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Shunning and family · Claim record

The 2016 'Remain Loyal to Jehovah!' regional convention included a video officially titled 'Loyally Uphold Jehovah's Judgments—Shun Unrepentant Wrongdoers', featuring a disfellowshipped daughter, 'Sonja', and her parents' 'loyalty'; the September 2017 meeting workbook asked congregations to watch it and discuss 'How did their loyalty to Jehovah benefit Sonja?'

Claim ID claim-shunning-2016-sonja-videoConcerns 20 May 2016Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 20 May 2016 Verified

The 2016 'Remain Loyal to Jehovah!' regional convention included a video officially titled 'Loyally Uphold Jehovah's Judgments—Shun Unrepentant Wrongdoers', featuring a disfellowshipped daughter, 'Sonja', and her parents' 'loyalty'; the September 2017 meeting workbook asked congregations to watch it and discuss 'How did their loyalty to Jehovah benefit Sonja?' Life and Ministry Meeting Workbook, September 2017jw.org Newsroom, 4 May 2016JW Survey / JW Watch (ex-member blog), 2016

Show the evidence (3 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

Life and Ministry Meeting Workbook, “Be Loyal When a Relative Is Disfellowshipped”

September 2017 · p.8 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“Watch the video Loyally Uphold Jehovah’s Judgments—Shun Unrepentant Wrongdoers, and then answer the following questions: What situation tested the loyalty of Sonja’s parents? What helped them to remain loyal? How did their loyalty to Jehovah benefit Sonja?”

Primary-source confirmation of the official title of the 2016 convention video and of the character 'Sonja'. The video itself is not published on jw.org.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Raw WOL HTML fetched; wording, publication (mwb17 September p. 8) confirmed.

Corroborated by. src-jwsurvey-2016-worst-convention-part5

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-mwb-2017-0900-be-loyal-relative-disfellowshipped

Primary JW publication Verified

jw.org Newsroom, “Jehovah’s Witnesses Focus on Loyalty for 2016 Convention Series”

4 May 2016 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“35 video segments specifically for the program plus two short films”

Official announcement of the 'Remain Loyal to Jehovah!' regional conventions beginning 20 May 2016; the programme in which the 'Sonja' video was shown.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Page opened; date and wording confirmed.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-jworg-2016-0504-conventions-2016

Discovery source only Unverified

JW Survey / JW Watch (ex-member blog), “The Worst Convention Ever – Part 5: Friday”

2016 · jwsurvey.org

“After the video is shown where Sonja is disfellowshipped and her mother won’t even pick up the phone when she calls”

Ex-member description of the 2016 'Remain Loyal to Jehovah!' convention video featuring 'Sonja'. Used only to locate the video, whose official title and character name are confirmed by the September 2017 meeting workbook.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Discovery source only; the video is not published on jw.org and the scene content could not be verified from a primary source.

Corroborated by. src-mwb-2017-0900-be-loyal-relative-disfellowshipped

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-jwsurvey-2016-worst-convention-part5

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-shunning-2016-sonja-video/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.