More than 10 years revealing secrets because there is no excuse for secrecy in religion – w1997 June 1; Dan 2:47; Matt 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 12:2; Acts 4:19, 20.
Written By: Lester Somrah and Miss Usato, Last updated September 25th, 2025
New York – The Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious group often criticized in the media for its extreme practices on shunning ex-members, has in a surprising and unannounced move, quietly deleted instructional videos that provided explicit guidelines on how adherents should shun family members who leave the organization. This development comes amidst mounting media criticism, governmental investigations, and high-profile court cases in countries such as Norway, Japan, and Denmark, each raising concerns about the cult’s practices.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are infamous for their comprehensive materials that instruct members on handling the emotional and social complexities of shunning former members, particularly close family who choose to leave. Over the years, at conventions, congregation meetings, and through highly descriptive video content, leaders of the group outlined responses, gestures, and even specific language for any interaction with “wayward” family, friends, or acquaintances. Many adherents considered these videos a core part of their religious observance, and they became a pillar of the organization’s teachings on loyalty.
In the past few years, however, shunning-related videos were quietly removed from the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ digital library without explanation. No formal announcement or guidance accompanied the removal, and members and former members are left questioning the organization’s rationale as leaders remain silent on the matter.
Mounting Global Pressure
This potential shift comes at a time when the Jehovah’s Witnesses face increasing global scrutiny. In Denmark, for instance, government officials have voiced concerns about the cult’s impact on family dynamics and mental health and whether the practice is lawful. In Japan, high-profile media outlets have investigated the cult’s practices, with special attention to its treatment of children, sparking a national conversation about the organization’s influence and control over its members. Meanwhile, Norway has recently seen court cases where the group is challenging the government’s response to its extreme practices of shunning that particularly impact on children’s mental and emotional well-being.
Such international attention has led many to wonder whether the sudden removal of the shunning-related videos is a reactionary attempt to soften the group’s public image or a response to potential legal ramifications abroad.
“A Confusing Shift in Policy”
Adherents within the organization are reportedly feeling confused and uneasy following the removal. “We were always taught that shunning disfellowshipped and disassociated ones was an essential part of our faith,” said one member who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It’s been drilled into us for years, and now it’s just gone without a word. I am not sure what to think, or if this means anything at all.”
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have a history of modifying or quietly rescinding teachings, but former members note that it is highly unusual for content that relates to major doctrine to disappear without official commentary. Experts on high-control religious groups suggest that the move may be a calculated response to protect the cult from further criticism and investigation.
One former member who has been involved in various court cases relating to Jehovah’s Witnesses noted that “the timing is likely not coincidental. Removing the videos could be an attempt to present a more acceptable public face or pre-empt further legal repercussions. However, without an official communication to members, it leaves a lot of confusion, especially among those who have sacrificed relationships based on these teachings.”
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have faced intensifying backlash from mental health professionals and cult awareness organizations across Europe and Asia, many of whom argue that the cult’s policies are damaging to mental well-being and family structure. In Norway, the cult’s methods has resulted in their loss of grants worth millions each year, while in Denmark the government is investigating whether the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ shunning policies breach law. Meanwhile, in Japan, there is an effort by former members to have laws changed that could set precedents on the responsibilities of religious organizations in cases of emotional and psychological harm.
While most members of Jehovah’s Witnesses may not be aware of the sudden disappearance of these shunning resources, ex-adherents are cautiously optimistic. “I hope this is a step toward something different,” said one father, whose son remains a devoted member. “Maybe there’s a chance for Jehovah’s Witnesses to shed some of their more extreme practices. My cynical side believes the videos were only deleted because they use the now defunct word, ‘disfellowshipped’ instead of the new in-term, ‘removed’.”
For now, the full impact of this quiet change remains uncertain, but with global media, governments, and courts scrutinizing the cult, the Jehovah’s Witnesses may face increasing pressure to justify, clarify, or even reverse a long-standing policy.
This article releases the videos and short descriptions of their content on the realities of how Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught to shun members, even their own family. These videos were all deleted from their site, but not before they were captured by Avoidjw.org.
