As Jehovah’s Witnesses kick off their 2023 Regional Convention season, something very odd took place.
Two videos intended for the Witnesses’ online version of the convention have been deleted from the streaming versions of the assembly program, with no explanation. But not before they were captured by avoidjw.org.
The videos portray a disfellowshipped mother attempting to reach her single daughter by phone, but is rejected by her daughter, who struggles with the decision to shun her own mother.
The first video takes place at Elsa’s Kitchen table. Her phone rings, and we hear her thoughts:
First of two deleted videos suggesting how Jehovah’s Witnesses should shun family members.
“Mom’s disfellowshipping still feels so raw.” says Elsa, as she declines a phone call from her mother.
The young woman listens to her mother’s 8-second voicemail:
“Elsa, please pick up. I need you so much. I just need to hear your voice.”
Elsa narrates the voice in her head:
“It’s such a struggle…I miss her.” She leans up against her kitchen countertop and begins to reminisce about the close relationship she once had with her mother, before the disfellowshipping.
Elsa scrolls through her phone and views photo memories of her and her mom. A corny photo at a Watchtower Bethel facility, posing with cardboard cutouts of Caleb and Sophia. A photo taken at home during a Memorial celebration in front of a plate of unleavened bread, and a glass of wine. A selfie taken at a picnic lunch. A picture with her mom in front of an easel as they painted flowers together.
“She was my closest friend,” says Elsa. “What’s the harm in just calling once in a while? To chat. Maybe I can even help her to come back to Jehovah.”
The first video ends with Else staring pensively at her phone. She knows very well that she could be disfellowshipped for “brazen” association with her disfellowshipped mother.
The second video takes place inside a mock Kingdom Hall, where we break into the speaker mid-sentence:
“Abel was essentially a spiritual orphan. But regardless of what his parents chose, he listened to Jehovah, and patiently waited on him to fulfill his promises.”
Second of two deleted videos suggesting how Jehovah’s Witnesses should shun family members.
The camera closes in on Elsa’s face and her thoughts.
“I never thought of it that way. What has Jehovah promised me if I patiently wait?”
Elsa then slowly turns her gaze to the left as her thoughts continue:
“Spiritual Brothers…” she muses as the camera pans to two creepy-looking single males seated on the left side of the auditorium.
“Sisters…” she continues, as she looks to her left at three JW women sitting close to each other.
“And mothers…” she thinks, as she is greeted by the smile of an Asian Jehovah’s Witness woman who will assume the place of her biological mother.
In the next scene, Elsa is once again phoned by her nameless biological mother, and again, she rejects her mom’s call. Elsa consults her silver Bible and tablet computer to reinforce the policy to cut her mother completely from her life.
“If I focus on what I do have, and wait patiently, someday, what I don’t have, may even come back to Jehovah.”
The conclusion of the second video leaves the viewer with the distinct impression that Elsa’s mother is a nameless disfellowshipped quantity, a dead lump of flesh described by the writers as “what” instead of “who.”
The streaming version of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ assembly for 2023 is not intended to be a replacement for the in-person assemblies, but an alternative for JW members who may be unable to attend their local convention for various reasons.
The video dramas and reenactments are interspersed between and within the speeches given by higher-ranking members of the Church. The shunning videos were originally slated to be embedded into the Saturday Afternoon session during the speech titled: “Better to Be Patient Than to be Haughty in Spirit: Imitate Abel, Not Adam.” The focus of this particular talk is on the benefits of enforcing the shunning of close family members who are disfellowshipped, with a special emphasis on parent-child relationships. The speaker chosen for the streaming speech was Corey Wadlington, announced as a member of the Wallkill New York Headquarters facility.
According to court documents sourced by avoidjw, Wadlington is a member of the potent and influential Service Department of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and is identified as a Service Secretary, the right-hand man for the Deskman position. Deskmen and Service Secretaries are responsible for the management of the internal affairs and disciplinary processes used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, particularly in situations involving child sexual abuse, disfellowshipping, and other cases considered too complex for local congregation elders to handle on their own. The men in these positions correspond and speak with congregations throughout the Branch territory using a confidential system of 3-digit codes. These codes allow the Service Department members to conceal their identities when speaking with congregation elders.
