SHORT CHRISTIAN READINGS SELECTED FOR FORMER JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES


Expel the Wicked Man

By Tom McGovern

(edited)

It is unfortunate that there are times in church life when a case of sin requires the expulsion of an individual from the fellowship of the church. If a person who has been involved in serious sin refuses to respond to the various attempts at reconciliation outlined by Jesus in Matthew 18:15-20, the church is left with no choice except to regard that individual as "a pagan or a tax collector".

I was, for nearly 30 years, a member of a cult group (Jehovah's Witnesses) that carried the concept of church discipline to abusive levels. Persons who had fallen into sin were tried before closed-session "judicial committees" and expelled, or "disfellowshipped" from the organization for a variety of offenses, some solidly biblical, others much less so. Members were absolutely forbidden to speak with those who had been expelled; not even a simple "hello" or a word of encouragement was allowed. Even dearest friends and close relatives had to be shunned. Worse, even persons who had left the group voluntarily were to be treated in exactly the same manner as those who had been cast out. This condition would continue throughout one's life and disfellowshipped persons would be permanently shunned unless they applied for and received reinstatement to the organization from the same committee of elders who had disfellowshipped them in the first place.

What is even more unfortunate is that practices such as these are not entirely confined to cult groups. There are church groups that are absolutely orthodox in their theology who nonetheless engage in such high-control tactics.

Generally, groups that require such shunning of former members rely upon a small handful of texts to support their position. We turn now to an analysis of those texts in order to determine what the Scripture actually requires with regard to those who have been excommunicated from the church.

Matthew 18:17

"... if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

After outlining the progressive steps for church discipline, Jesus discussed the treatment of one who did not respond with repentance at any point in the procedure. If the sinning individual was still impenitent after being admonished by the church as a whole, he or she was to be regarded as "a pagan or a tax collector". There has been some controversy over these words. The fact is that not everyone in first-century Judea treated pagans and tax collectors in the same fashion. The argument is sometimes made that the religious leaders of the time, particularly the so-strict Pharisees, utterly shunned Gentiles because they were not of the chosen people. Likewise, tax collectors were regarded as collaborators with the Roman government against their own people, and were also avoided socially. Those who favor extreme shunning argue that Jesus was encouraging such a Pharisaical attitude.

However, it must be pointed out that Jesus was not addressing the Jewish religious leaders. He was speaking to His own disciples, who might be expected to follow His example. Jesus did not shun pagans and tax collectors; rather, He displayed the love of God toward everyone He encountered. In fact, Jesus was known to dine with tax collectors and was criticized by those very religious leaders for doing so (Matt. 9:10, 11; Matt. 11:19). It hardly seems reasonable that Jesus would so often condemn the religious leaders for their hypocrisy and then hold them up as examples for His disciples to follow. There is no support in this verse for the contention that Jesus was instructing His disciples to enforce an extreme sort of shunning upon those who would be excommunicated; rather He was telling them to treat such persons as they would anyone else who was not a Christian.

1 Corinthians 5:11

"But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat."

Here Paul lays down a general rule for dealing with an individual who engages in scandalous sin within the church. The specific case at hand was that of a man who was engaged in an immoral affair with his stepmother. Rather than mourning over the sin that had infested their congregation, the members of the church were patting themselves on the back, probably congratulating themselves for their "tolerance". Paul writes about how sin should be dealt with in order to bring them to their senses.

There are a few points that stand out immediately about Paul's command. First, the person to whom this procedure is applied must be one who "calls himself a brother". In the immediately preceding verse, Paul had specifically said that he was not talking about non-Christians who were sinners, since to avoid such persons, one would actually have to "leave this world". It would seem, therefore, that one who actually left the church would not need to be shunned for the rest of his or her life, unless he or she continued to identify with the church in a public manner. The object of church discipline is to bring about repentance which results in reconciliation of the sinner both to God and to the church in renewed fellowship. If the person leaves the church completely and begins to live as a non-Christian, there is no point in perpetuating punishment indefinitely; rather he or she has indeed become as a "pagan or a tax collector" and is subject to evangelism as would be any other unbeliever.

What is lost through excommunication is, not the simple courtesy of normal human interaction, but spiritual fellowship. Saucy defines church fellowship as "one way God has ordained for the believer to give himself to the Lord and fellow believers and to get from them that which is necessary for spiritual edification." [Robert L. Saucy, The Church in God's Program. Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1972, p. 102.] True Christian fellowship involves more than coffee and conversation; it is a spiritual relationship that involves believers in each other's lives and in the life of God. It is that relationship which has been broken by sin in the case of an excommunicated person. That is the level at which the believer must "not associate" with a church member who persists in sin. A simple greeting or normal conversation would not fall under this classification.

Another point in Paul's command that stands out is the use of the present tense. Paul says not to associate with "anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy," etc. This would seem to rule out shunning such an individual forevermore. If the person caught in sin abandons his or her course, there is no reason why he or she should not be received back into fellowship. Paul mentions no organizational procedure or secret committee meetings for the purpose of reinstatement; rather Christians should be eager to welcome back into their midst a sinner who repents.

In fact, it appears that this was the case with the man who had the affair with his stepmother. In his later letter to the same church, apparently in reference to that same individual, Paul writes, "The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him" (2 Cor. 2:6-8). Again, the goal of church discipline is seen to be, not punishment, but repentance. Once the man had repented, he was to be accepted back into fellowship without delay.

Another point that becomes evident in the quotation from 2 Cor. 2:6-8 above is that shunning was not enforced as mandatory upon members of the church. Individual members were to make their own decisions about withdrawing fellowship from the excommunicated man. Paul refers to punishment being inflicted by "the majority", not by all. Apparently some did not cooperate with the church's decision, but there is no indication that they were themselves disciplined for not doing so.

Finally, Paul admonishes that Christians do not even eat with such a man. It is unclear whether this is a reference to the Lord's Supper, to the "love feasts" that were held as church functions among first-century Christians or to normal social dining. The latter, however, seems unlikely, since Jesus Himself ate socially with sinners and tax collectors (Mark 2:16), and that is exactly who He said excommunicated persons should be treated like. Certainly one who has been excommunicated from the church would not be allowed to partake in Communion, so that is a possible meaning for Paul's statement. However, the most likely reference would seem to be to the "love feasts", official functions of the church at which spiritual fellowship would certainly be encouraged. That represents precisely the sort of fellowship that would be withdrawn from the unrepentant sinner.

Comparison of this text with 2 Thess. 3:14 makes it clear that Paul did not intend that the sinning brother be cut off from all contact. There, Paul writes: "If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed." The Greek word for "do not associate" in this verse (sunanamignumi) is identical with the word rendered "not associate" in 1 Cor. 5:11, indicating that the action to be taken is the same. However, in 2 Thessalonians 3:15, Paul goes on to write, "Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother." Love and compassion are the watchwords; the object is to reconcile, not to punish.

2 John 9-11

"Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds."

This text is a favorite among those who favor extreme forms of shunning because it appears to forbid even the saying of a greeting. However, there is nothing in the text that associates this command with church discipline, nor is John here discussing treatment of an excommunicated person. The reference is to one who "does not abide in the teaching of Christ". Of course, some groups also disfellowship for "apostasy", which they define as any deviation from the group's official teachings.

The historical context of 2 John was one that involved many house churches. Most Christian groups in that time met in private homes, whether because of the small size of the group or the fear of persecution, or both. Itinerant teachers would travel from church to church offering instruction in the faith and receiving their support from the churches. Unfortunately, not all of those teachers were absolutely orthodox in their teaching; in particular, some had succumbed to the heresies of Gnosticism. These are the ones to whom John had referred earlier in verse 7: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." 

So John was admonishing the Christians who were meeting in house churches to test the beliefs of those offering themselves as teachers. If their doctrine was not sound, they were not to be received as teachers into the homes of believers where church meetings were being held. Likewise, the members of the house churches were not to offer a "greeting". The King James Version of the Bible translates the Greek word chairo ("greeting") as "God speed". To offer a "greeting" of this type was to wish God's blessing on the life and work of the one receiving it, and this would obviously be inappropriate for a believer to offer to a false teacher.

Summary

It is apparent from this brief examination of much-abused texts that there is really no warrant in Scripture for the extreme shunning of one who has been expelled from the church because of unrepentantly pursuing a course of sin. It must always be remembered that the primary purpose of church discipline at all stages -- even excommunication -- is to reclaim the sinner to fellowship. A person who has been expelled from church fellowship is to be denied Communion and participation in other spiritual activities of the church. However, there is no objection in Scripture to extending normal human courtesy and compassion, and certainly no prohibition against a simple "hello". The words of Galatians 6:1 are very germane: "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted."


Bibliography

Baker, William H. Survey of Theology 2 Study Guide. Chicago, IL: Moody Bible Institute, 2001.

Barker, Kenneth, Gen. Ed. The NIV Study Bible, 10th Anniversary Ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995.

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000 rev.

Saucy, Robert L. The Church in God's Program. Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1972.

Thiessen, Henry C. Lectures in Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999.

White, John and Ken Blue. Healing the Wounded. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1985.

Zodhiates, Spiros. Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible (NASB). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1990.


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What Happens to Those Who Exit Jehovah's Witnesses: 

An Investigation of the Impact of Shunning

Rosie Luther 

Pastoral Psychology, February 2023, (edited)

Abstract

Shunning and ostracism have severe impacts on individuals' psychological and social well-being. Members of Jehovah's Witnesses are subject to shunning when they do not comply with the stated doctrine or belief system. To investigate the effects of shunning, interviews with 10 former Jehovah's Witnesses, ranging in age from 20 to 44 years old, were conducted; six male, six White, one Native American, one Black, and two Latinx. Transcripts were analyzed with interpretative phenomenological analysis for narrative themes pertaining to their life after exclusion from their former faith using the context of Jehovah's Witnesses culture. Results suggest shunning has a long-term, detrimental effect on mental health, job possibilities, and life satisfaction. Problems are amplified in female former members due to heavy themes of sexism and patriarchal narratives pervasive in Jehovah's Witnesses culture. Feelings of loneliness, loss of control, and worthlessness are also common after leaving. The culture of informing on other members inside the Jehovah's Witnesses also leads to a continued sense of distrust and suspicion long after leaving.

Lauren Stuart was a model, a mother, and a wife. After leaving Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) to enroll her sons in college, she was shunned by family and friends alike. In 2018, she shot and killed her husband, three children, and herself in Keego Harbor, Michigan (Boroff, 2018). She left notes and messages detailing the pain shunning had caused her and the belief systems that had influenced her actions (Wright, 2019). This is not the only case of former JW members committing familicide. The Miller family from South Carolina, the Longo family from Michigan, and the Bryant family from Oregon were all JW members who were subjected to this tragedy (Frazier, 2003; Golgowski, 2019).

JW is a Christian sect that began in the United States in the late 1800s. The current version of the religion holds that a worldwide Armageddon will occur in the very near future and that any nonbelievers alive at that time will be killed in an act of godly retribution. Members who choose to leave the religion due to moral or doctrinal objections are shunned by the community. Members who sin in the eyes of their congregation are shunned as well (Pietkiewicz, 2014). These beliefs have been cited as one underlying reason for the Keego Harbor familicide as well as additional cases of suicide among former members (JW Survey, 2014). Based on these cases, JW beliefs may be internalized and have the potential to have a strong influence on the mental health of former members, even long after they leave the congregation. Existing research examines the quotidian life of members or focuses on the contrast between life 'inside' this very insular organization and life after 'adjustment' to the outer world. Current research also examines the nature and type of pathological behavior by former members as well as the reasons many remain in this 'high control' organization [aka CULT] despite the toll on their mental health. However, there are gaps in the research, especially regarding the exit point of former members. This paper focuses on the adjustment period directly after a person leaves JW and examines the connections between JW beliefs and the negative mental health outcomes of excommunicated members.

Beliefs

JW is a Christian fundamentalist religion based out of Wallkill, New York. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society -- the legal entity of JW -- reports over 8 million members worldwide in 240 countries (Watch Tower and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 2021a). However, studies examining member counts have found that the number of people identifying as JW to be 17.5 million (Lawson & Xydias, 2020). JW subscribe to a framework of fundamentalism, with strict obedience to doctrine required of all members. JW believe in the ultimate authority of the Bible, spreading their beliefs through evangelism and remaining separate from the world around them as God's only true religion (Watch Tower and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1980).

According to the official JW website, ... JW view the Bible as the inspired word of God (Watch Tower and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 2021b). JW interpret predictions in the book of Revelation as meaning that the governments and religions of the world will topple and Armageddon will arrive (Watchtower, 2015a). JW construe this prophecy and others within the Bible to mean that the end of this world is to come in the very near future (Watch Tower, 2021b). This end will involve the deaths of all those not actively worshipping the God figure of the JW. Active JW will be rewarded after this genocide with a renewed earth with paradisiac conditions. Over time, people who are deemed to be redeemable who were not killed in the apocalypse will be resurrected to be taught the ways of the JW (Ringnes et al., 2019).

The only way to avoid being killed in the godly retribution is to follow the guidelines of the Bible in thought and actions as prescribed by the leaders of the Watchtower organization (Watch Tower and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1980). This includes control over negative thoughts as undesirable thoughts can cause an individual to fall out of favor with God. In order to protect their thoughts, JW are told to stop their thoughts and fill their mind with either prayer or a specific scripture. To maintain the rigor of control, members use dichotomous thinking as a mental shortcut. Thoughts, actions, and beliefs are either all good or all bad. These projections also extend to people being either believers or not and adding the judgment of good or evil based on this simplistic ideology (Friedson, 2015).

A central portion of JW beliefs is the need to remain separate from the world outside of the JW community. Lyman Kellstedt and Corwin Smidt, who research high control beliefs, describes this tenet of fundamentalism as separation orientation (Kellstedt & Smidt, 1991). This is the idea that a believer should remain outside of world events, avoid fellowship with nonbelievers, and be distinct from the culture around them. In "Will You follow Jehovah's Loving Guidance", an article in the Watchtower magazine published by JW, believers are admonished to not "follow after the crowd' and to not allow the ideas of nonbelievers to influence them in any way, including through visual and written media (Watchtower, 2011). JW view the world of nonbelievers as "Satan's World" and are warned to "avoid ... them as we would a poison or poisonous snake." (Watch Tower and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1980).

This separationism extends not only to the nonbelievers JW may encounter in their daily lives but also to members who have broken the rules, or sinned, as well as those who were once members but have chosen to leave for religious or moral reasons. Those who fall into this category are shunned by all members of the religion, including their close friends and even family. Sins that could result in such shunning include but are not limited to "fornication, adultery, homosexuality, greed, extortion, thievery, lying, drunkenness, reviling, spiritism, murder, idolatry, apostasy, and the causing of divisions in the congregation", (Watchtower, 1988). Members who fall into this category are considered "disfellowshipped", and are not to be spoken to, contacted, or otherwise engaged by current JW. Amber Scorah was a former member who was disfellowshipped for having doubts about JW. A current member said to her, "Your eyes looked like the eyes of a dead person", after she left (Scorah, 2019). This statement encapsulates the attitude of disgust and separation that current members feel towards those who leave. They are conditioned to view those who leave the insular community as dead. This comes from the internalizing of the belief that the end of the world is soon to come and that the world has nothing worthwhile to offer (Watchtower, 2015b).

JW operate within a patriarchal structure; men occupy all positions of power, from the head decision makers at the top to those who oversee study groups and lead prayer within congregations. A 2021 Watchtower article titled "The Head of a Woman Is the Man", says, "Jehovah expects Christian husbands to care for the spiritual, emotional, and material needs of their family", (Watchtower, 2021). In this context, husbands and fathers are responsible for their family's spiritual well-being and are therefore responsible for their survival in the apocalypse. This places severe pressure on families to act and behave in a controlled manner while in view of other members. Weishaupt and Stensland (1997) explain that men are required to openly act as the leaders of their households, and if they do not, the men will be seen as deficient by their fellow believers. The documentary Disfellowshipped gives an example of the consequences of this structure. One former member interviewed in the documentary shared the suicide note of his brother, a father who was also a member of JW. He had been feeling doubts about the religion and, not wanting to jeopardize his wife's or children's chances to survive the end of the world, he took his own life (Sangha, 2019).

Another core part of JW worship is spreading their beliefs through evangelism. JW are well known for their door-to-door preaching activities. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society states that people are "count[ed] as Jehovah's Witnesses only those who preach to others and who report that activity, not those who merely identify themselves as Witnesses," emphasizing the importance of this worship practice (Watch Tower, 2021a). These preaching activities demand an enormous amount of time and energy of members. As such, they curtail the time members would otherwise have to pursue careers, education, or enjoyable activities, serving as behavioral control.

The level of shunning and the willingness of family and friends to participate in this practice is more readily understood when taken within the context of the control JW are under on a regular basis. JW are required to attend regular meetings, often twice a week or more, as well as participate in monthly preaching work. Those who do not participate in the preaching work are considered to be "blood guilty"; due to the belief in Armageddon, those who do not preach are seen as withholding lifesaving information from their fellow humans (Watchtower, 2017). According to Weishaupt and Stensland (1997), the control Watchtower exerts goes beyond the worship practices of believers. He notes that the writings in publications are worded as suggestions but are actually regulated rules, and the locus of control resides not with the individual but is fully within organizational oversight. In a study on current JW, it was noted that they commonly referenced needing to set aside their current goals, needs, wants, and desires in order to pursue the preaching work and other such worship activities (Ringnes et al., 2019).

Independent thinking is discouraged, referred to as a trap and a snare (Watchtower, 2006). Members are not permitted to attend other places of worship, attend higher education other than what is necessary for job placement, read any material critical of the Watchtower organization, or communicate in any form with former members. This prevents ideas from the outside world or doubts from specific members from entering the congregation. According to Hassan, a therapist that works with former cult members and the founder of Freedom of Mind (an organization that helps cult victims and survivors), this level of information control falls under the model of mind control that is used by cults and high control organizations to retain their members. Within the JW belief system, "[M]embers are taught to reject rational analysis, critical thinking, and doubt" (Hassan, 2018). By creating a model of thought where critical thinking is a negative skill, language is used as an additional control mechanism.

In the JW belief structure, thought is not differentiated from actions. Sinful thoughts are viewed as sinning, and consideration of a doubt is aligned with hating God. Thus, the control over thought and information translates into control over action. The willingness to cut off a person who has sinned is a result of the control JW are conditioned to relinquish. As a current JW member stated in a previous study, "How can I be someone�s friend if he is an enemy of my best friend?" (Pietkiewicz, 2014). The participant here is speaking of a disfellowshipped person as an enemy of God for having made an error in relation to JW regulations.

Ostracism is a form of heavy psychological pain that has been extensively studied. Williams (2009) determined that ostracism, or shunning, threatens four basic social needs: belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. Shunning removes a person from their identified group, threatening belonging, and creates feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, threatening self-esteem. Shunning keeps the group in control, and self-efficacy is removed from the ostracized individual. If the individual's identity is intertwined with belonging in the group, shunning can disrupt their sense of empowerment and meaning in their life (Williams, 2009).

Shunning within the JW congregation structure is complex. Due to the high level of involvement expected from members and the separationist ideology prevalent in the community, members' social supports and families are within the JW circle. When shunned, members lose their families, their friends, and their entire social network, usually without anything outside of the congregation to fall back on. This level of cumulative shunning has been shown to "generate great psychological distress" (Zamperini et al., 2020). Due to the negative light cast on higher education and people outside of the organization, believers are indoctrinated to fear the outside world. This compacting of psychological distress lowers the level of resilience and leads to impaired emotional and social functioning (Williams, 2009).

Familicide is a rare event with tragic consequences. Familicide is here defined as the murder of a spouse and at least one child (Liem et al., 2013). Familicide perpetrators have been studied extensively, and a profile of potential perpetrators has been developed. Comparing the structure and belief systems of JW with these profiles reveals the dangerous potential of the JW structure and why some members have severe mental health outcomes after leaving the JW.

People who commit familicide are often operating from a patriarchal mindset. Within this structure, the head of the household is fully responsible for the family and is not individuated from the rest of the family (Sachmann & Johnson, 2014). This framework is reflected in JW beliefs. The actions of the parental figure directly determine the survival of the entire family in the supposed apocalypse. The patriarchal ideal is also a determination of control over one's family. When an individual's locus of control is external, attempts are made within the individual to manage that loss of self-control through self-harm or attempts to control another individual to re-establish the sense of efficacy (Lam & Chung, 2017; Mailloux, 2014; Troya et al., 2019). In religions such as the JW, the religion controls the incoming information, behaviors, and emotions through dichotomous classifications and shunning. The fight to maintain a sense of control can lead to domination over family members and reliance on patriarchal values.

A 2014 literature review of familicide occurrences found that a key perpetrator motive was immortality control (Mailloux, 2014). In Lauren Stuart�s last videos, she discussed the need to protect her family from the coming apocalypse. Due to the belief that those who die before the end of the world will be allowed to come back to life, she believed the only way to save her family from her sins was to kill them before the end (Fade 2018). This fits the profile of familicide perpetrators who attempt to protect their family from an overwhelming feeling of loss through death (Mailloux, 2014). ...

Participants

The ten participants ... ranged in age from 20 to 44 years old, with six male participants and four female participants. Six were White, one was Native American, one was Black, and two were Hispanic. ...

Results

Shunning and communication control

One sister said we don't want anything to do with worldly people. We don't want to give people an indication that we want to spend time with them because [we] need to spend time with brothers and sisters. (Eric, 44, disassociated)

It's in this level of complete and utter abandonment, so it's very shocking even to people who are very well adjusted, and Witnesses are not well adjusted. (Diana, 23, disassociated)

Now my dad has had zero contact with me. My mother on the other hand, in the three years that I've been out, I've probably spoken [to her] like four times. The very first time I went to her place, crying, because ... "I just want you guys to talk to me." And then my mom was like, "You know what you must do to come back." (Frank, 23, disfellowshipped)

As demonstrated in the above statements, shunning has a deep impact on former members. Current members are not to have communication with those who leave the religion. Once a person leaves the JW religion, they are relegated to the status of an outsider. People who are not members of the religion are deemed selfish, cruel, manipulative, and insincere. Even when communication occurred between members and former members, it was emphasized to participants that further communication, attention, or attempts to reconnect would only be permitted on the condition of the participants returning to the religion. For instance, Frank was told that he would always be welcomed back to the family home if Frank started worshiping actively again. Other participants were sent text messages from current members, formerly identified as friends of the participants, saying that they could only reconnect, answer the phone, or communicate in any way if the participants became active members of the religion again. This conditional willingness to accept the participants as sons, daughters, and friends is evidence of emotional manipulation. The exploitative nature of these communications is a core piece of the shunning practice and contributes to poor connections with others after former members exit the JW.

Information control

I was scared to death to look at opposing viewpoints. I thought I was gonna be taken over by Satan. (Helen, 40, disfellowshipped)

It was revealed that my wife was following [an ex-witness] on Instagram, and a Witness who was concerned about our spiritual weakness went through over 400 accounts, and on the surface [the ex-Witness] account is not obvious she was connected to the Witnesses, so they were doing some research, she found out she was an ex-Witness, sent it to the elders. . . . Since that point, my parents have talked to me three times, but everyone else has cut us off. (Ben, 31, disassociated)

I am looking around if these people knew what I was thinking, they would turn on me instantly, all these people who were smiling and happy to see me when I got here would hate me if they knew what I was thinking and that's a scary feeling because I felt I am not safe here [after the first meeting they attended while questioning their faith]. (Ben, 31, disassociated)

I stumbled upon the Reddit at work on my phone. Until the next morning, instead of going to the meeting, I was on between Reddit and my computer like, I would like, cross-checking everything, and at first, I was like no, no no, no no no no no no no no no. Like this cannot be possible, it cannot be that all of these things are lies. And then I was like, you know what these are like, a bunch of like angry apostates, right? They're all angry and bitter jealous apostates. I'm going to look at one topic. Just one. (Diana, 23, disassociated)

Psychology is banned. Any kind of advanced biology is banned. Any kind of advanced history is banned. Philosophy is like studying Satan. ... My dad was giving a comment while we were talking about higher education in one of the publications. [He said], "Kids go to college, and they learn about philosophy, and they learn about psychology and sociology, and they learn all these lies." (Cam, 23, disassociated)

Information control and emotional control enforced by a religious organization creates a dynamic of fear and powerlessness. Fear is conditioned through required attendance at meetings of Witnesses every week, required reading of publications, and regular encouragement to keep the congregation clean through reporting and subsequent punishment of sinful behavior. Fear conditioning prevented participants from being able to explore their faith with all the available information, making informed decisions difficult. The culture of informing on other members leads to distrusting other members of society and the world for years to come. Participants overwhelmingly reported a lack of trust in people, organizations, the news, and institutions. Several participants linked their distrust directly to the culture of the JW. They expressed the need to suppress their own thoughts, ideas, and doubts about the religion to maintain relationships with their parents, siblings, and children.

Armageddon mentality

If you think the world is going to end, you are not worried about long-term debt, I can just make minimum payments because the world isn't going to last another five years. I don't need a savings account, ... when you are constantly being told this world, this system, can't last five years ... I don't need to pay this off because in five years everything will be in ruins. (Ben, 31, disassociated)

I see things on the news and you're battling with your mind as to whether it's, whether Jehovah's Witnesses have it correct ... so you're always battling with emotions as to whether we've made the right decision. (Eric, 44, dissociated)

My mother has been a hardcore believer that the end is coming tomorrow, so she never saved money. (Gina, 44, disfellowshipped)

I remember seven years ago, another one of the governing body member talks, saying if you're not doing all you can in service then you're considered blood guilty. And you will not make it through Armageddon ... so I've known since I was five years old that I would die during Armageddon. (James, 27, disassociated)

A common concern among participants was their lack of financial support after their exit from JW. Participants reported that saving for the future or making material gains in this world is seen as heresy as that would imply that one did not believe Armageddon would occur. The culture of the JW religion discourages higher education, likening it to the devil. Members are also discouraged from seeking promotions or better job opportunities, in part due to the belief that the end of the world will come soon. Compounding their lower earning potential, JW are discouraged from thinking about their future in the current world as doing so would imply they did not believe the end would come soon, which would be heresy. Gina left the JW a few decades ago, but as the only member of her family with a college degree and a full-time, lucrative career, she lives with and supports her parents and siblings. While she lives on the same property as her believing family, she is not spoken to or communicated with unless it related to essential household matters, and she is in a state of full shunning from the congregation Gina had belonged to for decades as a member. This is a burden on Gina. Now, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, her family has quit their jobs in anticipation of Armageddon.

Other participants expressed struggling with the belief that the world is ending. Several participants left the JW during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the year 2020, there were also widespread wildfires, political unrest, and economic downturns. Members of JW are taught to look for these events as signs that Armageddon has arrived. Participants all reported feeling unprepared for life in a world that keeps spinning. Participants who had not felt invested in the religion before leaving felt that they had been prepared for dying, and existing in a life that continues has required mental adjustments and steep learning curves. Ben stated that because of his lengthy indoctrination around the short future of the existing world, he learned to view the world through a short-sighted lens. Recovery from membership required him to learn to set goals and develop the ability to conceptualize a reality 10, 15, or 20 years in the future.

In addition to the temporal adjustments, some participants reported dealing with shame both during and after their exit from the JW. Participants Iris and James reported that a strong tenet of JW was evangelism. They were told that if they did not preach to everyone they met, they would be personally blood guilty for those people's lives in Armageddon. This led to feelings of shame when trying to interact with coworkers and others in day-to-day life while following social norms about not discussing religion.

Emotional regulation

You think not having boundaries is normal. You [are] not even allowing yourself space for any . . . emotion that is not a positive emotion. [My therapist] had to give me a list of feelings. ... I remember I was embarrassed because ... I'm like a child. ... I don't know how I feel. (Diana, 23, disassociated)

As a Witness, you are told to fantasize constantly; don't think about now -- think about the Watchtower study, think about the future, think about the paradise ... nothing is enjoyable, nothing is interesting or enjoyable, everything is gray mush, because you're not thinking about it, you aren't supposed to enjoy it now because you are imperfect and you are comparing it to some ideal fantasy. (Ben, 31, disassociated)

Participants also reported that they felt their emotional intelligence and emotional skills were stunted. Participants discussed their suppression of so-called negative emotions throughout their membership in the JW. Some related it to the idea that unfaithful people would be destroyed in Armageddon and that negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and grief were associated with not having enough faith. Diana discussed how she could not differentiate between her feelings of anger, sadness, disappointment, and other similar emotions, to the point that she now carries a card with the names of emotions, given to her by her therapist. The deeply conditioned beliefs of a soon-to-come Armageddon creates members of society who have extreme difficulty functioning in day-to-day life.

Discussion

The objective of this study was to gather personal lived experiences of former JW during the period of their exit from the religion. Many of the participants were actively exiting the religion during the pandemic, giving real-time emotional response and experiences, while others had been out of the religion for years, allowing for retrospective comments and comparisons to established life outside of the religion, thus meeting the study objective. Additionally, interview questions focused on the social services that former JW members relied on when they exited and the level of support they received after leaving from both ingroup and outgroup members.

Shunning and communication control

Examinations of the doctrinal component of the JW religion have shown unity and cohesion of congregation meetings and ceremonies across several locations (Rota, 2022). Cohesion among practicing members has also been demonstrated by Ringnes et al. (2019), who found current members used consistent and repetitive language when speaking to interviewers. The emphasis on ritualistic behaviors and the homogeneous use of language limits what members can discuss with each other and those outside the religion (Ringnes et al., 2019). The uniformity of beliefs, actions, and attitudes means that the enforcement of shunning practices as well as reactions to shunned people are also consistent across former JW members, as demonstrated by the current study.

However, other studies have found differences between individual experiences when focusing on the individuation process of exiting JW members (Testoni et al., 2019). Differences were found in the beliefs and attitudes of former members, depending on factors such as stage of the transition, how they entered the JW religion, and how they exited the religion. On the other hand, Testoni et al. (2019) did find that the majority of their participants experienced anxiety and threat when exiting the JW religion. The participants in the current study expressed similar difficulties and sense of betrayal accompanying their exit, whether it was voluntary or not.

Similar to past research, participants overwhelmingly spoke about waking up from their indoctrination (Pannofino & Cardano, 2017). This led to their feeling lied to, manipulated, and deceived. The deception was rooted in the feeling of being lied to by the congregation, the general doctrine, and the fallibility of congregation and religious leaders. JW members are encouraged to prove their faith to themselves through rigorous Bible study. At the same time, members are strictly forbidden from doing research on the religion using external sources, such as the news, online forums, or even publications by JW that have been taken out of circulation, leading to the control of information that can be accessed by JW members. Outcomes of viewing such material included being excommunicated or disfellowshipped by the church and shunned by family and friends. According to jw.org, this is to protect current members from being swayed by angry and bitter former members (Watchtower, 2014).

Among current Witnesses, past studies have found that the idea that Armageddon will occur soon has a positive effect. For example, Bocci (2019) found that this belief moved one group to establish areas of environmental protection as well as to promote the health of the planet. The actions of these individuals were attributed to the fact they wanted the earth to be beautiful while they live forever in Paradise; maintaining beauty in the environment was part of that goal. Additionally, another study found that current JW members report feeling positive emotions when looking towards the future in Paradise, leading to a greater sense of well-being (Ringnes et al., 2019). While the results of the current study do not support positive outcomes related to this belief system, the reported experiences of current members may be modulated by the emotional control exerted over them, as reported by the participants in this study.

On the other hand, other studies have found that the implications of the direct expectation of positive emotions for a world-ending event can have a damaging impact on the state of the individual (Ringnes & Demmrich, 2020). It can lead to difficulty participating in mainstream society and increased cognitive dissonance (Testoni et al., 2019). By the time members are ready to exit the organization, they have often determined that while the exit is the best decision at the time, the outcome is death, leading to a suicidal profile for exiting JW members (Testoni et al., 2019). The idea that exiting JW members will die is directly related to the idea that nonbelievers and those who have turned away from the religion will perish in Armageddon.

Ringnes et al. (2019) found that current JW members hold the belief that the world is ending soon and that this has an impact on the emotions they outwardly portray. They found that current members' portrayal of emotions was uniform across their participants, with positive emotions when thinking about the future and negative ones when talking about the present. Similarly, the participants in the current study reported being told to focus on the future outcome of Armageddon, an eternal and perfect paradise with never-ending life. However, the proscription of emotions that is fostered during community meetings was reported to have an adverse impact on the participants' ability to process and recognize their emotions once they had left the JW and no longer had a prescribed regimen of approved emotions.

