1. They leave because they broke a rule and are put out.

New Hampshire. JW Elders interrogate a Jehovah’s Witness cancer patient. He is dis-fellowshipped on his death-bed, because he accepted a transfusion!

Massachusetts. A 70-year-old Jehovah’s Witness sends a birthday card to his non-witness son. His wife reports it! He is put on trial. Dis-fellowshipped. Jehovah’s Witness relatives cannot come to his house. None can say hello to him.

“Eric McMullan is no longer one of Jehovah’s.” Seems like a pretty straight-forward sentence, right? Though I wasn’t in attendance that night, I am sure that is the exact statement that was read to my friends on a Thursday evening in November of 2008. Those nine words, though, are far from simple. They are a death sentence of sorts. Everyone in that auditorium knew immediately what those words meant: Eric has been cast off, expelled, excommunicated, dis-fellowshipped. I was dead.