To see the actual questions and answers from the WTBTS for the media click here Public Affairs Office of Jehovah's Witnesses *

* (Archive.org has the original web page archived since the WTBTS has now removed the page)
Click here for the various versions of the web page changes over the years:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.jw-media.org/beliefs/beliefsfaq.htm

The WTBTS current web page http://www.jw-media.org/aboutjw/beliefs.htm

Do you shun former members?

Those who simply cease to be involved in the faith are not shunned. In compliance with the Scriptures, however, members can be expelled for serious unchristian conduct, such as stealing, drunkenness, or adultery, if they do not repent and cease such actions. Disfellowshipping does not sever family ties. Disfellowshipped members may continue to attend religious services, and if they wish, they may receive pastoral visits. They are always welcome to return to the faith.—1 Corinthians 5:11-13.

These statements are absolutely not accurate, they are worded in a way to completely deceive the reader. The question was "Do you shun former members?" The answer should have been "Yes." When you are disfellowshipped or disassociated, family ties are severed for life till you decide to go through the steps to return to this religion. Please read from the following Watchtower's own literature to see how they instruct their followers to treat former members and disfellowshipped ones.

Watchtower 9/15/1981 pages 23, 24  Disfellowshipping-How to View It
16 Persons who make themselves “not of our sort” by deliberately rejecting the faith and beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses should appropriately be viewed and treated as are those who have been disfellowshiped for wrongdoing.
COOPERATING WITH THE CONGREGATION
17 Though Christians enjoy spiritual fellowship when they discuss or study the Bible with their brothers or interested persons, they would not want to have such fellowship with an expelled sinner (or one who has renounced the faith and beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, disassociating himself). The expelled person has been ‘rejected,’ being “self-condemned” because of “sinning,” and those in the congregation both accept God’s judgment and uphold it. disfellowshipping, however, implies more than ceasing to have spiritual fellowship.—Titus 3:10, 11.
18 Paul wrote: “Quit mixing in company . . . , not even eating with such a man.” (1 Cor. 5:11) A meal is a time of relaxation and socializing. Hence, the Bible here rules out social fellowship, too, such as joining an expelled person in a picnic or party, ball game, trip to the beach or theater, or sitting down to a meal with him.

Watchtower 6/1/1970 pages 351, 352 Questions from Readers
Again, the disfellowshipping does not dissolve the flesh-and-blood ties, but, in this situation, contact, if it were necessary at all, would be much more rare than between persons living in the same home. Yet, there might be some absolutely necessary family matters requiring communication, such as legalities over a will or property. But the disfellowshiped relative should be made to appreciate that his status has changed, that he is no longer welcome in the home nor is he a preferred companion.

Watchtower 7/1/1963 page 413 What disfellowshipping Means
Therefore the members of the congregation will not associate with the disfellowshiped one, either in the Kingdom Hall or elsewhere. They will not converse with such one or show him recognition in any way. If the disfellowshiped person attempts to talk to others in the congregation, they should walk away from him. In this way he will feel the full import of his sin.

Watchtower 4/15/1988 page 26 Discipline That Can Yield Peaceable Fruit
3 ‘But,’ someone may ask, ‘is it not harsh to expel and then refuse to talk with the expelled person?’ Such a view surfaced in a recent court case involving a woman who was raised by parents who were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Her parents had been disfellowshiped. She was not, but she voluntarily disassociated herself by writing a letter withdrawing from the congregation. Accordingly, the congregation was simply informed that she was no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She moved away, but years later she returned and found that local Witnesses would not converse with her. So she took the matter to court. What was the outcome, and how might this affect you? In order to understand the matter properly, let us see what the Bible says about the related subject of disfellowshipping.

Watchtower 4/151988 page 28 Discipline That Can Yield Peaceable Fruit
14 The situation is different if the disfellowshipped or disassociated one is a relative living outside the immediate family circle and home. It might be possible to have almost no contact at all with the relative. Even if there were some family matters requiring contact, this certainly would be kept to a minimum, in line with the divine principle: “Quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person [or guilty of another gross sin], . . . not even eating with such a man.”—1 Corinthians 5:11.

