Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I live in Utah and it's very common for mormon families to outcast family members who leave "the church" or most recently that don't publicly "denounce" family members for what "the church" doesn't like. It got me thinking that this may not be so uncommon in other religions. I think the Amish has something similar. What else it out there that either is demanded by the religion or is more unsaid but still expected?
I had a JW stand in my living room and tell me he cast his adult daughter out for leaving the religion.
These are consequences reasonable people "who leave the fold" need to consider before they cut and run. You can't always have your cake and eat it, too.
No, I am not a Mormon, or a member of any other group that practices shunning. What I am tired of is people who were well aware of these consequences before they left one of these groups, but thought that the practice of shunning shouldn't apply to them.
I don't see how those can be considered reasonable consequences. When you are given a choice of either having your family and living a lie, or being honest with yourself and shunned by your family that is not a choice a person should have to make.
we had a nice young unmarried Hutteritt couple living next door to us. Hutteritt customs was at one time anyway that if you left the colony you were out of he family. Theit families which were from different colonies did come for visits, bringing food and staying for hours. To me that is being family and having love is a win win situation, shunning is a lose lose situation.
My mother in law became a JW and no one in the family shunned her for doing so.
Maybe people just don't think shunning practices should apply to anyone.
These are consequences reasonable people "who leave the fold" need to consider before they cut and run. You can't always have your cake and eat it, too.
No, I am not a Mormon, or a member of any other group that practices shunning. What I am tired of is people who were well aware of these consequences before they left one of these groups, but thought that the practice of shunning shouldn't apply to them.
I believe that you know nothing about the damage that shunning does to a person. Many are raised in these religions, and if they grow up and disagree with the teachings, they are shunned. The psychological damage can be as bad as this person committing suicide. Also, even if a person is aware of these teachings, they often join thinking that it cannot happen to them because they wouldn't do such a thing. Then circumstances change. Also, people in these religions are taught that those who are kicked out are evil, when in fact, they are not. For example, in the Jehovah's Witnesses you can do very little and get kicked out. If you are a woman and are raped, if you can't prove that you screamed, then out you go. If you go to college, out you go. One elderly man gave clothing to a charity, Salvation Army, and after all his years of service, he was kicked out. A pregnant woman fell off her horse, and the baby died. She was kicked out and called a murderer. The list is long.
I've read or heard of hundreds of cases of religious families shunning non-religious relatives.
Yours is the first I've heard of the opposite.
we see it all the time here on CD in just about every thread in the religion forum. people who express religious views are mocked, belittled and insulted.
so it is no surprise that it happens in families as well.
I live in Utah and it's very common for mormon families to outcast family members who leave "the church" or most recently that don't publicly "denounce" family members for what "the church" doesn't like.
I live in Utah, too and have found the exact opposite to be the case. Neither of my kids are LDS today, although they were both raised in the Church, and my husband and I certainly haven't denounced or shunned them. As a matter of fact, I hardly even know an LDS family who hasn't had at least one, and often several, of their kids become "inactive" or "non-practicing," but who still have great relationships with them. When it comes right down to it, I think I probably know more Mormon families who have kids who have left the Church than I do families all of whose kids are still practicing Mormons. I could sit in Church and count them off one by one, but I'd need way more than my ten fingers and ten toes. I know several who had gay sons, and my bishop has a 20-year old son who is transgendered. That son is still loved and accepted unconditionally by his family. If I were to get into my extended family, the numbers would grow exponentially. I'm trying to think of a single Mormon family I know personally who have shunned a child who left the Church, and I can't. So, did you grow up Mormon, left the Church and had this happen to you, or what? (Oh, and just out of curiosity, where in Utah do you live -- Utah county perhaps?)
No, I am not a Mormon, or a member of any other group that practices shunning.
Any Mormon family who practicing shunning is acting counter to specific directives given by LDS Church leadership, which stresses that the exact opposite should be the case. So, if you're going to "blame" someone, just go for the parents; don't blame the Church, since the Church is doing everything it can to keep this from happening.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
