Weird PUNISHMENTS in the Jehovah's Witnesses

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]So, I was talking with a girlfriend a few weeks ago. She was never a witness.

[00:00:03]And somehow it came up in the conversation that whenever you get dysfellowshipped or kicked out of the Jehovah's Witnesses, they read you off from the stage. Like so and so is no longer a Jehovah's Witness. They read you off in front of the whole congregation. She was like, "Really?

[00:00:14]Really? They read you off from the stage? Like it's this big public thing?"

[00:00:17]And it dawned on me. I'm like, "Why would she know that?" Unless she grew up in it. And I was like, "Oh yeah, it's a whole public humiliation ritual." And she was just like, "God, that's weird."

[00:00:25]So anyways, that's what this video is about. I'm going to break down their system of rewards and punishments, all the ways that you can get in trouble and punished in the Jehovah's Witnesses.

[00:00:35]All right, so first up, you have something called a shephering call. If you're a current or former Jehovah's Witness watching this, you might be like, "Why did this make the list?" A shephering call is when two leaders from the congregation known as elders show up to your house. They make a house call under the guise of trying to encourage you. Like maybe you're not showing up to meetings like you used to. Maybe you're not putting in enough hours doornocking and it's suspicious. and it seems innocuous enough. Oh, they're just dropping by to give you give you a little boost. But those of us who know know we know what a shephering call really is. It's a check-in.

[00:01:06]Encouragement in the Jehovah's Witnesses. I've talked about this in numerous videos. Encouragement in the Jehovah's Witnesses is not really about encouraging the other person. It's not about the other person. What do you need? What's going to build you up? What do you What do you feel like how can I support you in this moment? What do you need to feel supported? No, no, no. It's a house call to make sure that you're not up to no good. All right. No live-in boyfriend or girlfriend. Check. No subversive reading materials on the coffee table. Just a stack of bills.

[00:01:32]Copy that. Overworked and under sex, just like we like them. All right. Seems fine, boys. How's about we say a little prayer and we'll be on our way. So, no, it's not technically a punishment, but we all know when two men in suits come to sit in your living room, it's not a good day.

[00:01:49]All right. Next, we have a little something called private reproof. This is a slap on the wrist. All right.

[00:01:54]Someone finds out you've been vaping at school and rats you out to the elders.

[00:01:57]You get pulled into the back room at the Kingdom Hall. You get a lecture and you lose what they call privileges. What are some privileges in the Jehovah's Witnesses? Like I was saying, every cult or high control group has its own system of rewards and punishments. And in the Jehovah's Witnesses, it all starts here with private reproof. Whatever you did, whatever little screw- up or thing you did, it's not made public. It's not common knowledge. You're not getting officially kicked out, but you can't work the audiovisisual department. You can't handle microphones in the group discussion. You can't work in the literature department organizing stacks of magazines that are going to be passed out to an apathetic public. Now, if you're a woman, you don't get any of these privileges anyway, like your male peers. But like, maybe you're not allowed to comment, you know, meaning you can't raise your hand in the group discussions and give your two cents. Or maybe you're removed from something they call the pioneer list. That's Jehovah's Witness cult. A woman in the congregation who puts in lots of hours do knocking or standing at the carts.

[00:02:51]she doesn't get that special title anymore of pioneer. And I mean that might sound silly like when that's your whole world. There's a lot of status that's attached to these different assignments and different titles. And it can be embarrassing to lose it. There's a lot of shame that's attached to losing those titles. So basically, if you get this quote private reproof, whatever you did wasn't so bad to warrant you being officially kicked out, but they still got to find a way to knock you down a peg. And it's also used as a way to signal to the congregation that something's up. like, hm, so and so, you know, Susie or whatever, she always comments. Why is she not commenting? Oh, did she get reproved? Oh, why is Kyle not working the literature counter anymore? All right, it's petty. It's shitty. And it's designed to stir up people's curiosity and get people talking. That's why I say it all starts with private reproof. It's a systematic way to break your spirit. And it all starts here.