An apostate according to the WTBTS is one who no longer believes in the Jehovah's Witness religion, one who rejects their teachings and decides for conscience reasons they can no longer be a part of this religion. There are a few scriptures that allude to the term "apostate". The context of both First and Second John seems to indicate they would be "antichrists." What is an "antichrist"? The "Insight" book points out that it embraces all those who deny that "Jesus is the Christ," and who deny that Jesus is the Son of God who came "in the flesh". Many who have left Jehovah's Witnesses still believe that the Bible is God's Word and that Jesus is the Christ. But applying the term "antichrist" or "apostate to these ones who have left is not scripturally valid.

Watchtower 4/1/1983 page 24  Reject Apostasy, Cling to the Truth!
Attitude Toward Apostates
17 Christians are to be hospitable, but not toward apostates from the true faith. (1 Peter 4:9) John made this clear in saying: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, never receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him. For he that says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.” (2 John 10, 11) The “deceivers” were traveling about and actively spreading false teaching. Of course, it would have been wrong for any dedicated Christian to extend the hand of fellowship to them by allowing these false teachers into his home. It would also have been improper to give the apostates any kind of greeting, whether it was welcome on their arrival or “God speed” at their departure. (Authorized Version) No loyal Christian would wish a deliberate promoter of false doctrine success in his work. Certainly, then, no faithful witness of Jehovah would socialize with such an individual.—1 Corinthians 5:11-13.
18 Moreover, if a dedicated servant of Jehovah were to entertain such a deceptive teacher in his home, he would become “an accomplice” in the “wicked deeds” of that person. (The New English Bible) Therefore, no loyal modern-day witness of Jehovah would greet a disfellowshipped or disassociated apostate or allow that one to use his Christian home as a place from which to spread doctrinal error. Surely, there would be grave accountability before God if a believer extended hospitality to an apostate and this resulted in the spiritual death of a fellow worshiper of Jehovah.—Compare Romans 16:17, 18; 2 Timothy 3:6, 7.

Watchtower 7/15/1985 page 31 Questions From Readers
Aid to Bible Understanding shows that the word “apostasy” comes from a Greek word that literally means “‘a standing away from’ but has the sense of ‘desertion, abandonment or rebellion.’” The Aid book adds: “Among the varied causes of apostasy set forth in apostolic warnings were: lack of faith (Heb. 3:12), lack of endurance in the face of persecution (Heb. 10:32-39), abandonment of right moral standards (2 Pet. 2:15-22), the heeding of the ‘counterfeit words’ of false teachers and ‘misleading inspired utterances’ ( . . . 1 Tim. 4:1-3) . . . Such ones willfully abandoning the Christian congregation thereby become part of the ‘antichrist.’ (1 John 2:18, 19)” A person who had willfully and formally disassociated himself from the congregation would have matched that description. By deliberately repudiating God’s congregation and by renouncing the Christian way, he would have made himself an apostate. A loyal Christian would not have wanted to fellowship with an apostate. Even if they had been friends, when someone repudiated the congregation, apostatizing, he rejected the basis for closeness to the brothers. John made it clear that he himself would not have in his home someone who ‘did not have God’ and who was “not of our sort.” Scripturally, a person who repudiated God’s congregation became more reprehensible than those in the world. Why? Well, Paul showed that Christians in the Roman world daily contacted fornicators, extortioners, and idolaters. Yet he said that Christians must “quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother” who resumed ungodly ways. (1 Corinthians 5:9-11) Similarly, Peter stated that one who had “escaped from the defilements of the world” but then reverted to his former life was like a sow returning to the mire. (2 Peter 2:20-22) Hence, John was providing harmonious counsel in directing that Christians were not to ‘receive into their homes’ one who willfully ‘went out from among them.’—2 John 10. ....
The seriousness of this counsel is evident from John’s words: “He that says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.” No true Christian would have wanted God to view him as sharing in wicked works by associating with an expelled wrongdoer or with one who rejected His congregation.

