Such fascinating differences. Thank you for adding your experience.
I learn new information every day.

You must have been in a more ‘liberal’ congregation than the ones I am familiar with here in the Deep South. Like being an SP I am proudly ‘shunned’ by a good half of my family. If I walk into a store and see one of them they will walk the other way. The only communication I have had with them in 20+ years was about the care of our grandparents and it was in a large group. I have known many disfellowshipped people here who have been surgically removed from their friends and loved ones lives just like they didn’t exist and for some it was too much and they went back. Granted, like you say, it isn’t that hard to get back into the congregation as it is in Scientology. Yet to me it seems like the same ‘psychology’ (bad psychology that is) governs them both. Judicial committees, shunning (disconnection), siphoning of money, thought control…etc etc…now that JW.org is it’s own TV channel things have gotten even more rigid. But I would say that different congregations, depending upon the strictness of elders and overseers, can differ wildly. Which is something that used to be seen in the old days of Scientology (not since DM took over).

You are welcome. I don’t think it needs to be edited out, as those are the closest similar ideas that exist even if Scientology’s version is on steroids.

I know for a fact my experience growing up a JW differs quite a bit from what others have described. I got out in the 80s so four decades for them to have changed. (The JW policy of keeping child abuse a secret apparently went out to elders a couple years after I was gone, for example.)

Thank you for the disfellowshipping education. You and Splunk are very helpful. I’ll edit that out for the next version.
Your personal story is most appreciated.

I can’t speak for Catholic excommunication, but Jehovah’s Witness disfellowshipping is way less nasty than what Scientology does.

My mother was disfellowshipped about halfway through my childhood. Regular revisions in their Awake magazine would change whether we spent a lot of time with her or minimal time, but never was it as antagonistic, nor as group-enforced, as what Scientology does.

I was disfellowshipped when I was 19. My father never shut the communication lines; I’m the one who refused to have much to do with him which predated the disfellowshipping. He did financially bail me out with a loan I repaid at one point. He did include me in a family portrait the wicked stepmother set up.

I have used “I’m disfellowshipped” to quickly send JWs away when they come up to me, but they aren’t horrified or hateful. Most are just accepting and continue on to the next person, and a very few ask if I’d like to speak with an elder. Which is another thing. Unlike the Scn idiocy of a single terminal who makes themselves as unavailable as possible, disfellowshipped JWs have only to talk to any elder in any congregation expressing their remorse for their actions to begin the process of getting involved again.

My bad. My early religious education consisted of revival tents with grandma and cold, slightly moldy smelling Gothic cathedrals that scared the crap out of me.
Oh yeah and religious generalizations that people told me that I believed.

Lorna told the Registrar that I’d paid down a bunch of debt. So the Registrar knew I could borrow more. Maybe the Registrars share a list of prospects between them. Maybe that’s why more than one of them tried to talk to me.

I can’t blame you. But what was wrong with that auditor? I don’t unnerstand her at all. Not at all.