# Disfellowshipped Members Must Be Completely Shunned

## Watchtower Teaching

> JWs practice mandatory shunning of anyone who is disfellowshipped (expelled) or who voluntarily disassociates. Family members — including parents, children, and siblings — are expected to cut off all non-essential contact. This includes refusing to eat together, greet, or even make eye contact. The threat of shunning functions as the primary enforcement mechanism for organisational compliance: members who privately disagree with Watchtower teachings remain silent to avoid losing their families.

## Key Implication

The Watchtower cites 1 Corinthians 5:11 and 2 John 10–11 to justify shunning, but these texts address specific situations — a man engaged in sexual immorality who refuses to repent, and travelling false teachers. Neither text commands cutting off family members who simply leave the organisation. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:10–11). Paul said to 'admonish him as a brother' (2 Thessalonians 3:15), not treat him as dead. The Watchtower's shunning policy was not introduced until 1952 under Nathan Knorr — it has no first-century precedent. It functions not as discipline but as coercion: stay or lose everyone.

## Watchtower Sources

- The Watchtower, April 15, 2012, p. 12
- Organized to Do Jehovah's Will, ch. 14
- Shepherd the Flock of God, ch. 12

## Also Known As

shunning, disfellowshipping, disfellowshipped, excommunication JW, shun family, cutting off family, judicial committee, disassociation, kicked out JW, leaving JW, 1 Corinthians 5:11, 2 John 10, marking talk, reproof, reinstatement, apostate, treat as dead, no contact, lost family JW, shunning children, family separation, JW lose privileges, removed as ministerial servant, JW privilege loss discipline, stepping down Jehovah's Witness, loss of privileges JW, removed as pioneer, JW shunning family, shunning Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine, shunning ex-Witnesses, JW shun own family, shun like a good witness

## Counter-Arguments (16)

- [Shunning — The 1947 Reversal](/arguments/shunning-1947.md) — Awake! 1947 vs Watchtower 1952 [Authority]
- [No Honourable Exit — Trapped by the Threat of Shunning](/arguments/no-honourable-exit.md) — If you stay, you comply. If you leave, you lose everyone. [Practice]
- [Admonish Him as a Brother — The Verse That Undoes Shunning](/arguments/shunning-admonish-as-brother.md) — 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15 / 2 Corinthians 2:6–8 / Matthew 18:17 [Practice]
- [No Biblical Warrant for Family Shunning](/arguments/shunning-family-no-biblical-warrant.md) — 1 Timothy 5:8 / Luke 15:4–7 / Matthew 9:10–13 [Practice]
- [Coerced Compliance Is Not the Same Moral Category as Virtue](/arguments/coerced-compliance-vs-virtue.md) — The coercion threshold — what the fruit test can and cannot see [Practice]
- [The 2016 Broadcast — 'I Wouldn't Answer the Phone'](/arguments/morris-2016-shunning-broadcast.md) — When Governing Body instruction is explicit, the fruit test is not speculative [Practice]
- [Christ's Promise to Those Their Family Cuts Off](/arguments/matthew19-leave-father-mother.md) — Matthew 19:29 / Mark 8:36 / Mark 10:29-30 [Practice]
- [2024 'Removed' Rebrand — Not Reform](/arguments/2024-removed-rebrand-not-reform.md) — 2 Timothy 3:5 — A form of godliness, denying its power [Authority]
- [No Pastoral Grace — The Judicial Committee vs the Throne of Grace](/arguments/no-pastoral-grace-confession.md) — Hebrews 4:15-16 — A sympathetic high priest [Salvation]
- [Pornography and Judicial Escalation — From Tribunal to Throne](/arguments/pornography-judicial-escalation.md) — 1 Corinthians 10:13 — A way of escape, not a way of removal [Sanctification]
- [Public Reproof and Comment Performance — A Yoke of Slavery](/arguments/public-reproof-performance-discipline.md) — Galatians 5:1 — For freedom Christ has set us free [Sanctification]
- [Baptism Vow to the Organisation — The 1985 Question Change](/arguments/baptism-vow-to-organisation.md) — Watchtower 1985 June 1 vs Acts 8:36-38 [Authority]
- [Shunned for Belief, Not Behaviour](/arguments/shunning-belief-not-behaviour.md) — 1 Corinthians 5:11 lists conduct — not a change of conviction [Practice]
- [The Paramedics Who Refuse to Treat](/arguments/shunning-paramedics-analogy.md) — Answering the 'leave it to Jehovah's organisation' illustration [Practice]
- [The Human Cost of Shunning](/arguments/shunning-human-cost.md) — Social death, depression, and a grief the Bible never prescribes [Practice]
- [Afraid to Say What You Think](/arguments/shunning-silences-doubt.md) — How the shunning threat silences honest questions [Authority]