{"id":7867,"date":"2011-09-29T15:37:27","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T19:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=7867"},"modified":"2011-09-29T15:57:15","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T19:57:15","slug":"the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased","title":{"rendered":"The Watchtower: Those who leave Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses are &#8220;mentally diseased&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ex-Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses are &#8220;mentally diseased&#8221; and should be avoided just like anybody else with an infectious disease,\u00a0according to an article in The <em>Watchtower,<\/em>\u00a0the official magazine ditributed door-to-door by the church&#8217;s members.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xYMQmwo-trQ\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The article has prompted outcries from a number of lapsed Witnesses as well as several ministries who counsel former members and teach against the group&#8217;s doctrines.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Taylor at the British newspaper the <em>Independent<\/em> writes<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>An article published in<em>The Watchtower<\/em> warns followers to stay clear of \u201cfalse teachers\u201d who are condemned as being \u201cmentally diseased\u201d apostates who should be avoided at all costs. \u201cSuppose that a doctor told you to avoid contact with someone who is infected with a contagious, deadly disease,\u201d the article reads. \u201cYou would know what the doctor means, and you would strictly heed his warning. Well, apostates are \u2018mentally diseased,\u2019 and they seek to infect others with their disloyal teachings.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Detectives are investigating whether the article is in breach of Britain\u2019s religious hatred laws, reports the daily <em>Telegraph<\/em>. A group of former Witnesses, based in Portsmouth, have made an official complaint to Hampshire Police, who\u00a0have launched an investigation.\u00a0Former members\u00a0are also considering whether to complain to\u00a0Britain&#8217;s Charity Commission. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Britain, which prints church doctrine in Britain, is a registered charity, noted the <em>Telegraph:<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The church is known for handing down harsh punishments to followers who criticize doctrines or raise questions about the faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Angus Robertson, a former Witness from Hampshire who was present at the meeting with police, told the <em>Independent: &#8220;<\/em>The way scripture is being used to bully people must be challenged. If a religion was preaching that blacks or gays were mentally diseased there would understandable outrage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As a faith with a centralised leadership, many forms of discipline are used to counter criticism of doctrine, with punishments ranging from restriction of official duties to excommunication. Those who have been thrown out of the church often find themselves ostracised by fellow believers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ex-Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses are &#8220;mentally diseased&#8221; and should be avoided just like anybody else with an infectious disease,\u00a0according to an article in The Watchtower,\u00a0the official magazine ditributed door-to-door by the church&#8217;s members. The article has prompted outcries from a number of lapsed Witnesses as well as several ministries who counsel former members and teach against the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[1660,2272],"class_list":["post-7867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-news","tag-christian-news","tag-jehovahs-witnesses"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Watchtower: Those who leave Jehovah&#039;s Witnesses are &quot;mentally diseased&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Watchtower: Those who leave Jehovah&#039;s Witnesses are &quot;mentally diseased&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ex-Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses are &#8220;mentally diseased&#8221; and should be avoided just like anybody else with an infectious disease,\u00a0according to an article in The Watchtower,\u00a0the official magazine ditributed door-to-door by the church&#8217;s members. The article has prompted outcries from a number of lapsed Witnesses as well as several ministries who counsel former members and teach against the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-29T19:37:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-29T19:57:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Watchtower: Those who leave Jehovah's Witnesses are \"mentally diseased\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Watchtower: Those who leave Jehovah's Witnesses are \"mentally diseased\"","og_description":"Ex-Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses are &#8220;mentally diseased&#8221; and should be avoided just like anybody else with an infectious disease,\u00a0according to an article in The Watchtower,\u00a0the official magazine ditributed door-to-door by the church&#8217;s members. The article has prompted outcries from a number of lapsed Witnesses as well as several ministries who counsel former members and teach against the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-09-29T19:37:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-09-29T19:57:15+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased","name":"The Watchtower: Those who leave Jehovah's Witnesses are \"mentally diseased\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-29T19:37:27+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-29T19:57:15+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/09\/the-watchtower-those-who-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-are-mentally-diseased#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Watchtower: Those who leave Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses are &#8220;mentally diseased&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7867"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7878,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7867\/revisions\/7878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}