Experiencing Religious Shunning: Insights into the Journey From Being a Member to Leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses Community.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]