• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / International / Featured Global

Jehovah’s Witnesses and Shunning. 6. Why Shunning Should Be Respected

05/10/2022Massimo Introvigne |

Shunning is part of  these typically religious teachings and practices secular authorities should not interfere with.

by Massimo Introvigne

Article 6 of 6. Read article 1, article 2, article 3, article 4, and article 5.

Elders counseling a “problematic” member. From JW.org.
Elders counseling a “problematic” member. From JW.org.

Bitter Winter has published a series of five articles about the Jehovah’s Witnesses and shunning, i.e. their teaching and practice that their members in good standing should, in most circumstances (since there are exceptions), no longer associate with disfellowshipped ex-members, except if they are part of their immediate family and cohabit with them. Opponents of the Jehovah’s Witnesses call the practice cruel and inhuman, and sometimes ask governments and courts of law to forbid its teaching.

I will summarize here the reasons why I regard these requests as both unreasonable and dangerous for the religious liberty of all religions.

Although shunning as practiced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses has unique features, the practice of a strict separation from those who have left the faith or have been excluded for serious transgressions was typical of the monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—since their very origins. Scholars have explained that the early devotees of monotheistic faiths were surrounded by polytheists, and shunning was a way to protect their young and fragile religions. Even when the number of their followers grew so much that they became majority, they still believed that the integrity of their faith should be protected.

Jews of old practiced a very strict separation from “apostates,” which has persisted to this very day in some ultra-Orthodox groups under the name of “herem.” Shunning was practiced by the first Christians, and traces remained in the Roman Catholic Church until the mid-20th century. Some Muslim states maintain not only separation, but the death penalty for apostates. Those Protestants who defended religious liberty, and asked the state not to intervene and punish the apostates, still protected their communities’ shared faith through strict forms of shunning. They still exist as “Meidung” among direct heirs of the so-called Radical Reformation, such as the Amish.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses disfellowship members guilty of serious unrepentant sins. Courts of law all around the world have recognized that interfering with the procedure leading to disfellowshipping would be a violation of the fundamental right of religions to organize themselves as they deem fit. At the same time, they have also recognized that the religious judicial committees of the Jehovah’s Witnesses consistently respect their own procedure, and members accused of wrongdoings have a fair opportunity of being heard and appeal the first decision rendered against them.

Shunning applies also to members who have formally renounced their faith. Some critics have claimed that it is unfair to treat them in the same way as the disfellowshipped ex-members guilty of unrepentant offenses. This criticism is based on a misunderstanding. As in all other religions, there are among the Jehovah’s Witnesses those who become inactive. Some may no longer associate with fellow believers. These “weak” or “lapsed” members are not shunned. On the other hand, are shunned those who formally declare or demonstrate that they renounce their spiritual standing, or announce that they have joined another religion, or atheism, or another group whose objectives are regarded by the Jehovah’s Witnesses as contrary to Biblical teachings. Again, this is not a unique peculiarity of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Catholic Church and other denominations also distinguish between those who become inactive and those who publicly declare their apostasy, and excommunicate the latter only.

How shunning exactly works is also often misunderstood. It does not apply to cohabiting members of the family. Husbands and wives maintain their normal marital relations, except that they do not participate in family religious activities together.

Shunning does not apply to cohabiting family members. The family relations between husbands, wives, and children are important for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. From the Jehovah’s Witnesses brochure “What Is the Key to Happy Family Life?”
The family relations between husbands, wives, and children are important for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Shunning does not apply to cohabiting family members. From the Jehovah’s Witnesses brochure “What Is the Key to Happy Family Life?”

Opponents mention cases of husbands who have been compelled to leave the family home when they have been disfellowshipped, but “forget” to specify that these are cases of abusive or ostentatiously immoral spouses, who would be thrown out of their homes in all religions and with the blessing of courts of law.

Shunning also has exceptions. Business relations with a disfellowshipped ex-member, when they exist, continue. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that they should still help a disfellowshipped ex-member in need (one example given is helping a lady whose car has a flat tire), and this becomes a strict duty in the case of sick or aging relatives who need assistance. Elders are also mindful that the purpose of disfellowshipping and shunning is medicinal rather than punitive. When welcomed, they visit the disfellowshipped ex-members and try to elicit their repentance and return to the community. This makes shunning among the Jehovah’s Witnesses very much different from the “social death” described by early 20th-century scholars who studied the “herem” of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Applying the expression “social death” to the shunning as practiced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, as some opponents do, is certainly incorrect.

Nobody becomes a Jehovah’s Witness overnight. There is a codified path to baptism and, before being baptized, candidates should know the main doctrines and practices of the Jehovah’s Witnesses including those about disfellowshipping and shunning. Critics object that, while this is true for those who join the Jehovah’s Witnesses as adults, it is not true for children whose parents are already part of the organization, which may be both baptized at a very young age and disfellowshipped. The objection is perhaps more impressive for those who do not consider that, unlike other Christian organizations, the Jehovah’s Witnesses do not practice infant baptism. It is true that minors are baptized, but at an age where the elders believe they are mature enough to understand the core teachings and practices of the faith. There is no fixed age, as maturity varies among different cultures and individuals.

