Category Archives: Shunning

Religion and a relationship with God,

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Thursday,

How is everyone doing on this amazing Thursday evening? I can’t believe how long it’s been since I blogged on this this page. I’m so embarrassed that I’ve allowed so much time to get in the way of chatting with all you wonderful folks. I’ve missed this page and it is my goal to write again at least 3 days a week. I hope if you are a returning reader, that you will continue to read moving forward. If you are a new reader, I hope if you are new to Haveyouevolvedtoday, that you enjoy the writings here. Please feel free to comment and give me any feedback, I love hearing from you all.

On a side note, I’ve been writing tons on my lovelifewithdawna@wordpress.com page. I hope you can check it out sometime. I take a different spin on things over there. On this blog page my goal is to talk more about being spiritual versus religious. I’ve heard it said, it’s not about the religion, it’s about the relationship.

I strongly believe this statement. You see, I believe more and more each and every day that it is our relationship with God, the Universe, or whatever entity you believe in, rather than than the religion you belong to. Now before you get upset, let me say this. I believe religion is good. I believe having that community and having a belief system is important, however, I think at times we get so caught up in the customs of a religion we forget the importance of the relationship with our creator.

“Religion is the rules, regulations, ceremonies and rituals developed by man to create conformity and uniformity in the approach to God. Spirituality is God’s call in your soul.”-Iyanla Vanzant.

This isn’t to say that religion is all bad, it’s simply, or I’m simply trying to point out that sometimes we get so caught up in religion, we fail to remember the reason we are supposed to be a part of a religion and that reason is to have a relationship with our creator, God, the Universe or whatever deity you believe in.

“Religion is a candle in the darkness, spirituality is the sun that illuminates it all.”-Paulo Coelho. Religion most certainly can lead us to a relationship with God, especially with like minded people being in our circle to encourage us to keep on the path to knowing God, but being spiritual is where we really want to be.

I know for me, being raised in a cult/religion, I feared God and not in a healthy way. I feared God to the point I never felt good enough. What I failed to learn or what was failed to be taught to me was that God is love and that he’s forgiven me long before I ask him for forgiveness. Once I left the religion of Jehovah’s Witness, I found comfort in having a relationship with God. Knowing I could talk to him and truly pour out my heart in prayer to him, I began to forgive myself of my mistakes. I began to talk with God as often as I could or can. I talk with him on my walks, when I’m home alone, even when I’m driving. I’m excited to wake up each morning and thank him for the home he’s provided for me and for the people who have stayed in my life, despite leaving the religion.

I’ve been shunned and it still hurts, I won’t lie, however, when someone from my past religion chooses to walk the other way or not acknowledge me, I pray and I express to God that I’m thankful he’s shown me that shunning is not something loving, in fact, it’s something so harmful, then I ask God, if it be his will, to open the hearts of those that I miss and still care very much about in the religion.

My relationship with God is more than I ever expected. I am comforted by him and the relationship I have with him. He is truly my refuge when times are difficult and he continues to bless my home, my family and my love with the man he brought into my life.

While religion has many good points, it’s not ever meant to replace or dictate how we build our relationship with our creator. Religion is generally organized and involves rituals and practices focusing on a higher power or God.-nih.gov. Whereas spirituality involves a personal quest or meaning in life.-nih.gov.

If you belong to a religion, I hope it’s one that brings you closer to God or whatever deity you worship. It’s wonderful to have the community that religions offer, yet it’s equally, if not more important to focus on our relationship with the one we worship.

I hope wherever you are, whatever you believe in, I pray you have the comfort in your relationship with the one you worship. It sure does make life so much more amazing and I am beyond proud of being able to give God credit in front of others, whereas, in my past life, I feared it.

I feel I’m evolving every day into a more spiritual person, less religious and more open to receive God’s message in my life. I do love visiting church with the family from time to time, as I love the community of being in a congregation, however, my relationship with God does mean so much more.

My dear readers, I am beyond excited to be back here on haveyouevolvedtoday@wordpress.com and I look forward to writing more in the coming days. Until next time, have a blessed day/evening. Hugs…

Judging:

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Monday,

How is everyone doing today? How was your weekend? What an amazing weekend to reflect on how precious life is. Twenty-one years ago, the world was forever changed by the events of 9-11. I do hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and maybe you got the chance to tell that someone special in your life just how much you love them.