The code currently in use by Wadlington as of February 2021 is “SST” and has been associated with numerous child sexual abuse cases and corresponding documents, according to internal Church documents obtained by avoidjw.org and jwchildabuse.org.
It seems no real surprise that Mr. Wadlington was selected to represent and enforce the disfellowshipping and shunning arrangement by giving a speech highlighting the importance of loyalty to this destructive and controversial church policy.
Questions have been raised regarding the timing of the removal of these two videos, especially in the wake of the recent release of the documentary Rebekah Vardy, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me, a UK-based program that delved into the harrowing effects of disfellowshipping, shunning, and the prevalence of child abuse among the Witnesses.
Vardy, a known celebrity in England, revealed that she was left unprotected as a minor after experiencing abuse, then shunning – despite the fact that she was never a baptized member.
Even more significant may be the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses have lost their registration as a religious organization in Norway in part as a result of the social isolation policy practiced by the Witnesses when disfellowshipping minor baptized members. The Norwegian government is likewise concerned that the rights of individual members of the JWs are violated by denying baptized members the opportunity to leave the Church on their own terms without loss of relationships and communications with other members, including close family.
While the reasons for the removal of these new videos is still a matter of speculation, it seems evident that it was done hastily, with the vast majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses unaware of what has taken place. The videos provide very powerful visual evidence of the practice of shunning, and the expectations placed upon any Witness with a disfellowshipped relative.
All the same, the speech given by Wadlington was no less potent. In his concluding remarks, the Service Department official says:
“If a member of our family is disfellowshipped, our affection for them should not be greater than our affection for Jehovah…”
41 Responses
All your answers are invalid to me [content deleted for making baseless assumptions]. I was not raised a Jehovah’s Witness. I’ve been a Jehovah’s Witness now for over 35 years. One of my children is a Jehovah’s Witness. I’ve been disfellowshipped before and I deserved it. I loved my brothers and sisters in the congregation and I preferred that it’s best they not be around me. I literally was not living up to Bible standards. You can say it’s Jehovah’s Witness standards if you would like but it’s [my belief that they are] Bible standards God standards. During the time I was disfellowshipped, I learned how to re establish my relationship with God again, gave me time to see what I was doing ,what I want to do ,why I do what I do , am I happy doing what I’m doing and how does god feel about what I am doing. It’s a personal choice. Do we want to be a disciplined person and try your best to live by Bible standards or do we live by what everyone else is doing. Just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t make it right. Sure my son and I didn’t really talk or socialize during the time I was disfellowshipped Only time we talked was on very important issues pertaining to business or a serious issue. Whether you’re a Jehovah’s Witness or not who has the right to judge or talk bad and criticize others? and especially about things, they don’t understand or have real proof of ? I was only disfellowshipped for a year. I’ve seen and lived two different lives,One just like everyone else ,the majority of the population doing what I feel like doing ,and honestly I’m proud to be a Jehovah’s Witness. Everyone processes information and translates it into their own interpretation but in conclusion, what’s right is right and wrong is wrong. Everyone has a conscience moral or immoral. [It’s my view that we] should all thank God for giving us choices in life to see for ourselves what kind of lives we want to live. What kind of things in life benefit us and what kind of things in life can bring us into dire consequences. I truly believe what Jesus said. [In my view] there is many people whose eyes and ears are closed. They do not see what’s really going on in the world and they don’t hear what’s really going on in the world. Worldly things versus spiritual things. People in the world have their own message and we hear it all day long every day, but [iny view] spiritual people have a message also and we choose to hear what we wanna hear. Love and peace is the greatest message.