[00:03:45]All right. Now, you got public reproof.

[00:03:47]This means you're publicly shamed in front of the congregation, but you're not officially kicked out. They'll never announce what you did. It'll just be, "Well, so and so has been publicly reproved." And we just think the congregation should know. They don't announce what you did from the platform anymore cuz they used to do that back in the day, like back in the 70s, and they got sued a lot. But some would argue this is worse than getting dysfellowshipped. Because think about it, now everyone is gossiping about you playing the guessing game. You just want to get the hell out of there. Yeah, I went hunting once. Shot the deer in the leg. Had to kill it with a shovel. Took about an hour. Why do you ask? Like, >> I mean, really, can you imagine? We're all just one big happy spiritual family, but we're so going to talk trash about you at the dinner table tonight. You are so going to be the topic of conversation while we're driving around in our minivan waiting to go doornocking because we're miserable and bored and have nothing else going on in our lives other than to speculate and gossip. So, usually what this means in concrete terms is that like a brother can't say prayers, you know, in behalf of the congregation. So, you find out pretty quickly. You're like, "Oh, okay. He has a porn problem." Cuz like that's usually the number one issue, especially if it's like two 20-year-olds that get reproved, you know, at the same time. Just want everybody to know that Emma Smith and Lucas Jones have been publicly reproved.

[00:05:03]It's like, "All right, we know what you were doing in the back of his Honda Civic. Got it." Or like someone threw a party and everybody gets drunk. All the kids get drunk. It's a big thing. And there's a lot of shame between the families and animosity. Now that kid and his family are a pariah. Yeah. Again, it's just really petty. And they do the whole public display thing to, you know, humiliate you into good behavior.

[00:05:26]All right. This is Jehovah Jail. For the longest time, if you were kicked out of the Jehovah's Witnesses against your will, this practice was called dysfellowshipping. They didn't officially call it excommunication. And Jehovah's Witnesses don't even use the word shunning or shunned. you were dysfellowshipped, but now they're calling it removed. It's just a game of semantics. They're shuffling the papers around the desk. We all know it as dysfellowshipping. Same different name. So, what happens is if they perceive you to have committed some spiritual crime, if they perceive you to be unrepentant, and I say that because you can be, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry," and crying and beg and plead, doesn't matter. Like, you could be genuinely sorry for what you did. Maybe you did f up. You know, you're really sorry. You had a moment of weakness. It happens.

[00:06:09]We're human. You could be genuinely sorry for what you did. Doesn't matter.

[00:06:14]If three men in suits who are not getting laid, who have no power at the office, if they deem you a bad influence and want to use what little scrap of power they have in the world, they will dysfellowship you, kick you out, and announce you from the platform, so and so is no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses. They're officially dysfellowshipped and shunned. And so what does this mean in case you don't know? Like my my girlfriend had no clue.

[00:06:41]You are dead. Like no one looks at you.

[00:06:44]Literally, people do not make eye contact. You're instructed not to speak to anyone. It's insane. People walk past you like you're a ghost. It's erasing people and pretending like you're not even there is completely normalized from a young age. Like little kids just learn, oh, I don't speak to that person.

[00:07:02]Or you know, people walk past you. will literally if they see you like at Target or walking across the street, they will literally cross the street to avoid talking to you. And if you want to come back, meaning you want to be reinstated into the congregation so you can talk to your family. By the way, I don't know if I mentioned that you're not even allowed to have a relationship or a connection with your family. If you want to come back again, you want to be reinstated.

[00:07:24]Be treated with basic human decency. You can't just come back. No, no, no, no.

[00:07:29]The public humiliation ritual continues.

[00:07:31]You are required to show up to all the meetings, look like you feel bad about what you did, have visible remorse.

[00:07:38]Basically, they want to see you squirm.

[00:07:40]And then about after 6 months of this, you have to apply for reinstatement like you're applying for a loan. You have to write out a formal letter. It's formal paperwork. I'm so sorry, blah blah blah.