Young candidates to baptism among the Jehovah’s Witnesses. From “The Watchtower,” Study Edition, March 2018.
Young candidates to baptism among the Jehovah’s Witnesses. From “The Watchtower,” Study Edition, March 2018.

It is possible that teenagers become guilty of serious offenses, which is confirmed by looking at how many of them in our modern societies commit crimes (in some countries, they are tried as adults). If they are unrepentant, they may be disfellowshipped, but disfellowshipping minors is a very rare occurrence. Even in this case, minors remain in the family home and the parents’ care, and duties towards them do not cease.

Is shunning “illegal”? Although there have been a couple of first degree decisions in Belgium and Norway declaring  that some aspects of the shunning teachings justify fines and other measures against the Jehovah’s Witnesses (but the Belgian decision has been overturned on appeal and the Norwegian one is under appeal too), these are exceptions.There is a solid body of court decisions in numerous countries that have concluded that shunning is not illegal. I agree with these decisions, which are based on two sets of reasons.

The first is that our decision whether to associate or not to associate with persons we have had strong disagreements with, be it because of a divorce or a quarrel about business, politics—or religion—is not something courts of law can interfere with. This decision is part of our most intimate, personal sphere. A court can order a divorced husband to pay alimony to his ex-wife but cannot compel the two of them to continue seeing each other or remain friend.

The second reason answers the objection that critics do not want to compel Jehovah’s Witnesses in good standing to associate with disfellowshipped ex-members—although in some court cases they ask just this. They only ask courts and governments, we are told, to prohibit the Jehovah’s Witnesses from teaching the principle of shunning. In fact, this is even more problematic. Nobody can seriously doubt that shunning is a religious practice, based on the interpretation of the Bible by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and that individual Witnesses practice it based on their religious conscience. As such, it is protected by their right to religious liberty.

Shunning is clearly taught in the Bible, by the authors of 1 Corinthians 5:13 (“Expel the wicked person from among you”) and 5:11 (“Do not even eat with such people”), and 2 John 10–11 (“Do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work”: all quotes from the New International Version). Some other Christian denominations may teach that these prescriptions referred to the social circumstances of the time and are no longer in force. The Jehovah’s Witnesses disagree. It is not for secular courts of law to adjudicate theological disputes, or determine what the “true” interpretation of the Bible should be.

Tagged With: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Shunning

Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

www.cesnur.org/

Related articles

  • Rapport 2022 de la MIVILUDES : de la négligence à la diffamation

    Rapport 2022 de la MIVILUDES : de la négligence à la diffamation

  • Świadkowie Jehowy a praktyka unikania kontaktów. 6. Dlaczego należy respektować praktykę unikania kontaktów

    Świadkowie Jehowy a praktyka unikania kontaktów. 6. Dlaczego należy respektować praktykę unikania kontaktów

  • Norway: Oslo District Court Suspends De-Registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    Norway: Oslo District Court Suspends De-Registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses

  • Świadkowie Jehowy a unikanie kontaktów. 5. Czy unikanie kontaktów jest „niezgodne z prawem”?

    Świadkowie Jehowy a unikanie kontaktów. 5. Czy unikanie kontaktów jest „niezgodne z prawem”?

Keep Reading

  • Świadkowie Jehowy a unikanie kontaktów. 3 Unikanie kontaktów w teorii i praktyce
    Świadkowie Jehowy a unikanie kontaktów. 3 Unikanie kontaktów w teorii i praktyce

    Istnieje trochę mitów na temat unikania kontaktów. Są wyjątki, na przykład dotyczące krewnych mieszkających pod jednym dachem. To jest bolesne zarówno dla tych, którzy unikają kontaktów, i tych, których się unika. Jego celem jest chronienie wiernych i pobudzenie grzeszników do skruchy.

  • Запрет Свидетелей Иеговы в Таджикистане является незаконным – по утверждению Комитета ООН по правам человека
    Запрет Свидетелей Иеговы в Таджикистане является незаконным – по утверждению Комитета ООН по правам человека

    Комитет ООН постановил, что отказ от военной службы по соображениям совести, обращение в свою веру и утверждение об «истинности своей религии» не могут быть основанием для запрета.

  • Russia—Sensational Revelations: Jehovah’s Witnesses Prepare An Anti-Putin Coup
    Russia—Sensational Revelations: Jehovah’s Witnesses Prepare An Anti-Putin Coup

    FECRIS-connected anti-cult lawyer Alexander Korelov claims he has all the evidence:  Russia will react and “destroy the United States, the spiritual garbage dump of humanity.”

  • Norge: Oslo tingsrätt beslutar om att pausa avregistrering av Jehovas vittnen
    Norge: Oslo tingsrätt beslutar om att pausa avregistrering av Jehovas vittnen

    Ett hårt och orättvist beslut av statsförvaltaren i Oslo och Viken har stoppats genom ett snabbt rättsligt ingripande. Men striden fortsätter.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY