Do you find that friendships made within the Watchtower organization with JW's are conditional?

Question

Once a person quits going to meetings at the Kingdom Hall, do your so-called friends ignore you?

Answer 1

"The Watchtower organization" seems to refer to one or more of the legal corporate entities used by Jehovah's Witnesses. Few Witnesses have any real interaction with these legal entities, so the question is stated poorly.

This question seems to turn the matter of friendship on its head... the friend who stays home instead of keeping a routine of fellowship with his brothers is the one who abandons the friendship.

(Proverbs 18:1) One isolating himself will seek his own selfish longing; against all practical wisdom he will break forth.


Friendships among Jehovah's Witnesses are based largely on mutual values, interests, and goals; by some definition an argumentative person might refer to that as "conditions". If one friend abandons those values, interests, and goals, it seems unsurprising if the friendship becomes less intimate.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20041208/article_02.htm

Answer 2

If you are fashionable and sophisticated, go out in service alot, give good comments, have lots of success and talk like a mature JW, and don't break the rules, you are bound to be popular. You can keep this status forever if you don't get baptized. If you do, you will be watched. You've got to watch what you do and talk about. People aren't really allowed to know you on the inside. A self-focused person won't get as far as a Jehovah/church focused person. If you question anything or break any rules, they want you to keep it to yourself because that makes you a bad influence. If you're interested in books or music that isn't JW approved, you lose friends. If you go to college, high school proms, holiday parties, extracurricular activities you lose points. They don't like to see you have a good time during assembly weekend. You must focus on the ministry and your new books. People will be watching you if you decide to talk to disfellowshipped people. I think that my former friends would be my friends again if they were allowed to be and weren't afraid to be influenced by me. Some of the others are just ashamed of me and wish I would be all broken up and lower my eyes at them. I want to mess with them so they will accept that I'm the same as I was. I just don't believe the same. I don't think "walking away" would change anything. I'd still be living a lie incidentally.

Answer 3

hi karlee, is this issue affecting you personally?

I would say they're not so much ignoring you as you're out of the loop with the activities which consume their lives, which are bible study/meeting attendance and field service. If you were a practicing witness, you know how much time that takes up for the everyday publisher. I never found my friendships to be based on anything more than these shared activities. If we ever spoke philosophically, I got the "I can't believe you said that" look.. and I knew I wanted more out of my relationships than I could find there.

I think I outgrew them and wanted to experience life in the fullest, something I could not find as a JW. Once I decided to leave, we had no more in common, so yes, the relationships were conditional because they were built only on the religion.

Blessings to you as you seek happiness.. there are -good- people and a full, blessed life beyond the walls of the Watchtower.

Answer 4

Since the lives of most Witnesses revolve around the meetings, field service and up building each other, that doesn't leave much time for anyone outside of the organization. I would think you might get a few phone calls or visits to see if you needed help with something that might be keeping you from the meetings. Remember 1 Cor 15:33 Do not be misled. Bad associations spoil use full habits.

Answer 5

Yes and many times, so are familial relationships. I have not had a relationship with my JW parents for more than half my lifetime now because I left when I was 18.

In spite of the fact that I run my own ministry, I am the black sheep of the family. My parents treat me worse than they treat my step sisters who still hang out in bars, do drugs, and have children by several different men. Why? Because my parents seem to feel that my step sisters didn't get as much JW exposure as I did growing up, so they don't know any better. Go figure.

Answer 6

Certainly

Answer 7

No. I know a number of Witneses that have stopped going to meetings. I NEVER shun them. If I can, I tell them I miss them and then encourage them to come back to the meetings.

You are going to get a lot of wrong ideas from non-witnesses that we shun others just because we don't see them anymore at the Hall. It is simply not true.

And what do you mean "so-called friends"?

Answer 8

Short and to the point:

If a person leaves the organization, then JWs must follow what the Bible says, and refrain from being in company of those who leave (1 Cor. 5:11)

If they choose to still have a friendship with this person, then they would be putting their relationship with God in jeopardy in order to maintain the one with this person.

It would be like if they prefer this person who has left, over God.

If the person does come back, then JWs receive them with open arms, no questions asked.

Answer 9

A) No
B) How many friendships do you have that are *not* conditional?

Jim, not a JW, but friends with one, http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com

Answer 10

yes....Commit a disfellowshipping sin, and you lose all support and encouragement until you are re-enstated...Even if you are repentant, you will continue to be shunned by all for usually about a year...There is absolutely NO scriptural basis for this.


Modern day Pharasees.....http://towerwatch.com