The shunning or harassment of former Jehovah's Witnesses is mandated

[PeteWaldo]

"JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES: DISFELLOWSHIPPING AND SHUNNING

INTRODUCTION

The shunning or harassment of former Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) by active members of the sect is behaviour that is mandated by the governing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses' church (officially titled the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society). Shunning has been known to cause sever emotional distress to estranged Witnesses, occasionally even leading to their suicides. Church-decreed ostracism of ex-JWs will be the subject of this paper. In particular disfellowship and shunning practices will be outlined and remedial actions which might be taken to deal with them will be discussed. The discussion will conclude that legal approaches to salving this problem, unfortunately, so far have been quite ineffectual. Support groups which offer peer and professional counselling to ex-Witnesses and provide public education on the dangers of Christian fundamentalist sects would seem to constitute more immediate and effective relief for this social ill.

THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' COMMUNITY AND BELIEFS

The JW community is a closed one. Members are not encouraged to socialize outside their religious circle and they are discouraged from developing interests outside their community. For example, they are advised not to seek a higher education.or to pursue private pastimes such as hobbies.(1) As a result, Witnesses, like other sect members, derive their sense of community and self from their shared theological beliefs:

"A sense of community emerges from shared theological beliefs which provides a locus of interaction for people with similar value systems. Common religious doctrine enables people to "define a situation" in a similar manner thus reinforcing their camaraderie and friendship. From a sense of community emerges an identification of self."(2)

The community is so insular that one former influential leader described it as "hermetically sealed."(3) Numerous religious beliefs bind this community together. Probably the most familiar ones are that Witnesses cannot accept blood transfusions and cannot sing national anthems. These beliefs are based on JWs interpretations of the scriptures. other beliefs which they hold and which set them apart from other Christian religions include the following:"
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http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/112349/jehovahs-witnesses-disfellowshipping-shunning?size=10&page=1

Just like Islam, and every other dangerous cult that can't defend itself through the truth, but must rely on intimidation of members instead.

Just like Islam, Jehovah's Witness is a doctrine that puts people in bondage to men.
Just like in Islam, those JWs that don't feel as though they themselves live in bondage, are the very ones that facilitate and advance the bondage of others.