Yes, love and peace is the greatest message.. Kathryn… my husband and I are not disfellowshipped or disassociated, but we stopped attending the kingdom hall because of what we learned about the organization’s involvement with the UN as an NGO for about 10 years. they hastily removed themselves from the position of NGO only after they were exposed in an article in the Guardian Newspaper. When I learned that, my first thought was.. well this has to be a mistake, so I called the branch office in New York.. the person I spoke with just kept repeating the same phrase “We don’t discuss information from apostate sources”. I said “The Guardian newspaper is very reputable .. in fact, the Watchtower has quoted from it several times in their articles”.. the person just kept repeating the same thing over and over ..like he was a robot. So it was obvious to me I could not have a meaningful and honest conversation with him.. so my next step was to call the UN.. the person I spoke with there was very candid and gave me all kinds of information and references and directed me to their website where there was information regarding JW’s because there had been so many inquiries about the relationship. I confirmed by reading all the information that JWs were indeed involved with the UN for that time period and they were even required to disseminate information about the UN in their magazines..which they did.. if you look up articles in the Awake magazine during the years from 1992 to 2001 when JW was NGO with UN, you can see that they did indeed fulfil their requirement to disseminate information about the UN.Our brother in law who is an elder reached out to us and said he had called the branch and got the same “we don’t discuss information from apostate sources” line as I did.. so as an elder, he wrote a letter to the branch in an attempt to help us.. He received a letter back from the branch, but was not allowed to forward it to us.. rather he read it over the phone. Well as he read the letter, we could see that they outright lied about the involvement with the UN.. saying that some researcher for the Watchtower writing dept signed them up as an NGO to use the library on-site in Washington DC.. like it was an innocent mistake. I guess the writers of that letter did not expect someone like me to go deeper, but I did.. I found out that to become an NGO with the UN, there were multiple requirements, including attending a 2-day orientation seminar, proof of dissemination of information about the UN (as I said earlier just check out the awake articles during the years they were an NGO..the proof is there) and they had to agree to the charter of the UN. So the only conclusion anyone can draw from digging deeper and doing research (rather than simply relying on what the Watchtower says) is that the Watchtower indeed lied to me as does anyone or any organization that fears being caught in the grips of hypocrisy. Since then I have uncovered several undeniable truths about how the Watchtower organization is not led by God as my husband and I once deeply believed..(he was an elder and both of us were pioneers..the last thing we wanted to do was leave the organization, our family and our friends..but in the end, our conscience would not allow us to stay because we value truth and honesty and integrity and God and Christ over man).. please do your research.. do not be afraid of any information out there, because truth cannot be hidden in the face of any information and certainly has NOTHING to fear..in fact, truth becomes more valid under such scrutiny. This is why it was such a red flag to me when the person at Bethel was evading my questions when I asked about the UN.. and it was such a stark contrast when I called the UN.. they were open with information and did not evade the truth. Fear causes people to go along with what others say and not think for themselves so please do not fear any information. By the way.. even though my husband and I are not d’fd or da’d, our family in the organization and friends DO SHUN US!!! that is a fact.. so when the watchtower says they do not shun, it is just one more LIE. Please choose TRUTH and LOVE over fear Kathryn. It has been a very difficult and traumatic road for my husband and me losing family and friends (it led both of us to want to commit suicide..like so many others who have unfortunately succeeded because of the extreme trauma of losing family and your entire social network), but God and Christ held us through it all with the most powerful LOVE we have ever felt.. We know in the deepest part of our hearts that this policy of the WT organization is NOT based in scripture.. discipline is based in scripture, but like so many other things the WT does, the policy of shunning goes BEYOND WHAT IS WRITTEN.. (what sort of parent shuns their child for anything? Discipline yes, but shunning NO..these two things are NOT the same, as WT would like everyone to believe.. they are WRONG)..and so I pray for all of you still trapped in this organization believing (as we once did)..that it is GOD’s organization. Matthew 11:28.. saved my life.
What happened to “it’s the sick that need a physician not the healthy”?
In reality it’s, “You’re sick. Stay away from me!”