Do these above quotes sound like the WTBTS doesn't shun or sever family ties?
For additional information see You Can't Associate With...

Lets examine the second question and answer:

Do you believe that you are the only ones who will be saved?

No. Many millions who have lived in centuries past and who were not Jehovah's Witnesses will come back in a resurrection and have an opportunity for life. Many now living may yet take a stand for truth and righteousness before God's time of judgment, and they will gain salvation. Moreover, Jesus said that we should not be judging one another. Humans look at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart. He sees accurately and judges mercifully. God has committed judgment into Jesus' hands, not ours.—Matthew 7:1-5; John 5:22, 27.

The Society very cleverly and deceptively answered this question. They said no, then proceeded to say that people from the past will be resurrected. They then went on to say many now living may yet take a stand for truth and righteousness to gain salvation. So if carefully read, you will see you have to take a stand for truth to be saved. Who's truth? Their Truth! So the answer is yes, they believe they are the only ones that will be saved with the exception of the people who died in the past. Anyone (the media) not familiar with the way the Society presents answers and facts would not catch the deception presented in this statement. They would assume the Society teaches, others from different religions would be saved.

Watchtower 2/15/1983 page 12  You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth-But How? ***
A third requirement is that we be associated with God’s channel, his organization. God has always used an organization. For example, only those in the ark in Noah’s day survived the Flood, and only those associated with the Christian congregation in the first century had God’s favor. (Acts 4:12) Similarly, Jehovah is using only one organization today to accomplish his will. To receive everlasting life in the earthly Paradise we must identify that organization and serve God as part of it.

Watchtower 11/15/1981 pages 16, 17  'Stay Awake and Keep Your Senses'
3Any person who wants to survive into God’s righteous new order urgently needs to come into a right relationship with Jehovah and His earthly organization now.

Watchtower 82 12/15/1982 page 27 Clothing Ourselves With Love and Wearing It
In this way only lovers of God and of his family, his organization, will survive and enter into the cleansed earth that is to be transformed into a glorious Paradise.

Watchtower 92 9/15/1992 pages 23, 24 Jehovah's Use of "Foolishness" to Save Those Believing
16 Soon, at Armageddon, Jehovah God will cause all “the wisdom of the wise men” to perish. He will shove aside all “the intelligence of the intellectual men” who made predictions of how their new world order would bring better conditions for mankind. “The war of the great day of God the Almighty” will incinerate all the sophistry, philosophy, and wisdom of this world. (1 Corinthians 1:19; Revelation 16:14-16) The only ones who will survive that war and gain life in God’s new world are those who obey what this world calls foolishness—yes, Jehovah’s glorious Kingdom good news. 17 Jehovah’s Witnesses, led by his spirit, are not ashamed to preach what the world calls foolishness.

Watchtower 1/15/1976 page 47 The Coming Deliverance from the Anti-Religious "Ax"
ONE thing hard for many people today to understand is that there can be and there is only one true religion. Why do they rebel against such fact? It is because this would mean that all the other religions are false, and this would include their own religion. Hence, they will need to have the true fact demonstrated to them forcibly. This will be done in the near future, for then, in the midst of the world’s greatest tribulation, all false religions will be wiped out and only the one true religion will survive. It will be delivered from the most tremendous anti-religious movement in all human history.

Watchtower 3/1/1954 page 139 The Meaning of Baptism Today
Only by keeping integrity to God and by associating with God’s people, the New World society, may we hope to survive the destruction of this wicked world in the coming battle of Armageddon and enter into the new world of righteousness even as Noah and his family entered a new world after the flood.—Matt. 24:37-39; 2 Pet. 3:7, 13; Rev. 16:14, 16.

Watchtower 7/1/1994 page 6, 7 A Divided Church-Can It Survive?
What is the prognosis for sick Christendom? Very poor. Should we, then, take Catholic bishop Butler’s advice, to “join [the church] without more ado and to lend our aid to her continual ‘purification’ from within her ranks”? No! Divided and divisive Christendom will not survive. (Mark 3:24, 25) She is part of a world empire of false religion called Babylon the Great. (Revelation 18:2, 3) This bloodguilty religious system faces imminent destruction at God’s hand.

