When I was four years old (1947), my mother joined a high-control religious organization, Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs). At age twenty (1964), I stopped going to their meetings and participating in their door-to-door ministry.
In 1977 I was disfellowshipped, which meant no one in my extended family could discuss religious matters with me. But in September 1981, mandated shunning was introduced. All JWs would now have to shun anyone who was disfellowshipped.
Suddenly, my JW parents, siblings, in-laws, former JW friends and employees could not talk or even acknowledge me. Even a polite “Hello” if someone saw me, was a no-no. If they spoke with me, they would be disfellowshipped and shunned.
While I had no problem not believing JW dogma, the emotional impact of relatives pretending I do not exist was a significant emotional jolt. It would take me several years to reconcile myself to this harmful policy.
Because of mandated shunning, my sister was not allowed to ask for my help when she needed me the most. That happened when her husband started abusing her. After being abused for several years, she went to the JW Elders and asked for help. They told her, “Wait on Jehovah and avoid triggering abuse from your husband.”
That did not work, so she sought advice from a non-JW attorney. When the Elders found out, she became the victim of mandated shunning. That is when she called me, but it was too late. She was murdered by her third abusive husband in 1998.
During the last forty years, I have personally observed over a hundred different scenarios where the damage was deadly or debilitating for people being shunned. Therefore, I am passionate about doing everything I can to stop mandated shunning and treat it as a crime.