The JHW is a criminal organisation specialised in disrupting families. I have not seen my only child for 13 years so he transformed in a real Jehova Witness Zombie. He has been brain washed by JHW, supported by his JHW Mother. For him , i am a stranger , a pagan. These criminals abuse religion for their own goals (Money). You know what will happen in the end of their lives with their souls according to the real Bible ? FIRE
Io son stata disassociata come apostata per aver detto la verità su di loro e oltre ad ostracizzare me , quando incontrano mia figlia che non era nemmeno battezzata ne proclamatori e, non guardano in faccia nemmeno lei.
I was disfellowshipped as an apostate for telling the truth about them. And, in addition to ostracising me, when they meet my daughter who wasn’t ever baptized nor a publisher, they won’t even look her in the face.
Yes.
The best way to dismantle a personality is to isolate it. Not christian
These videos have sickened me no wonder they were removed. Referring to the disfellowshipped mother at the end as ‘what I don’t have’ disgusts me. I know only too well how the disfellowshipped are treated, it still hurts fifty years on, so do the lies of the JWs in response to their shunning rules.
The Watchtower corporation’s use of emotional blackmail to keep people under their control need to be held accountable and financially liable for pain and suffering and it looks like it is happening and the time has finally come!!!
I served at Wallkill with Corey Wadlington and he was my congregation elder and bethel elder. I knew he knew a lot of bad things the organization would hide. It makes me sick knowing that men would hide such things. I’m glad I left bethel and this organization.
JW’s believe that they must abstain from blood and yet they can accept blood fractions taken from some other persons body. Since that’s the case, perhaps they can shun in fractions as well. Just talk and visit disfellowshipped ones on the phone, or via text or by FaceTime but never talk to them in person.
Thanks for exposing them! Unfortunately, I’m from Brazil, and here the conventions didn’t start yet. Do you have the whole convention videos including these shunning videos? I would like to show to my wife, if I show to her just the videos, she could say that it was an apostate replica, but if she saw the talk and Corey introducing the video, maybe it could do something.
Thanks in advance for your nice work!
Eu também sou do Brasil mostrei o vídeo pra minha mãe tj e ela falou que é montagem kkkk queria ter ele completo.
I’m also from Brazil I showed the video to my mom tj and she said it’s a montage okayyyyy I wish I had it complete.
Recently I spoke with the disfellowshipped daughter of a Jehovah’s Witness. Her mother helps her with the children so although supposed to completely shun them, she “does her own thing.” Well, that is what Watchtower is saying is the policy, “up to the individuals” yes. NO. Two elders have been around to see the “mother” to give her a visit about her association with the daughter. No personal decisions in that at all. They are liars.
So what happened to Honor your Father and Mother? You throw that out? That is a law of Jehovah too!!!
Nothing happend to honour father amnd mother. That is a basic teaching. Honour of God and obedeince to him is more importent.
You have to put Jehova (*cough cough* watchtower organization) before anyone else, even your parents
Please stop this organization!!! What they do is serious! Governments must take serious action as soon as possible, there is the lives of millions of people who suffer unknowingly to enrich the Watchtower, this is unacceptable! Please stop them!!
Starting with All Child Abuse, Domestic Abuse, And Showing and talking about Families; Parents, Grandparents, Children including Babies, Grandchildren All being Destroyed like Morris said when blowing out the match and saying it’s a wonderful thing. They need to be Removed and Any another religion be removed from Tax exempt and have the doors Closed,Period.
Go away Satan!!!
Satan isn’t real dude
This all goes to show just how diabolically evil this tyrannical organization really is. The organization follows it’s father the devil because God would never treat people that way, and it seams that more often than not, shunning of people seams to be their favorite topic along with the so-called apostates, and worldly people.
Clearly this is a terrible organization indeed. They lie in courts, they lie to individuals, and all they care about is their precious image and their money. They’ll throw anybody under the bus that doesn’t support them and their evil agenda or who don’t worship and follow the governing body.
It’s a no from me. Too gay.