This weekend I was honored to be a part of the 9-11 events in my community. Yesterday morning I attended a more solemn event where speeches were given from our city fire chief, along with a member of the community who was a flight attendant for American Airlines and it just happened to be her day off yet sadly, some of her co-workers and friends were killed by the terrorist attack. She said this was the first time she was able to talk about the events of that day. At the end of her speech, she said to the audience, don’t ever take for granted telling someone you love them, don’t ever think you’ll get around to doing that something tomorrow, because tomorrow may never come. She gave a beautiful speech and one, I’ll never forget.

Yesterday was a day of reflecting for me. There are no words to express how I felt being able to talk to those who were affected personally by the 9-11 attacks and by those who have served or are serving in our military, to those who are on our front lines, like our firefighters, our police, medical personal, all those that are our everyday hero’s, who are serving on my behalf and the behalf of everyone in my community and communities around the world.

A friend of mine gave a speech last night asking God for a little extra oversight for those who serve our country, she said, “please watch over them a little bit more, and keep them safe because they are willing to give up their life, so I don’t have to.”

Yesterday really gave me perspective into life and how judging others takes so much away from life itself. I try not to judge, I know we all try not to be judgmental, however, I think sadly, it’s part of our human nature and I believe when we realize it our human imperfection, we work hard to rise above judging.

Martin and I plan to release a podcast soon on judging, so I hope you will all chime in for a listen on that subject matter.

I saw this quote this morning, and how funny it’s on the very topic Martin and I were talking about. The Universe truly does guide us towards the path we need to be on, if only we listen. The quote said this, “Don’t judge my choices when you don’t understand my reasons”-Ravenwolf.

When my sons were growing up, I had this mindset that I would never say my kid didn’t do something without first hearing the facts. I never wanted my sons to feel as though their mistake was so grand that they couldn’t come to me. You see, I felt if I put an expectation on them saying they weren’t capable of something, then if they slipped and did that something, it would be worse for them to recover from the consequences. Instead, what I told my sons was, “your gonna screw up from time to time, and that’s okay, just learn from those screw ups” or mistakes, I suppose sounds nicer. Anyway, I pray I instilled in them that no matter what they do, I’ll always love them. I might not be happy with a choice they make, but my love for them will never, ever change.

I grew up in a cult/religion that put so much emphasis on the choices we made. Actually, making my own choices was never allowed. I had to follow a very strict order of things that were set out by eight men in suites, the high Archy of the church. Sure, they claimed it was what the Bible taught, but they took things to a level of indoctrinating its followers, especially women, to believe we had to be perfect.

“I was always told who and what I should be, how I should act and the choices I should make.”- Ravenwolf. When I read this this morning, it hit me so hard. This was my entire life, but guess what, I’m done with that. I’m so grateful that I woke up, even though some of the unrealistic consequences placed on the churches members who knew me, who professed to be my friend no matter what, continue to hurt me. I sometimes miss the “community” of the church life I was once a part of. There’s this amazing YouTuber that I follow, Wendi Renay, and she is so inspirational to so many. She always says, if we listen to other’s stories, we will see a part of us in those stories. (Not sure if this is her exact words, but close). She shows, in my opinion, we all walk in each other’s shoes to a point, but unless we walk in each other’s exact shoes, we have no right to judge, and I’m sure she would absolutely say, we have no right to judge not matter what. I believe what she’s trying to convey to her audience is, we all have a story, so be compassionate and accepting of one another. Stop the judgment that so many of us were taught in the cult/religion in which we escaped. See yourself in what others do, or have done and by doing that, we can embrace each other and overlook flaws. Hear the stories of others and catch a glimpse of yourself in what others have gone through. You might just be surprised at how similar we all are.

Yes, I say I escaped from the cult/religion, especially being a woman, I feel that’s what we all did. Leaving a religion in which woman are controlled, many of us didn’t have more than a high school education and so many of us relied on our husbands or dads for support, leaving was actually escaping, knowing, most likely, we would be facing life alone if we didn’t have someone on the outside to help us. It’s a scary move to make, to leave everything you knew. But once we went down the “rabbit hole” of finding out we were lied to our entire life, it’s a mind “F” to continue in the cult/religion. Escaping or leaving, maybe is all we could do at that point. I know some don’t believe anymore, but they continue with the facade of being still in. They have to, because the alternative of being judged for not believing the same anymore is harder than staying.

I know this much; I’m so done living my life by what other people tell me should be my life. I’m not saying the opinions of my loved ones aren’t taken into consideration, but in order to be a healthy, thriving induvial, I believe it’s important for us all to be “critical thinkers.” The JW religion/cult was run by eight men in New York. They run the religion based upon what’s good for them. I’m not saying some of the rules weren’t beneficial, and I did learn public speaking, however, in my opinion, most of their rules are man-made based upon unfounded interpretations of the scriptures.

“I’m done living my life by the opinions of the people who don’t know me and frankly, don’t care and don’t matter. If they had their way, they’d have me just another copy in a world full of unoriginal pretenders. I can’t live that way, because I’ll never be happy trying to be whatever it is they think I should be. They didn’t walk my road, endure my struggles and nearly drown in the storms of my life. So, when they try to whisper in my ear their opinion of me and my life, I’m going to smile and walk away. I’d rather die in the flames of a passionate life than to slowly wither away in the life devoid of love and passion. Sure, they’ll judge me, they’ll mock me and probably shun me (which they did), but I really don’t care anymore. I’m not going to try to make anyone but myself happy, because that’s all I can really control. I’m going to chase my dreams, enjoy my life and soak in the beautiful moments that surround me every day. The rest of them will never understand that about me and they don’t have to. I’m not asking for permission or approval to live my life the way that I choose. Life is hard enough without trying to please people that don’t care in ways that don’t matter about things that are irrelevant. Forget what the world thinks I should be. This is my life, my journey and my choices. Whether I’m different, unique or one of a kind doesn’t really matter, because I’m not being who I am to make a statement. I’m choosing my path for the best reason of all. To be happy. And no one can ever take that away from me, now or ever, Ravenwolf.”

I’m so grateful for those in my life now that have helped me think for myself. My new family and friends have given me the permission I needed at the time to take leaps of faith and believe in myself. Cheering me on as I made strides to become my true authentic self. It’s pretty cool, and I couldn’t have learned to walk my path without the help and guidance of those who love me, unconditionally. Martin saw in me a talent for writing, and now, I have two blogs and a column in my local paper. I can’t wait to feel the keyboard on the tips of my fingers as I pour my heart and soul out every day, be it in my blogs, my column or simply in my journal.

I have a friend Leslie who knew me in my previous, indoctrinated life and who, despite it all, has stuck by me. She told me recently, I think it was on my birthday, that she has seen me grow as a person. She even told me she’s proud of me. She’s helped me through some pretty dark places, and I don’t think I can ever repay her. I can only continue to become the best me possible. I can listen to the Universe and to those that are put on my path, like Leslie, and follow the signs. The Universe, God, or whoever you refer to as our higher power, knows where we need to be, when we need to be there and he uses others, like Leslie, to help us see more clearly the signs we may be missing.

The one thing I’ve learned is, when I was in the cult/religion, I was actually being taught to judge others. They were so clever in the way they indoctrinated me and others with judging. It makes me sick and sad to think I used to believe it was okay to think someone who wasn’t a part of the religion would die at this Armageddon, brought on by God. What right do any of us have to sit and say because of the way someone believes, they aren’t worthy of God’s so called promises the religion says are in the Bible. To say their followers are sheep and those who don’t believe are goats, that’s judging and the God I’ve come to know since my escape, he’s a loving, forgiving and compassionate God and guess what, I feel so much closer to him now than I ever did being one of his witnesses, at least that’s what I used to be called.

I think I’m a better witness of his word now. I try to write about a loving God, rather than one of judgement. It is my goal through my blog and podcast to open the hearts of my readers to see that God is our friend, we can worship or serve him or whatever you want to call it, and we can see him as our friend, not something or someone to fear. My God is a loving God, not one who judges people and picks and chooses only a certain group.

One thing I’ve learned through my waking up process is, to judge is hurtful and to be judged, can destroy someone. Matthew 7:3 says this, “why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” There we have it, most, if not all of the time, when we pick on or judge someone else, we should stop and think, what plank do we need to fix in our own life.

My dear readers, if you take just one point away from today’s blog, let it be this. Don’t judge others, because like us, they made choices based upon what information they were given, and that information isn’t always the best or most reliable. Unless we walk in each other’s shoes, it’s not for us to become judges. We all have our own backyards to clean up. Just my opinion and thought. We never know truly the total story of why people do what they do. It’s hard not to judge, yet, how much healthier and happier we will be if we try and train ourselves to stop casting judgement on others, including ourselves. One small step at a time. It’s work to not form negative opinions regarding others at times, but whoever said life wasn’t filled with challenges and lessons to be learned. I think that’s part of our purpose in life, to learn to get along, so see life through someone else’s perspective from time to time. When you think about it, it’s pretty cool. We can learn so much from each other if we only open our hearts and minds to them, without judgment.

I’m going to wrap this up now, and I do hope you have a wonderful week and one that is filled with love. I hope we can all get along a little better, who knows, maybe we can be the puzzle piece to changing the world, one act of kindness and understanding at a time.

Please remember to open your hearts and minds and evolve today. Until next time, have the best day ever++

cool podcast to chime into, link below:

anchor.fm/hyet

I can change only me

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Wednesday,

How are you all doing my favorite readers? I do hope life is treating you well and that you are staying safe. Life is going good here for the most part, though, I feel like I’m off to a bit of a slow start with Have You Evolved Today blog and Podcast. It is my earnest desire to work harder to get both up and running on a more regular basis. Martin tells me we are almost ready for YouTube, so I’m excited about that. I feel like the Universe has opened this door for not only me, but for Martin too and I don’t want to be a slacker. This has been a dream of mine to have channels like this for so long and now that the door has been opened, I want to not only walk through, but run and jump right into doing what I feel I was meant to do. My mind and heart are open to listening to the Universe and following the path that is being laid out for me and Martin.

I wanted to tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Rae and I am starting this blog and will be writing at least 4 days per week, so subscribe or follow me for newly uploaded posts, it sure would help my site grow and more than anything, I love to receive comments and feedback. I read and reply to them all, so please, any comments would be greatly appreciated. I will also leave you the link to my Podcast and I hope if you can find a little extra time, you’ll check me out there too. This blog will be dealing a lot with evolving as a person, a little bit of religious content as well as other life obstacles that either I face or those of my readers face, followed by my thoughts and opinions.

I am fifty-three years old, and I woke up from living a life within a cult about six years ago. I feared God and what I was taught about the Bible. It is my wish that nobody ever fears God again. It is my most sincere belief that God is a loving father and only wants the best for all of us, believer or not. I believe in the Universe as guiding us, should we choose to listen or not, I firmly stand behind the mindset that God, the Universe or whatever being you believe in, we are all meant to live a life full of love, happiness and abundance. Through my blog, I hope to bring you a glimpse of happiness and something upbuilding for the day. With that being said, I’d like to share a little quote I came across. Oh, by the way, I love quotes, poems and sayings. I’ll read something and it just sits with me, and I can’t wait to share it with my reader, and here’s the quote, I hope you find this as thought provoking as I did.

“I alone cannot change society for the better. But I can radically transform my own Consciousness, overturning the conditioning that limits my potential. We can all do this, one by one. Over time we can change ourselves to the degree society changes from the inside out. Giving birth to a new way of being. Manifesting our birthright of living in a peaceful and abundant world. Have no fear. Trust yourself. Live your full potential.”-unknown.

My dear readers, how true the quote is. We cannot realistically change society as a whole, but what we can change is ourselves. If I choose to change me for the better and work on things about myself that may bother someone else, without changing my core values, then I’m helping change the negative views in our society. Like the quote says, ‘overtime, we can change ourselves to the degree society changes from the inside out.’

I believe people overall are good, yet some of us need a little work or encouragement. We are taught how to hate, and I believe this to be true because I’ve never heard of any newborn baby showing hatred, they only show trust in their caretaker and are comforted by those who cuddle them, hold them and nurture them. They feel our love towards them, and I hope to continue showing love towards all people, newborns and to our older generations.

I don’t know about you, but there’s been a time or two when someone tells me something negative about another person, a person I may not really know and out of my imperfection, I form a slight opinion. How much better would it be if I worked harder on blocking the negative and seeing the persons good qualities?

I live in a small community and of course there is drama from time to time. We have lots of clubs and some clubs may not particularly like another club, yet at the end of the day, I think it’s safe to say, we don’t have to like a certain club, but instead of not liking a certain group, why not see that each club or group brings something positive to the community?

I can’t change the world, nor anyone who resides here, other than myself. I’m willing to work extra hard on me and I’m more than willing to work on letting go of the negatives and doing what I can to focus only on the positive. I can change me, and I hope through my changes, just one person who might not care for me, sees my work and finds the good in me. I also hope that I can be an example, you know, practice what I preach.

I’m preaching peace, love and forgiveness and I want nothing more than for everyone to be happy and for you all to enjoy an abundance of calm in your life. The calmer we are, the calmer others are around us. I truly believe if we don’t give in to the negatives, the hate, the petty talk, it might just be the first step to changing the world.

