Jehovah's Witnesses

Total shunning of disfellowshipped members. Parents instructed to cut off children. Spouses encouraged to separate. Former members are labeled "apostates" and treated as spiritually dead. Families have gone 10, 20, 40 years — or a lifetime — without contact. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the practice. Children born into the organization who later leave lose every relationship they have ever known.

The Watchtower's own publications instruct members that shunning is an act of love. Families who maintain contact with disfellowshipped relatives risk being disciplined themselves.

Members who leave or are excommunicated are shunned by family and community. In tight-knit polygamist communities, leaving means losing housing, employment, family, and every social connection simultaneously. Children raised in these communities have no outside relationships to fall back on. The isolation is total and deliberate.

Mainstream LDS (Mormon) practice is distinct and less extreme, though some degree of social pressure and family tension around leaving remains common.

The practice of "Disconnection" requires members to sever all contact with anyone declared a "Suppressive Person" — including parents, children, and spouses. Former members who speak publicly about the organization face coordinated harassment campaigns. Families have been separated for decades. The organization has been documented using private investigators, legal threats, and public smear campaigns against critics.

Disconnection is enforced organizationally. Members who refuse to disconnect from a declared family member risk being declared Suppressive Persons themselves.

Members who leave or are expelled are shunned completely — including by immediate family living in the same household. Spouses have been required to separate from non-member partners. Children have been cut off from parents. The group controls members' access to media, internet, and outside relationships. Leaving means losing everything and everyone.

Government inquiries in Australia and the UK have examined the group's practices. Former members describe the shunning as psychologically catastrophic, particularly for those who leave as adults after a lifetime inside.

In some ultra-Orthodox communities, members who leave Orthodox practice — particularly those who become secular or convert — face varying degrees of social ostracism, family pressure, and in some cases formal shunning. The severity varies significantly by community. Some families sit shiva (a mourning ritual) for a child who leaves, treating them as dead. Employment within the community, housing, and marriage prospects are all affected.

This is not universal across Orthodox Judaism and varies widely by community and family. Many Orthodox families maintain relationships with members who leave, even under significant religious tension.

In traditional Islamic jurisprudence, apostasy (leaving Islam) is treated as a serious offense. In countries governed by sharia law — including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and others — apostasy can carry the death penalty. In Western Muslim communities, the consequences range from family rejection and social ostracism to harassment and, in documented cases, honor violence. Parents have cut off children permanently. Young women who leave Islam have faced forced marriage, house arrest, and in some cases murder by family members to restore "family honor."

Honor killings of ex-Muslims — particularly women — have been documented in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, the United States, and across the Middle East and South Asia. Organizations such as the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain document these cases and provide support to those fleeing religious family violence. This is not a fringe phenomenon — it is a documented pattern with a body count.

Certain high-control evangelical and Pentecostal communities practice informal shunning of members who leave, question leadership, or are excommunicated. Former members describe being ignored by lifelong friends, excluded from community events, and treated as spiritually dangerous. The severity is generally less extreme than the groups above but the social and psychological damage — particularly for those who grew up in these communities — can be significant.

This is not characteristic of mainstream evangelical or Pentecostal Christianity, which generally does not practice formal shunning.