As for me and my cocktails,
We shall serve brunch on Sundays…
Plus brunch rehearsal M/W/F
Auxiliary Brunch Volunteer outreach fellowship is safe space for Happy Hour chat nonsense
💗
These videos constitute official endorsement of the use of emotional blackmail and social coercion. Fear of being shunned by one’s friends and family is a blunt instrument used to keep members in line, even if they no longer agree with the organization’s ever-changing teachings and policies. This is a cruel practice designed to manipulate people into suppressing their own beliefs and consciences so they can maintain normal relationships with those they love. The irony of living a lie in order to “please God” escapes them entirely. For many, the price of doing so to buy the acceptance and company of others is just too high.
Thank you so much for putting this out even for me who has not been officially disfellowshipped because I divorced supposedly in a nonscriptural reason which was he was beating my ass but they said because that was in the scriptural reason I got shunned and continue to get shunned it’s really crazy I refuse to stay in this crazy stuff
I’m so sorry. 💔
Yes, they come back to Jehovah!!😇🤭🤤🤗🥰
I appreciate the article and the comments. JWs saying it is optional to shun disfellowshipped people is like saying it’s optional to show up for your job, or follow traffic laws. Sure, you can make the choice not to do what you are supposed to do, but THERE WILL HE CONSEQUENCES. In this case, if JW members do not shun a disfellowshipped person, they will be considered “less spiritual “ and “bad Association” and likely feel lots of guilt and emotional turmoil. It is a cultural norm to shun in that organization, 100%.
It sure is a cultural norm. And those videos show that they haven’t changed their stripes.
This is shocking propoganda the JWs put out. It’s so sad. No wonder they deleted it as it shows how ashamed they are of their shunning teachings, policies and practices and have to cover it up. … I wonder if they’ll do a video on how to treat an apostate family member.
💯 Agree
These guys are close to being like the Nazi’s SS men doing the dirty work for the cult leader/s
In the Vardy program, Watchtower’s press statement indicated that shunning was an optional decision by individuals, and not a policy practise of the organisation. This is an outright lie, and would be known as one by any honest Jehovah’s Witness. They made a video some years ago showing how to disfellowship, and these two follow up videos would prove that. We must keep showing them up for the liars they are.
That sounds just like Scientology’s claim that its practice of “disconnection” (the equivalent of disfellowshipping) is a “self-determined decision” by its members and not imposed by the organisation. Indeed, they may decide not to disconnect from someone considered undesirable by the organisation, but will then have to face the consequence of most other members making a “self-determined decision” to disconnect from them.
John, yeah, if it was so volunteer to shun people, then why do they need to make videos shoing people shunning other members then? It is not voluntary any more than it is voluntary for you to brethe and such.
Yes, they’re satanic liars! They lie to protect their precious image and their god; the governing body. The governing body is their god, not Jehovah as they claim.
Hi John,
Where can we find the UK WT answer to Rebecka Vardy’s documentary? When I mentioned this to an annointed brother and a friend( up to now), he immediately denied it, and stated that i have to be disfellowshiped.
What they have ommited to say,is that in the VAST majority of cases loved ones have NEVER left Jehovah or Christ Jesus. It is in fact because of the genuine and true love they have for them,that they cannot live with the lies and cover ups that are going on in a massive way in the W/T organisation,and as truly spiritual beings they actually obey God as ruler rather than men.
And because of that,they are disfellowshipped and shunned. And the REAL reason for this truly ugly behaviour,is because the GB are terrified that others will also find out real truths. Hence this barbaric and demonic behaviour.
Thank You for exposing this.
💔💕💔💕💔💕
What you have said is so true. We are witness to the pain a disfellowshiped friend of ours goes through with the separation of her family. So, very cruel and un Christlike. This lady has such a heart for God. How dare they question that.
yes.. i cant say for others but that is how i personally experience it.. even though i grew up as a jw and was unbaptized publisher the way things have been for me they seem to not only shun me but my family members aswell.. either that or they stay away from us because they deem us bad assosciation.. the love that should identify Jesus true followers is gone and all thats left are noisy cymbals screaming of “unity” when they really mean conformity.. and worst part is that they claim Jehovah wants us to be blind dumb and deaf and stupid and trust in men because the men themselves claim to be speaking for God.. with no proof..
They overuse the expression “return to Jehovah” when what they REALLY mean is “return to watchtower”.