Excommunication Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Jehovah's Witnesses === {{Main|Jehovah's Witnesses and congregational discipline#Disfellowshipping|l1=Jehovah's Witnesses and congregational discipline}} [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] practice a form of excommunication, using the term "disfellowshipping", in cases where a member is believed to have unrepentantly committed one or more of several documented "serious sins".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Discipline That Can Yield Peaceable Fruit |publisher=Watch Tower Society|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 April 1988|page=26}}</ref> When a member confesses to, or is accused of, a ''serious sin'', a ''judicial committee'' of at least three [[Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses#Elders|elders]] is formed. This committee investigates the case and determines the magnitude of the sin committed. If the person is deemed guilty of a disfellowshipping offense, the committee then decides, on the basis of the person's attitude and "works befitting repentance".<ref>Bible: {{bibleverse||Acts|26:20}}</ref> Disfellowshipping is a severing of friendly relationships between all Jehovah's Witnesses and the disfellowshipped person. Interaction with extended family is typically restricted to a minimum, such as presence at the reading of wills and providing essential care for the elderly. Within a household, typical family contact may continue, but without spiritual fellowship such as family Bible study and religious discussions. Parents of disfellowshipped minors living in the family home may continue to attempt to convince the child about the group's teachings. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that this form of discipline encourages the disfellowshipped individual to conform to biblical standards and prevents the person from influencing other members of the congregation.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal|journal=Our Kingdom Ministry|title=Display Christian Loyalty When a Relative Is Disfellowshipped|pages=3β4|date=August 2002}}</ref> Along with breaches of the Witnesses' moral code, openly disagreeing with the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses is considered grounds for shunning.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> These persons are labeled as "apostates" and are described in Watch Tower Society literature as "mentally diseased".<ref name="WT-w06">''The Watchtower'', 15 January 2006, pp. 21β25</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=The Watchtower|date=July 2011|page=16|title=Will You Heed Jehovah's Clear Warnings?|quote=Well, apostates are "mentally diseased", and they seek to infect others with their disloyal teachings.}}</ref> Descriptions of "apostates" appearing in the Witnesses literature have been the subject of investigation in the UK to determine if they violate religious hatred laws.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/jehovahs-witness-magazine_n_985479.html | work=HuffPost| first=Benjamin | last=Hart | title=Jehovah's Witness Magazine Brands Defectors 'Mentally Diseased' | date=28 September 2011}}</ref> Sociologist Andrew Holden claims many Witnesses who would otherwise defect because of disillusionment with the organization and its teachings, remain affiliated out of fear of being shunned and losing contact with friends and family members.<ref name="Pratt">Pratt, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1:192.</ref> Shunning employs what is known ''as relational aggression'' in psychological literature. When used by church members and member-spouse parents against excommunicant parents it contains elements of what psychologists call ''parental alienation''. Extreme shunning may cause trauma to the shunned (and to their dependents) similar to what is studied in the psychology of torture.<ref name=Pratt/>{{request quotation|date=December 2013}} Disassociation is a form of shunning where a member expresses verbally or in writing that they do not wish to be associated with Jehovah's Witnesses, rather than for having committed any specific 'sin'.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 January 1982|page=31|title=Questions From Readers|quote=It would be best if he did this in a brief letter to the elders, but even if he unequivocally states orally that he is renouncing his standing as a Witness, the elders can deal with the matter.}}</ref> Elders may also decide that an individual has disassociated, without any formal statement by the individual, by actions such as accepting a blood transfusion,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/790967.stm|title=Jehovah's Witnesses drop transfusion ban|quote="transfusions have been relegated to 'non-disfellowshipping events' ... If a member has a transfusion, they will, by their actions disassociate themselves from the religion."}}</ref> or for joining another religious<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 October 1986|page=31|title=Questions From Readers|quote=the person no longer wants to have anything to do with Jehovah's people and is determined to remain in a false religion? They would then simply announce to the congregation that such one has disassociated himself and thus is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses.}}</ref> or military organization.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 January 1982|page=31 |title=Questions From Readers|quote=The second situation involves a person who renounces his standing in the congregation by joining a secular organization whose purpose is contrary to counsel such as that found at Isaiah 2:4, ... neither will they learn war anymore.}}</ref> Individuals who are deemed by the elders to have disassociated are given no right of appeal.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Our Kingdom Ministry|date=August 2002|page=3|title=Display Christian Loyalty When a Relative Is Disfellowshipped}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 April 1988|page=27|title=Discipline That Can Yield Peaceable Fruit}}</ref> Each year, congregation elders are instructed to consider meeting with disfellowshipped individuals to determine changed circumstances and encourage them to pursue reinstatement.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 August 1992|page=31|title=A Step on the Way Back}}</ref> Reinstatement is not automatic after a certain time period, nor is there a minimum duration; disfellowshipped persons may talk to elders at any time but must apply in writing to be considered for reinstatement into the congregation.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 November 2006|pages=27–28|title=Always Accept Jehovah's Discipline}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=15 April 1991|page=21|title=Imitate God's Mercy Today}}</ref> Elders consider each case individually, and are instructed to ensure "that sufficient time has passed for the disfellowshipped person to prove that his profession of repentance is genuine".<ref>{{cite book|title=Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All the Flock|page=129|publisher=Watch Tower Society}}</ref> A judicial committee meets with the individual to determine their repentance, and if this is established, the person is reinstated into the congregation and may participate with the congregation in their formal ministry (such as house-to-house preaching).<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Our Kingdom Ministry|date=December 1974|title=Question Box|publisher=Watch Tower Society}}</ref> A Witness who has been formally reproved or reinstated cannot be appointed to any ''special privilege of service'' for at least one year. Serious sins involving child sex abuse permanently disqualify the sinner from appointment to any congregational ''privilege of service'', regardless of whether the sinner was convicted of any secular crime.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Watchtower|date=1 January 1997|page=29|title=Let Us Abhor What Is Wicked|quote=For the protection of our children, a man known to have been a child molester does not qualify for a responsible position in the congregation.}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page