Threat Warning: This Person Has Been Placed in Quarantine and is Awaiting Action

You know those warnings your computer gives you that tells you about a malicious file that will steal your information and molest your hard drive? Ever seen one applied to a person?

I have.

As one of Jehovah's Witnesses, it's likely that you would have encountered a "disfellowshipped" person, or been at a meeting where it was announced that a person was disfellowshipped. It's the Watchtower, Bible, and Tract Society of New York's version of excommunication, and is applied to unrepentant sinners.

Sparing you the intricacies and bureaucracy of how it's done, such a person is publicly announced as having been assigned this status. Implicit in this announcement is that all association with this person by those of good standing in the congregation stop. Exceptions are few and strictly enforced.

In the early 80's, Raymond Franz, a deposed member of the Governing Body of said Society, was disfellowshipped for refusing to cease his employment by a former Witness. The man for whom he worked had voluntarily cut ties with the Society and, by all other accounts, was a perfectly respectable person. But this is where that warning mentioned in the outset comes in.

The worldwide organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, in its complicated arrangements and hierarchies, serves as a buffer between its members and those it considers to be malicious people. They write all the black lists, govern all the definitions, and can quarantine anyone they deem dangerous with very little room for appeal. The computer, by comparison, at least gives you the opportunity to white-list a file if you find it useful. Witnesses don't trust your judgement to allow such a thing.

If I were to correlate this further to computers, it would be akin to McAfee exiling Microsoft Word for opening a legitimate file just because it disagreed with McAfee.

In the Witnesses methodology, the only way to cure a disease is to cut off the limb. There are inherent risks with that, however. Doctrinally, Witnesses only freely associate with people who are of good standing in the congregation. They don't fraternize with coworkers (as a general rule), unbelieving family members, or social groups not associated with the organization. So what becomes of a person quarantined from the very carefully maintained and white-listed believers?

Statistically, very few people who are disfellowshipped ever return. If they do, it's generally under some duress. That could be because of isolation from family members, or just from the loss of association with the only social group with whom they were allowed to have unrestricted contact. From personal experience, one tactic often applied by elders trying to counsel a soon-to-be disfellowshipped person is to highlight the loss of family contact, and their excruciating disappointment. It's hard to see this as anything but emotional manipulation.

It is the spiritual equivalent of the playground threat of I-won't-like-you-any-more.

I've often commented on the notion that love is sometimes a verb. It's something you do in spite of yourself. The practice mentioned above, however, is the deliberate withholding of love. Jesus Christ loved people who needed his help. He didn't preach to religious leaders, or people in good spiritual health. He ate with lepers, murderers, and thieves. He gave comfort to prostitutes, orphans, and blasphemers. He sent forth people who openly doubted him, fell short of divinity, and fought for status as his representatives.

What he did not do was tell anyone to ignore or ostracize anyone in spiritual need in the hopes that it would make them better people. He did not rely on injured an imperfect people to bring themselves up to the level of 'approved associate' before giving them recognition into the group. He helped them. He instructed others to help them. "Love your neighbor as yourself", he said. There were no caveats or conditions, and yet it is the one thing that Witnesses struggle with most.

Witnesses do this, of course, under the premise that it protects the spiritual health of the rest of the congregants. I've often wondered, though, if the health of the rest of the congregants is so shaky that one sinner can bring them all down, aren't they focused on the wrong problem?

Whatever the case may be, the dismal success rate of reintroducing disfellowshipped persons to the fold demonstrates that its an inefficient practice at best. At worst, it's patently cruel to completely cut someone off from all of their social and spiritual contacts.

Whether it comes down to cruelty or incompetence, one thing is obvious. Association with Witnesses only really serves their purposes. They do not value individuals as much as they value the system of which they are a part. Which is ironic since it takes individuals to uphold the system. This reduces individuals to worker-ants who do the labor at the direction of the Governing Body. If one becomes infirm, it's institutionally correct to walk right over the corpse of the fallen and continue with the plan.

I'm reminded though of a quote, and I don't recall who said it, that in effect says "our character is measured by how we treat those who have nothing to offer us".

So, what kind of character are you?