If someone wants to leave, they can leave.
RlBrett, the above is a crop of horse-hockey, and you know it.
Yes, a person can “leave,” but they will be defamed from the podium of the Kingdom Hall as an Apostate who has “disassociated himself/herself from Jehovah’s Organization” and all JWs, including all his/her friends, will be instructed to and expected to, utterly shun the person as if he or she is dead and have absolutely nothing to do with him/her, not even saying hi if you bump into him or her on the street. Then around the time the announcement of his/her disassociation is made, one of the “elders” will give a long talk about the wickedness and malicious hearts of “apostates” and “opposers of the Truth who have abandoned Jehovah’s Theocratic organization.” It is usually in the context of such a public talk that, at the end of the meeting, it is announced that so-and-so has disassociated himself/herself from “The Truth” and is now an apostate and an opposer of God’s Truth. I know this because whenever someone in our KH was disfellowshiped for fornication, adultery, or homosexuality, the elder would give a long talk about the wickedness and depravity of fornicators. At the end of the talk, or at the end of the meeting, it would be announced that so-and-so had been disfellowshiped. EVERYONE in the Hall knew exactly what was meant.
In all my years associated with the Watchtower Society, I don’t remember us being encouraged to pray for the Repentance of ones who had fallen into serious sin or doctrinal “error,” but rather everybody in the Hall would bad-mouth them and spread all kinds of malicious rumors about them. I myself was disfellowshiped for fornication during a nervous breakdown.
I later learned from a non-baptized JW that a woman whom I trusted, an old crone who claimed to be “of the anointed,” had spread the rumor throughout the Hall that I was also a drug addict.
She did this even though I never had ever even touched any drugs, let alone used them recreationally. Her “anointing” certainly didn’t prevent her from being a despicable liar and slanderer.
Yes, people may “leave” the Watchtower Society, but at a very, very, very STEEP price. There is NO HONORABLE WAY OUT of that Organization.
When people leave the Catholic Church, we grieve for them and pray for their return. We don’t shun them. When Presbyterians leave the Presbyterian church, they are not shunned as “apostates,” either, or when they leave nearly every other denomination. Only the JWs and a couple of other small sects treat their ex-members in this vicious manner.
And the fact that the JW religion is increasing in members means absolutely nothing as to whether the religion is true. The Mormon Church is increasing in members at a much faster rate than the JWs, and I doubt that JWs would declare Mormonism true on that basis.
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
