The Watchtower, “Questions From Readers”
“In the past some comments have appeared in this magazine in connection with certain unusual sex practices, such as oral sex, within marriage and these were equated with gross sexual immorality. On this basis the conclusion was reached that those engaging in such sex practices were subject to disfellowshiping if unrepentant. The view was taken that it was within the authority of congregational elders to investigate and act in a judicial capacity regarding such practices in the conjugal relationship. A careful further weighing of this matter, however, convinces us that, in view of the absence of clear Scriptural instruction, these are matters for which the married couple themselves must bear the responsibility before God and that these marital intimacies do not come within the province of the congregational elders to attempt to control nor to take disfellowshiping action with such matters as the sole basis.”
The answer opens by saying that ‘the Bible does not give any specific rules or limitations as regards the manner in which husband and wife engage in sexual relations’, withdraws the rule and the judicial procedure built on it, and says elders should act as shepherds rather than ‘police’ a couple’s marital life.
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Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower, Questions From Readers
Confidence note. Document opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full. The passage begins before the page 31 marker and continues across it; the article runs pp. 30-32. The quotation is continuous, with no words omitted.
Corroborated by. src-chg-p-idx-beliefs-clarified-1930-1985
Notes. One of the plainest acknowledgments of error in the corpus: the magazine states what it had taught, that members were expelled on that basis, and that the basis was absent.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-p-w-1978-0215-qfr-marital-withdrawn