Thoughts? Leave me a comment, I’d love to hear from you all. Can’t wait to get your input.

This is my blog for today. I hope it finds you, my dear readers well. You can check out my other blog site for more content along with my podcast at:

lovelifewithdawna.wordpress.com

Until next time, please don’t forget, to make this the best day possible, and open your hearts, listen and evolve today++

Shunning

Posted on by
Reply
https://anchor.fm/hyet

Hope all is well with you. I wanted to welcome you to my new blog, and I hope you find as much enjoyment reading it as I have in writing it. I can’t believe I’m finally here, in a place where I can write about my beliefs and my aspirations for life. I’m so super excited for this opportunity. I do have but one request of you and that is, please comment and give me your ideas and perspective on the things I’ve written about. I am open to learning and with your input, that helps me to grow. Now onto the blog, my first post on Have You Evolved Today.

Happy Tuesday,

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about shunning and how some religions practice this policy. You see, it was not too long ago where I was a part of a religion/cult that practices shunning or disfellowshipping, whatever you call it. It is truly the most demeaning and horrific experience a religion could do to someone.

A little glimpse of who I am, or maybe I should say, who I was. I was raised in a high controlling narcissistic religion (my opinion) and when I woke up to their teachings being false in my mind, I was shunned by many, including my mother. My mother hasn’t spoken to me in nearly six years because I no longer believe the way she does. She truly believes that shunning me is a loving provision, because this is what she is taught, and she is so engrossed in it and believes its teachings are absolute, simply because this is what the church tells her.

Mother uses 1 Corinthians 5:11 to back up her decision to shun me. According to the New World Translation, it says, “But now I am writing you to stop keeping company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man.”

Nothing about this scripture applies to me, however, because I left the church, I am shunned and since I don’t believe, and I refuse to teach or preach their doctrines most within the religion avoid me as though I were fungus under their toes. One scripture the church uses to justify such policies is 2 John 10,11 where it says, “if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him. For the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.”

My question to this religion would be, how can simply being civil to someone cause them to become a sharer in someone’s wicked works, should they have wicked works that is. Now I know that these people of the religion I left will preach to anyone; however, if you leave the church, you are shunned, sort of seems like a hypocritical stance on things, don’t you think?

According to their Bible, in John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” I believe in Jesus, I live a morally, clean lifestyle, I just don’t believe the way of this religion, so why am I shunned?

A quote from their literature dated May 2015 in a study article it says this, “All in the congregation show true love to the disfellowshipped person by supporting the discipline that God has given him through the elders. This means that they (family and those in the congregation), should not spend time with him (shunned/disfellowshipped one) or talk to him. Then they say, “We should never make them (the family of the disfellowshipped one) feel that they have also been excluded from the congregation.”

Mother has three adult children and two of the three of us are shunned, my sister has been publicly announced as being disfellowshipped and to date, I have not, at least not to my knowledge, however, since those in the religion know I don’t believe what they believe anymore, I am shunned just like my sister by many, if not most.

I say it doesn’t bother me, but that’s not being 100% totally honest with myself. I mean, I do push those feelings aside and I try not to dwell on them, however, there are times when I see someone or hear of a gathering where people I was close to are at and it hurts my heart knowing that I’m dead to them.

It’s strange to me now, how one day I was loved and accepted, then the next, I don’t even exist anymore. I’ve heard many podcasts and YouTubers talk about their experiences of having their entire family and friendship core ripped right away from them. Many have said that when you leave this religion you must be prepared to have your entire world turned upside down and so true those statements are. To personally experience the shunning practice and to know others who are shunned, this policy is horrific and not even close to being a loving provision, it’s more of a fear tactic to keep members of a cult/religion in line.

According to https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-shunning.html, it says this. “Although shunning is related to excommunication, the two practices are not synonymous. To be excommunicated is to lose one’s membership rights in a church; the excommunicated person may no longer vote in the church, teach a class, etc. Shunning goes beyond excommunication: to be shunned is to be denied personal interaction with members even in social, non-ecclesiastical settings. It is possible to be excommunicated without being shunned. While shunning may connote legalistic tendencies, and shunning can be misused in spiritual manipulation, there is a proper place for breaking an association. ” The article then goes onto say this regarding what is often a misused scripture, one taken out of context by certain cults/religions, it’s the scripture found at 1 Corinthians 5:11. The writer of the article makes sense of Paul’s admonition to “not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”

What does this mean, what is the opinion of gotquestions.org? Well, I love this interpretation, where it says, “in this context, Paul is dealing with a man involved in gross immorality” (verse 1) “the command is to excommunicate the man for his own spiritual good (verses 2 and 5), and for the church’s own purity (verse 6). The apostles counsel to ‘not even eat’ with the man is based on two things: the man claims to be a Christian, and he is consistently involved in public, unrepentant sin (verse 11). After excommunication of such a person, the church must be careful not to give the impression that everything is all right. As long as an unrepentant sinner claims to be a child of God, he can have no real fellowship with the body of Christ.”

