By now, it should be painfully obvious that we live in a post Tonny Morris era where the floods of organizational changes have become possible and a new version of the religion, some have called it Warchtower 2.0 is emerging with a soft approach to disfellowshipping practices across the board for all those sinners. Nevertheless 3 groups of people will still be targeted for harsh excommunication, we know the first two well :CSA perpetrators and apostates. The reasons are obvious, the first group has cost the Organization millions in settlement cases and the second, the apostates are the ones exposing the Watchtower for the toxic cult that they are, but the third one caught my attention "the ones who scheme to end their marriage".Whatever this is? And why is the Watchtower so concerned with this 3 group of people? Before I delve into the reasons why, here is the direction that was send to all elders only a few days ago from the Organization as regards disfellowshipping:
By skillful use of the Scriptures, the committee should try to reach the wrongdoer's heart and lead him to repentance. If through your efforts Jehovah gives the individual repentance, this is a cause for rejoicing. (Luke 15:7; 2 Tim. 2:25; 2 Pet. 3:9) In such cases, appropriate restrictions will be temporarily imposed. If the wrongdoing is widely known or likely to be- come known, a brief announcement of the reproof can be made to the congregation. Restrictions should be viewed as temporary and should be removed without delay as the individual makes a spiritual recovery. Of course, with certain kinds of wrongdoing—such as child abuse, apostasy, and scheming to end a marriage—restrictions will need to be in place much longer. (sfl chap. 12 pars. 10-12; chap. 14 pars. 22-24)
The SFL book,2022 edition has this to say about those "scheming to end their marriage:
Whether or not a divorced Christian remarries, if he deliberately committed adultery in a scheming way so as to end his previous marriage or he pressured his innocent mate to reject him so that she eventually agreed to a divorce, he has dealt treacherously with her. (Mal. 2:14-16) He would not qualify for special privileges for many years.—See 1:2.8; 2:4; 8:7-8.
Also a recent internal memo to elders over a year ago had this to say:
So this group of sinners have now joined the apostates and CSA perpetrators. This is not an accident. Here is what a think.Over the past decades due to a relaxed attitude towards divorces that left the door open for one or both marriage mates to invent new ways in getting a divorce this has created a toxic environment in many kingdom halls for the following reasons:
First, the divorce rate among Jehovah's Witnesses is way higher than previous years. In my congregation alone of 120 publishers I counted 25 divorces or over 20% rate.
Usually in the world people get divorced and remarry and disappear from the radar BUT in the Jehovah’s Witnesses they tend to stay in the Witnesses and many times stay in the same congregation creating a toxic environment for them and all the families involved.
Most of the times the innocent married parties get stumbled and leave and the congregation is then left with the rotten eggs that schemed in the first place to end their marriages.
Some brothers or sisters having realised they can get away with murder because of the loopholes the Watchtower created in the first place they turned divorcing Jw style into a cottage industry. I know off a sister who got away with 3 Scriptural divorces having accused her husbands for fictitious and yet Scripturally valid reasons to end her marriage.
The Watchtower has finaly realised that long term this attitude towards divorce has left them with congregations full of legally accepted adulterers who schemed their way our of Bible based marriage. This has created a void and a reducing in contributions from all those who walked away over the years because of this reason.
That is why in 2024 , this group, those who scheme to end their marriage have now become top priority target for long and harsh disfellowshipping, as severe as those who are accused for apostasy.
What do you think? Have ou witnessed that in your congregation? What does the future hold for jw divorces?
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