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I was wondering, If a person that had been disfellowshipped or left the JW Org and now wanted to return. How would a person make it known that they wanted to return ? What would be the proceedure since Kingdom Halls are closed ? How would a person prove that they really wanted to return ? I've always thought it very sad that when an ex-JW entered a KH, that no one would talk to them. I would have thought that it would show love to welcome that person into the meeting. However there are no KH meetings right now. So what would an ex-JW do ? (I'll await all the hate comments from certain people ) This topic is not a 'confession' that I want to return.

https://jw.support/disfellowshipping/ This is interesting reading. Lets start from those early Christians in the 1st century. When did they become known as Christians ? Was it whilst Jesus was still alive or was it after his resurrection ? Who was it that called those early 'disciples' Christians ? Did they call themselves by that name ? And now an important question. Did any human have the authority to tell another human, "You are no longer a Christian". Was being a 1st century Christian, being a part of a human Organisation ? So was it possible to turn a person out from it ? Did a 1st century person need permission to preach the word of God ? At this point we should remember the account whereby the disciples complained to Jesus that some 'outsiders' were preaching and healing in the name of Christ. Mark 9:38-41 Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us Jesus allowed others to do good deeds in His name. Just the opposite of disfellowshipping or shunning. So, when the JW Org / Elders disfellowship someone, what exactly are they disfellowshipping them from ? What scriptures and what authority do those Elders use to give themselves permission to disfellowship someone ? Do the Elders presume they have authority to judge a person and to say that such a person in 'no longer a Christian' ? Do JWs presume that only they are Christians, therefore anyone who is not a JW cannot be a Christian ? Jesus used the Samaritan man as an example of a Non Jew that did the will of God by showing kindness / mercy to a Jew that needed help. Jesus was speaking to the Jews who at that time hated the Samaritans. They were almost 'at war' with each other. But Jesus was showing that a Non Jew could be pleasing to God. Unfortunately the true meaning of that parable has been lost because people do not understand the hatred that was there. BUT, there is a message there for JWs. If only JWs would seek it and find it. So what about a person that leaves the JW org ? In the eyes of the GB, Elders et al, a congregant that leaves the Org is a deliberate sinner. So does the GB / leaders / Elders et al, think that the congregant that has left, is automatically 'no longer a Christian' ? And what about the congregation memebers where one has left ? Do ALL the congregation really want to SHUN the one that has left ? Exactly what scriptures do congregation memebers use to give themselves reason to SHUN a person that has left the Org ? I've been reading Watchtower quotes which say that each congregant must make up their own mind through their own conscience, to SHUN or not. But what action would be taken against a congregant that did not SHUN someone that had left the Org ? I suppose an important question here would be. Do JWs here honestly think that every person that leaves the JW Org, is 'no longer a Christian' ? If that is so then it would seem that JWs believe that only the people in the JW Org are able to serve God. So then JWs become anti-'non-JWs'. That would be in line with the Jews being anti-Samaritan, whereas Jesus was not.

Patrisse Cullors is many things, but she is definitely not a terrorist. She is a catalyst. She is a crusader. And she helped found Black Lives Matter. Cullors, 34, recently published a memoir titled When They Call You a Terrorist. It’s a work in halves: “All the Bones We Could Find,” which recounts her adolescence, and “Black Lives Matter,” which demonstrates how tragic incidents of her youth propelled her to create one of the most influential — and polarizing — social justice groups today. The movement took shape in the wake of the 2013 killing of Trayvon Martin, but for Cullors, its roots are centuries deep in American history, and a lifetime within herself. Cullors first wrote the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in a comment on a Facebook status of co-founder Alicia Garza, who was lamenting the acquittal of Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. Since then, the movement — with the help of its third co-founder, Opal Tometi — has become a national coalition for protesting violence and systemic racism against black people. As Cullors tells TIME, “This call, this need and this desire for a Black Lives Matter started when I was much younger.” Cullors was nine when she saw her 11- and 13-year-old brothers needlessly slammed into a wall by police. She grew up in Los Angeles in the 1990s, raised by a single mother in Section 8 housing, along with her sister and two brothers — one of whom would later be diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. His mental illness resulted in multiple trips to prison, where he was beaten and forced to drink toilet water, Cullors says. And then there was her father — not the mostly absent but loving man she grew up believing was her dad, but her biological father, whose identity her mother revealed when Cullors was 12. He also served several stints in prison, both before and after he came into Cullors’ life. His offenses were related to crack possession — i.e. substance abuse and addiction. Jail, Cullors and co-author Asha Bandele write, “is how our society responded to his drug use.” “I think we have a crisis of divesting from poor communities, black communities in particular, and reinvesting into these communities with police, jails, courts, prisons,” Cullors says. When They Call You a Terrorist deals with the incarceration and disenfranchisement of black men like her father, but it also explores facets of Cullors’ personal identity — black womanhood and sexuality, as well as spirituality. Cullors identifies as a Queer person who is mostly interested in other Queer people, though she has had multiple heterosexual relationships. She muses on her experience as a Jehovah’s Witness who remained committed to the faith for years, even in exile. (Jehovah’s Witnesses disfellowships members who are judged to have committed a serious sin, which meant that Patrisse’s mother as well as her children were shunned from the religion and other family members after she got pregnant with Patrisse’s oldest brother as a teenager.) Cullors weaves her intellectual influences into this narrative, from black feminist writers like Audre Lorde and bell hooks, to Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong. Reading those social philosophers “provided a new understanding around what our economies could look like,” she says. Reading Lorde and hooks “helped me understand my identity.” Read more: http://time.com/5171270/black-lives-matter-patrisse-cullors/

This tragic story has been developing over the last couple of days in Venezuela. There is a mixture of reports and accounts coming in.... Two Jehovah's Witnesses (and fleshly sisters) aged 71 and 65, where found murdered. A 26 year male suspect has been arrested. In the apartment where the two where found dead, the words "Death to witnesses" (“Muerte a los testigos”) had been scrawled onto one of the walls.

Because my question became argument for out of topic subjects I would like to refine this question: why someone who disfellowshipped for a reason that no longer exist must come back to the congregation ask for forgiveness and wait some time to be reinstated? I will give you the reason of the offense, because I am sure you will not understand me otherwise. There is this brother called Kotsos a Greek brother (and later immigrant in Germany because he lost his job here) who needed kidney transplant around 1975 and in 1978 had been disfellowshiped for making the kidney transplant. Around 1985 he came back to the congregation and the elders did not accept him without some kind of punishment ( by punishment I mean to come for some time in the congregation nobody to talk to him so he will show remorse for his action). There are also other examples too. In the Greek Watchtower of 1970 page 766 we read about a homosexual brother who disfellowshipped for 3 years in advance. So in that 3 years he had no right to repent !!!