a Witness
no longer has any reasonable free will when they reach the age where they are
capable of deciding for themselves if they believe what they are being
taught. JW’s have always maintained that
their children are not forced into the religion but now, any young Witness can either,
remain in a religion they don’t believe in or face being shunned by all of
their family and friends if they exercise their right of free will.
Not only is this practice not scriptural it is also
illegal. Article 18 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights states;
Everyone has the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or
belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Of course the Governing Body claim that the reasoning
behind shunning is to keep the congregation clean. So come on Governing Body - where in scripture are you given the right to destroy families (because that is what you are doing all over the world) simply because an individual who has, by unfortunate coincidence, been born into your religion and at some point decides that it is not for them?
Please do not use the excuse that these youngsters have voluntarily dedicated their lives to Jehovah and made a public symbol of it by water baptism - that excuse just won't wash because you put them under ridiculous pressure to get baptised at far too young an age by your constant bombardment of 'wonderful examples of youngsters who put faith in Jehovah'. Jesus waited until he was thirty years old before dedicating his life to God - why do you think it is acceptable to accept children as young as nine and ten for baptism?
I know from personal experience the pressure to get baptised - the snide comments from your family that Bro Smugs son was baptised at last assembly and he's younger than you! Or your group study conductor asking if you have any 'ambition to progress' in the congregation.
Children born into the Jehovahs Witness cult - yes that is what you are whatever your protestations to the contrary - have a choice between a rock and a hard place - either obey the Governing Body and lose any chance you ever had to make the most of your life or lose every friend and family member you ever thought you could count on.
A Message to the Governing Body of Jehovahs Witnesses:
Thanks Governing Body for your ridiculous and callous non-scriptural rules and regulations that ruin lives and destroy potential. Your own literature describes this policy as un-scriptural, even pagan and yet it is a powerful control weapon - so you find an excuse to use it.
You should hang your heads in shame - you have ruined close family relationships like mine - I have never done anything that you would consider to be a sin except leave your organisation of lies and deceit and my reward is the loss of my family and friends. But you are far too arrogant to feel shame, you are so convinced that you are Gods chosen ones you fail to acknowledge the glaringly obvious proofs, right in front of your nose, that neither God, Jesus or Holy Spirit could possibly be directing you because you get everything WRONG!
So, in return for the damage you have caused me and hundreds of thousands of others, I will continue to use your own literature to prove you do not have the TRUTH - I will expose your lies, your deceit and your double standards and I will do my damnedest to make sure people are armed with the real TRUTH about what you teach.
Exposures to come will include the deceitful way you use 'experts' to give credence to your claims, the use of sound bites to hide your mistakes, the unequivocal proof that you do not have divine direction and the way you bundle blame on your own God for the stupidity of your decisions.
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