Watchtower 6/1/1959 page 336 "Look! I Am Making All Things New"
You must study to find the true religion. It is no longer safe to regard religion as a kind of furniture, something that has always been in the house but is necessary in your life only as it performs some social function. Nor can you afford to think that all religions are good and that all have the same goal. Many religions are selfish, and modern religion has failed to teach the hope of God’s new world, with its paradise earth. You must learn the Bible religion! Just as a proper secular education is necessary to fit a person for a place in everyday society, so a proper Bible education is necessary to equip one for entering the society that will survive to live in the paradise earth. (John 17:3; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17) Your safety and the whole future of yourself and your family depend on now studying the Bible, associating with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses,...

Watchtower 1/15/1976 page 52, 55 The Coming Deliverance from the Anti-Religious "Ax"
24 In a way far different from how He uses the modern-day Assyrian “ax,” Jehovah has used as his instrument the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Jehovah has used it as his agency in laying bare Scripturally the falsity of the religion of Babylon the Great, including Christendom. Jehovah has used this Society in warning all peoples (especially professed Christian people) to get out of that world empire of false religion before He executes judgment upon it. The publications of the Watch Tower Society have gone out to the whole world in the hundreds of millions of copies, in now more than 160 languages. Never in all its operations for now more than ninety years has this instrument in Jehovah’s hand tried to imitate the ancient “Assyrian” and “enhance itself over” the One using it, namely, the unreachably High One, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. (Isa. 10:15) At the outbreak of the “great tribulation” the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania and its Branches around the earth will refuse to join the United Nations “wild beast” in its violent anti-religious actions against Babylon the Great. ....
26 Since we Christian witnesses of Jehovah are pictured by the inhabitants of Jerusalem under King Hezekiah, let us recall the insolent words of the Assyrian delegation back there before the walls of Jerusalem in 732 B.C.E.: “Who are there among all the gods of the lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, so that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?” (2 Ki. 18:35) When that ancient prophetic drama is fulfilled in the latter half of the impending “great tribulation,” are words similar to those going to be heard by the faithful remnant of spiritual Israelites and the “great crowd” of their loyal earthly companions? Rather than capitulate at that critical time to the modern-day Sennacherib, Satan the Devil, and his presumptuous earthly agents, we, as upholders of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty, will call to mind his words of encouragement to Jerusalem on Mount Zion: ......
32 So, then, one of these days in the near future, we faithful witnesses of Jehovah will see the anti-religious “ax” being wielded in the almighty hand of our God against Babylon the Great. Terrible will it be in its execution of destruction upon that world empire of false religion! Do we need to be anxious at that time when the world’s political element turns anti-religious and expresses hatred for the great international “harlot” with which it used to have immoral relations? No! The world already hates us, but Jehovah God and Jesus Christ do not. And when Jehovah starts swinging the anti-religious “ax,” it will not be against us his loyal witnesses. Great will be our privilege of beholding Babylon the Great chopped down and burned with fiery destruction! We know now that, after that destruction, the anti-religious “ax” will try to enhance itself over its User, Jehovah. This will pose a fear-inspiring threat to our existence. But we need not then succumb to fear of the men who hate our God. May Jehovah then be our fear!

The WTBTS says all other religions are false and are from the Devil

Watchtower 12/1/1991 page 13  Breaking Free From False Religion
Such Babylonish doctrines as the immortality of the soul, a burning hell, and the Trinity were incorporated into the teachings of apostate Christianity. The Catholic, the Orthodox, and later the Protestant churches all adopted these false dogmas and, therefore, became a part of Babylon the Great, the Devil’s world empire of false religion.

The WTBTS only believe they will be saved and all other religions will be destroyed at Armageddon.

Does this look like an Organization that has been honest in their answers to these simple questions? What are they afraid of? If they have the "truth" why the outright deception? How would Jehovah react to this deception?