Additionally, participants reported a culture that fosters feelings of shame and portrays religious rituals as matters of life or death to its members; this affected them even after they had left the JW. After leaving, Iris and James struggled with shame over preaching at inappropriate times, and other participants reported feelings of shame over current relationships, their job performance, and various aspects of their lives. Shame can be a maladaptive emotion due to its all-encompassing nature and its association with depression and anxiety (Keller et al., 2015). The idea that people are guilty of murder if they do not follow doctrinal rules is another aspect of JW culture that contributes to heightened negative outcomes for former JW members.

Strengths and limitations

The current study contributes to the current body of literature by providing in-depth accounts of former JW members and their personal experiences of exiting the JW religion. Past research has examined individual and identity aspects of the exit experience, whereas the current study examines this experience through the influences of the doctrinal ideology on adjustment to non-JW life (Testoni et al., 2019; Zamperini et al., 2020). Additionally, past research has focused on the experiences of former JW members concentrated in specific locales with relatively homogeneous populations, whereas the current study was able to recruit participants of various ethnicities and ages.

The current study also has several limitations. Participants were recruited from online social media forums for former JW members. The selection process was not random and relied on voluntary self-identification. Participants in such forums may be more reactive and polarized than the general population of former JW members (Farrell et al., 2008). Additionally, the interviews were conducted over a period of 60 to 90 min. IPA standards require one hour or more for sufficient interview depth (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2014). Further depth could be obtained with lengthier interviews and interpretation being done by more than one researcher. Lastly, not all participants included in this study were actively exiting from the JW religion. Thus, this report contains some retrospective accounts that may not be as accurate as descriptions of current experiences (Bayen et al., 2007).

Future directions for research

The current study should be replicated with a larger sample size and could include participants from multiple nationalities to improve generalizability to more members of JW. Additionally, this study recruited from two social media sites. Further research could use alternative recruitment methods to achieve a group with less homogeneous views on their exit from the religion. Another suggestion for future research would be for clinical researchers to examine former members from a psychopathology perspective, looking at the impacts of acute and long-term stress resulting from leaving the JW religion. An interesting finding from this research was that many participants reported that they were "lucky" to have made the choices and steps to execute a successful exit. However, many of these choices were deliberate. I suggest that more research could be done to examine the locus of control of former members, as their cognitive and emotional processes may be being interfered with due to other beliefs and policies of the religion and may be contributing to negative outcomes after their exit. Additionally, eschatological beliefs, or beliefs that the world will end, are not unique to JW. Future research could also examine similarities between ex-JW members and members of other similar high control groups with doomsday prophecies, such as Latter-day Saints, Scientology, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Christadelphians. This would provide more generalizability regarding the impacts of shunning on ex-members. Expanding the research on this topic would offer a greater understanding of religious psychology.

There is a large gender gap among the JW. According to Pew, ... 65% of the members are female (Lipka, 2020). Due to the patriarchal nature of the religion, preliminary results suggest that women are highly impacted by the beliefs and structures of the JW, but further investigation is needed. In JW literature, women are expected to be submissive to their husbands, not to give sermons, to assume a subservient role in prayer and other worship activities, and to not hold positions of responsibility within a congregation (Watchtower, 2021). This sexist culture also influences JW men to the point that they must actively work against it after leaving the religion. These gender differences should be explored further to examine the impacts of the culture on adjustment after leaving. The goal of this study was not to determine differences in the outcomes of former JW based on gender; however, future researchers should examine the reasons and outcomes for possible gendered differences.

Conclusion

The membership of JW is an understudied population; given its reported 8 million members around the globe, further examination of the effects of policies and beliefs on individuals would be beneficial. As of now, the only large-scale source of support reported by participants is a webpage hosted on Reddit, as discussed by the participants in this study. However, participants expressed the need for in-person support groups, college financial assistance, and clinicians trained in the unique circumstances of ex-JW members and religious trauma. They additionally expressed the need for assistance in learning life skills such as budgeting. As a high control organization, JW exerts far-reaching influence over its members. The policies and beliefs established by this religion have long-term negative impacts on former members' lives, particularly their psychological health and material prospects. Participants dealt with varying levels of fear for years after exiting and continue to struggle with trust.

The combination of the threat of Armageddon, the policy of shunning those who disobey Watch Tower policy, and the inequality between men and women in the religion leads to difficulty coping after leaving the JW. The minimal level of support available to former members leads to difficulty forming affirming and supportive relationships, low financial security, and emotional maladjustment. When combined, these difficulties match the profile for familicide perpetrators and support the hypothesis that ex-JW struggle significantly after leaving the religion. Creating support services for former members of high control organizations, such as basic financial courses, and awareness of manipulation tactics used by such groups would improve the lives of former members significantly and potentially prevent further familicides by former members.

Given the similarities between the outcomes of shunning, combined with the reported patriarchal nature of the group and the vulnerability of those who leave a high control religion, former JW populations fit the profile for familicide perpetrators and may be at high risk for suicide. The seriousness of these outcomes requires more in-depth qualitative, and quantitative analyses to further understand the implications of leaving a high control organization.