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This research explores qualitatively the experiences of individuals shunned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses community. Four key themes emerge from the 21 semistructured videoconferencing interviews which form the research data analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2019). These themes, namely Reasons for Being Shunned, the Judicial Committee, and Consequences of Religious Shunning and Reinstatement, shed light on the events and behaviour which led to the public announcement of the participants’ formal shunning and on the controlling environment the religious community has created by endorsing a culture based on fear, guilt, and shame. Although research conducted to explore the experiences of religious shunning is not abundant, the findings of the current study are in line with previous research, highlighting that the individual’s journey from being a member to leaving the community is a multifaceted experience, influenced by several factors, which has a detrimental impact on their well-being.

Typical socially responsible investors tilt their portfolios toward stocks of companies with high scores on social responsibility characteristics and shun stocks of companies associated with tobacco, alcohol, gambling, firearms, and military or nuclear operations. Analyzing 1992-2007 returns of stocks rated on social responsibility, this study found that this tilt gave such investors an advantage over conventional investors. The study also found that shunning resulted in a disadvantage for such investors relative to conventional investors. The advantage from tilting toward stocks of companies with high social responsibility scores is largely offset by the disadvantage from the exclusion of stocks of shunned companies. Socially responsible investors can thus do both well and good by adopting the best-in-class method in constructing their portfolios: tilting toward stocks of companies with high scores on social responsibility characteristics but refraining from shunning stocks of any company.

Grounded in the religious trauma theory, this study investigated the lived experiences of former Jehovah’s Witnesses who have experienced shunning because of them exiting the Jehovah’s Witnesses community. Nineteen former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses community were selected as participants, using the snowball sampling technique. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, five themes emerged from the study, namely becoming a Jehovah’s Witness, positive experiences as a Jehovah’s Witness, reasons for being shunned, judicial process in the community, and the impact of shunning on the shunned. The study confirms other studies conducted in this domain emphasizing the devastating effect of shunning on the shunned. Policy-wise, the study recommended that the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs take an interest in shunning as a religious practice in order to formulate policy guidelines that will set the threshold for guaranteeing freedom of religion while protecting the rights of individuals.

Shunning and ostracism have severe impacts on individuals’ psychological and social well-being. Members of Jehovah’s Witnesses are subject to shunning when they do not comply with the stated doctrine or belief system. To investigate the effects of shunning, interviews with 10 former Jehovah’s Witnesses, ranging in age from 20 to 44 years old, were conducted; six male, six White, one Native American, one Black, and two Latinx. Transcripts were analyzed with interpretative phenomenological analysis for narrative themes pertaining to their life after exclusion from their former faith using the context of Jehovah’s Witnesses culture. Results suggest shunning has a long-term, detrimental effect on mental health, job possibilities, and life satisfaction. Problems are amplified in female former members due to heavy themes of sexism and patriarchal narratives pervasive in Jehovah’s Witnesses culture. Feelings of loneliness, loss of control, and worthlessness are also common after leaving. The culture of informing on other members inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses also leads to a continued sense of distrust and suspicion long after leaving.

This paper argues that the practice of “spiritual shunning,” defined as deliberate isolation of one person from a religious group for alleged spiritual reasons, may have been a significant factor in a murder case which happened in Sweden in 2004 in a small religious group with a Pentecostal background. The material consists of interviews with four former members, who describe the process of spiritual shunning as it existed in the group before it started to fall apart in the autumn of 2016. The four interviewees describe the process of spiritual shunning in roughly five stages: how they began to fall out of grace; when the door to Jesus definitely closed; the process of working their way back; being back in grace; and finally having the mission to help others move back to grace again. The informants describe very clearly the desperation they felt when they faced the possibility that they would not belong to the chosen ones when Jesus would soon come back, but would instead be burning in hell. Many sources document that the perpetrator of the crime in 2004 was spiritually shunned by the core group at the time of the murder. The murder was presented to her by the pastor who was later convicted for instigating the crime, as a way to pay off her spiritual debts.

Across North America, Mennonites are widely regarded to be among the most conservative of Christian groups. But in recent decades, Mennonite understandings of LGBTQ+ identity have transformed faith communities, as the engagement of social media-conscious activists such as Pink Menno have contributed to evolving practices regarding sexual minorities in Mennonite churches. Recent ordinations and the growing visibility of queer ministers, chaplains, and theologians have led to recent schism in Mennonite Church USA, with traditionalists departing the denomination in record numbers. The decentralized nature of Mennonitism has contributed to more inclusive policies in the past two decades, although decentralization also allows exclusionary practices to persist in some churches and institutions. This article draws from oral history interviews with thirty Mennonite theologically trained LGBTQ+ leaders from across the United States and Canada. These narratives demonstrate how—in some sectors of the Mennonite community—queer and non-queer people are accelerating changes in historically homophobic spaces.

Jehovah's Witnesses are a Fundamentalist Christian religious group well known for their door-to-door proselytism. As a result of their belief in spreading the word of god and converting others, Jehovah's Witness populations are growing across the globe. A primary element of Jehovah's Witness doctrine and other Fundamentalist groups is a mandate to not develop associations with people outside of the religion. As a result of this isolationism, many Fundamentalists who experience psychological distress may hesitate to obtain help from the mental health community. Their belief system and cultural values, including the practice of \"disfellowshipping\" or shunning members, influence the types of problems Jehovah's Witnesses and other Fundamentalists present with in therapy, obstacles to treatment, and issues that may arise within the therapeutic relationship.

Malaria was one of the most important factors for the maintenance of the native chieftainship system and its attendant tribal identities in Yunnan's southwestern borderlands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Qing dynasty (1644-1911) was forced to rely on chieftainship administrative space and its tribal inhabitants as unreliable bulwarks against incursions by \"wild\" tribals and Myanmar primarily because Han Chinese vulnerability to malaria precluded a more stable and direct Qing official presence. The article examines the Qing construction of both chieftainship and wild tribals, as well as the ethnic administrative spaces intended to keep these two identities separate, as products of the interaction between disease and human agency. It concludes that the Qing frontier order in southwest Yunnan was a compromise with both malarial nature and tribal culture.