[00:07:49]You have another private backroom meeting scheduled, right? And then the same old dusty bastards who have cobwebs growing on their reproductive organs deny your application and you got to do the whole dog and pony show for another 6 months. Now plot twist. In the past few years they've only recently started to put two and two together that they've probably shot themselves in the foot with the whole dysfellowshipping thing being quick to dysfellowship people because they're bleeding. The Jehovah's Witnesses have a horrible retention rate. According to a study done by the Pew Research Center in 2016 shows that over twothirds leave. It's finally dawning on them that a lot of those people that they kicked out don't want to come back. More and more people are waking up. They're finding YouTube.

[00:08:32]They're finding out, oh I'm in a cult. Or if it's not that per se, it's like, Jesus, my family is toxic now that I've had some distance away from them and the congregation. I see it for what it is. Fine. Shun me you weirdos. I want nothing to do with you guys. Hits them.

[00:08:46]you know, whether they're whether they're awake to the doctrinal issues or standpoint. From that standpoint, they just see the whole thing as super toxic and they're like, "F that. I'm free."

[00:08:55]So, yeah, the whole dysfellowshipping removal thing is meant to be a public humiliation ritual, but they're finding out more and more that it's backfiring.

[00:09:02]Can't exactly fill all those pews now, can you? You're busy kicking people out because you're power- hungry and petty, and now all the boomers are dying off, and you're getting desperate for young blood to take the lead in the congregation. Oops. Absolutely hilarious. It's like a tasty chicken wing.

[00:09:19]All right, this one's the worst. If you are assigned the label apostate, they want you dead. I mean, like, they're not like Scientology.

[00:09:27]Scientology will like hunt you down and kill you. But yeah, seriously, in the Jehovah's Witnesses, if you're an apostate, you're the enemy. Cuz it's one thing to be disappointed like, okay, you got dysfellowshipped. You, you know, fell short of Jehovah's standards. We had to kick you out to teach you a lesson. They're they're disappointed, but there's hope for you. If you get the label apostate, it's because you've expressed explicit disapproval of the organization. That's a no no. So like instead of getting kicked out against your will, maybe you revoke your membership through something called disassociating. It's a formal letter revoking your membership or formal letter of resignation. You guys know you can be as respectful as possible. You may just have legitimate concerns that you want to be able to have like a normal calm, you know, respectful conversation with the elders and say, "Hey, you know, I don't hate Jehovah's Witnesses. I don't wish any harm. I just, you know, this is not adding up. I have concerns about dot dot dash. You can be as respectful as possible. It doesn't matter. You just want to be heard, but unless you fall in line, cuz they may listen to you, but at the end of that conversation, unless you fall in line, doesn't matter. If you don't bend the knee, you are the enemy. And anyone found to be consorting or associating with you, their head is now going to be on the chopping block. It's this whole ecosystem of control so that people don't have the freedom to think for themselves. It's this control of information, controlling the flow of information, which is a hallmark of a cult. That's the whole purpose again of shunning. Cut off the lines of communication, control the flow of information, and control the narrative about that person so that they can't speak up and warn others. But I mean, that's why I have this channel. I'm not going to be driving up into a Kingdom Hall causing problems, but if someone finds me on YouTube, that's their prerogative. And don't just listen to me. Take in other sources. Do your own research. Use your critical thinking skills if you're questioning Jehovah's Witness. I'm going to say something kind of crazy here. The apostate's going to say something kind of crazy. You have the right to remain a Jehovah's Witness so long as it's your choice and you're making an informed decision. Don't let anybody hijack your conscience. So, yeah, there you go. A breakdown of how punishments work in the Jehovah's Witnesses. Thank you so much for watching. If you'd like more information about the Jehovah's Witnesses from a former member of 30 years, go ahead and hit that like and subscribe button and I will see you in the next video.

[00:11:35]Yeah, heat.