So based upon this interpretation, it’s not telling parents, or relatives or even those within the church to not have contact with someone, especially a family member, what its saying is, keep the congregation clean by not having this person participate in certain things. Nowhere does it say if your child doesn’t believe the way you do anymore, SHUN them.

I remember years back, a good friend of mine went through a divorce with her “elder” husband. She was disfellowshipped and her youngest daughter was also disfellowshipped because she had premarital sex and got pregnant. This young 18-year-old girl couldn’t live with her mom because mom was left with nothing and was barely able to live on her own, and her dad wouldn’t allow her to live with him because she was unclean, she was disfellowshipped. This young girl knew no other life, so she fought to get reinstated so she could have her family and friends back. She would attend church meetings, but nobody would speak to her, not even her dad. Here this young girl was trying to get back to the “faith”, but she was doing it alone, even though she was attending the same congregation as her dad.

It was one night service and this girl’s baby was super fussy, the baby had colic, and anyone who knows anything about newborns, they need their homes in the evening time. They need their bed, and they need to be soothed, especially when they suffer from colic. Well, the baby was crying, didn’t want her bottle, her pacifier or anything else, she just needed to be soothed and cuddled. The girl took the baby to the nursing lounge, and she was nearly in tears. I knew this young mother since she was five years old, so I went up to her, which was against church policy and asked if I could take the baby and hold her. She gave her to me and said,” you could get in big trouble for this.” I told her I didn’t care and told her to go out to the main hall area and relax and just listen to the services.

I sat with this newborn baby in the nursing mothers lounge, cuddled her up tight in her blanket and soothed her belly.

After the church service, the young mother came and took the baby from me and left the church. People weren’t allowed to speak to her, so what other option did she have but to leave, so that’s what she did, and she was right, I was approached by a couple of elders, and they asked to speak to me and my husband at the time in the “back room.” My husband was quite upset with me and as I sat there hearing how this 18-year-old was a “gross sinner,” my mind wondered to how unloving these men were. When they were done with their lecture and tossing what they called supportive scriptures at me, they asked, “are you sorry for speaking to so-in-so? “Nope, I am not I,” replied. I then said, “if nobody helps her, do you expect her to continue coming? She’s 18, she made a mistake, she’s paying a high price for this mistake and if you want her to continue coming to meetings, then she needs help.”

Their teeth nearly hit the floor all while asking me to wait outside so they could deliberate. As I walked out the door, my husband said to me, “great, now you’ll probably be disfellowshipped for your attitude and for helping her.” I told him I quite frankly didn’t care. We were called back into the “back room”, and I was disciplined by being told I couldn’t participate in commenting anymore, nor could I do anything spiritual within the congregation, since I wasn’t willing to not help this young mother. Basically, I was privately reproved for my abhorrent actions to not honor the shunning policy. They did say I could continue to help her, but I wasn’t allowed to speak to her. “Whatever!”

The young mother, after about a year was reinstated in the congregation and shortly after that I was told I could participate again. My privileges were given back to me, but I never used them again. I’ll share more about that in future blog.

The shunning policy that some religions/cults adhere to is cruel and, in most cases, an excessive amount of punishment. The church I left or escaped from, would instill the shunning/disfellowshipping policy for a minimum of a year. Can you imagine going to church and not having anyone speak to you for a year or more? Can you imagine having your family indoctrinated in a cult/religion where they don’t speak to you or speak to you so minimally that you feel isolated from everyone and everything. You see, the religion/cult I left also had the rule if you were disfellowshipped and you were trying to come back to their teachings/faith, then you couldn’t even associate with anyone outside the religion. Imagine, your family wont’ speaks to you, and you can’t have friends with anyone outside the faith, how cruel that punishment of being shunned is.

Well guys, that’s about all I have for today. If you want more content, check out my podcast at: https://anchor.fm/hyet