2023 Convention Removed Shunning Videos -Jehovah’s Witness Elsa and her Disfellowshipped mother
As Jehovah’s Witnesses kicked 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 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.
Court documents cited by AvoidJW identify Wadlington as a Service Secretary in Jehovah’s Witnesses’ influential Service Department—effectively second-in-command to a Deskman. These officials handle sensitive internal matters, including disfellowshipping and child abuse cases deemed too complex for local elders. Using coded identifiers, they communicate with congregations while concealing their identities. Internal files show Wadlington’s code “SST” was linked to multiple abuse cases as of 2021.
It is fitting, then, that he was chosen to deliver a speech defending the Witnesses’ shunning policy, stressing loyalty to organizational directives over family bonds.
Notably, the videos dramatizing this policy were quietly removed soon after the UK documentary Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me exposed the devastating effects of shunning and child abuse. The issue has drawn global scrutiny, with Norway recently revoking the Witnesses’ registration partly over the treatment of disfellowshipped minors.
Though reasons for the removal remain unclear, the timing suggests damage control. The videos provided rare, unambiguous proof of how Witnesses are expected to cut ties—even with close relatives. Wadlington reinforced this in his conclusion:
“If a member of our family is disfellowshipped, our affection for them should not be greater than our affection for Jehovah.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses have, for years, produced videos and articles teaching strict “disfellowshipping” (shunning) practices, where family members and friends cut off almost all contact with someone who leaves or is expelled from the religion. These videos often show harsh scenarios, like parents refusing to answer a phone call from a “disfellowshipped” child, or vice versa. The deleted videos from 2023, shown below, portray a disfellowshipped mother attempting to reach her single, Jehovah’s Witness 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 she stares at it as we hear her thoughts abut missing her now estranged 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.” Elsa thinks “I never thought of it that way. What has Jehovah promised me if I patiently wait?” She 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.”
2017 JwOrg Removed Shunning Video “Loyally Uphold Jehovah’s Judgments: Shun Unrepentant Wrongdoers” – Sonya Erikson disfellowshipped
In 2024, we noticed that a 2017 Video, “Loyally Uphold Jehovah’s Judgments: Shun Unrepentant Wrongdoers,” was randomly removed from their site, again, with no explanation. This is an older video, yet it took about a year for the Organization to make it disappear like the 2023 Shunning video. Active and former Jehovah’s Witnesses know this script all too well, because we have lived it. It’s been heavily criticized by former Witnesses about the damaging and harmful consequences of shunning family, as depicted in the videos above and below, causing long-term issues to a person’s mental health and lifestyle.
The first video you see is about a young Baptized Jehovah’s Witness, Sonya Erikson, who was disfellowshipped for “Not having a hatred for what’s bad” and sleeping with someone of the opposite sex.
She was announced as disfellowshipped in her congregation, and she walked out of the hall in guilt, while her parents and siblings looked away from her in disappointment. Sonya was then told by her parents that she could not remain in the home while disfellowshipped because she had a negative effect on her siblings. Sonya had to leave her home and stayed away for many years. The narrative brings into the biblical account of Erin, where God had struck his 2 unrepentant children down, and was told not to mourn for them, so it showed loyalty to Jehovah’s decisions. Sonya’s parents avoided contact with her, ignoring her phone calls, teaching her the lesson that the dose of association would be bad for her and them, and she wouldn’t come back. She was disfellowshipped for 15 years, cut off from her family. This highlights the emotional cost of obedience to organizational rules.
The second Video is only related to shunning in the narrative of the biblical account of Martha losing her son in death. At the end of this video, it shows a Jehovah’s Witness mother mourning her son, who had also passed away. Unfortunately, though, shown in the past videos on shunning, Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught to treat as if their disfellowshipped family members are dead as well, but a more sinister addition is that they are trained not to mourn Jehovah’s decision to cut them out of the congregation.
There is no doubt that the video’s disappearance came as governments, courts, and media investigations increasingly highlighted shunning as a form of social isolation and coercion, with cases such as Norway’s deregistration of the religion underscoring the potential human rights concerns tied to the practice.