From: mjaybird7@aol.com (Mjaybird7) Newsgroups: alt.religion.christian.boston-church Subject: ICC Discipline Date: 1998/06/06 Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Message-ID: <1998060605533000.BAA09665@ladder03.news.aol.com>
If you were ever kicked out of the ICC or disfellowshipped, what was the reasoning behind it that you were given? How did you respond to them when this happed and how did they go about telling you or engaging in that diciplinary action against you?
I had a roomate who was disfellowshipped for a month (she never returned) because she went to see her brother in Colorado Springs and her discipler told her to call her when she got there and to be back in time for church on Sunday morning. Her discipler, when not hearing from her over that weekend called her at her brothers in Colorado Springs and only gotthe answering machine and left several messages for my roomate to call her discipler. She didn't return her call. Then, she didn't show up for church.
That was interpreted as her being "rebellious" by "disobeying" her discipler and not coming to church when being specifically told to be back by Sunday, and also, not calling her discipler. Her discipler felt she was purposely not calling her back of course and purposely intended to not "obey" and come back in time for church.
Things were then compounded when a former fall-away, who was a friend of hers, was trying to come back to the church and was attending church and functions and, because she was unwilling to do certain things requested fo her to retain her membership and come back to the church, this "fall-away" (as they refer former members as) was told she could not come back to the church, until she did what was requested of her.
Well, my roomate was told to not associate with this fall-away or to spend time with her. As soon as she came back from her trip to see her brother in Colorado Springs, she was caught spending time with this fall-away friend of hers, thus she was called over for a meeting with the women sector leader and told she was disfellowshipped for a month or until she "repented' of her "rebelliousness" and that members were not to speak with or associate with her.
I personally was never disfellowshipped but "walked-away" from the church. Shortly before I walked away, I was accused of being "divisive" for taking a "suicidal" member in the church for counseling and to the hospital (at her desperate request). It was considered divisive because the sector leader specifically told this member that he wanted documentation that she needed counseling, because he didn't believe she needed it, and didn't believe in counseling of that nature because as he put it, her problems were spiritual.
I was also told I was being divisive because I took this same gal to an "outside the church" Christian counselor to get that "documentation" (at her wanting, she didn't have a car) which was a letter from a director of a Christian counseling center, who was also a counselor, so she could bring it to the sector leader. In the letter the counselor outright said that she felt his request for permission and documentation for someone to get counseling was outright ridiculous and very controlling (ha, ha). They didn't like that very much, of course, and I was blamed for being an undue divisive influence, for taking her to get the letter from the counselor, and came with her to drop the letter off at the sector leaders house. (I was a member at this time)
Then what added on to the trouble I was in, her family group leader came to see her after she was admitted to the hospital for a suicide attempt and was caught on tape telling this gal to not take her anti-depression medicine and that her problems were not psychological but that she was in sin. The staff at the hospital did not allow the family group leader to return.
So this family group leader would wait outside in the waiting room, trying to get in to see this gal, and I showed up and they let me in without a problem. Somehow this family group leader got in through the door behind us, and when she was noticed she was stopped at a second set of doors before actually getting in to where she was at and was told she could not come in. They of course let me in without a problem.
This really ruffled the family group leader's feathers and she went crying to the sector leader. What made it worse was when I got in here, the doctor pulled me aside and said that he would be willing to release this gal if she would not go home but if she could stay with me for a couple days, because she was very distressed over her roomates (who were in the church) because they were not supportive of her and her desire to seek counseling. (This all happend in 1994.)
So she was released, and when we got out, the family group leader was outside waiting. When she told the family group leader she was going to stay with me for a few days, the family group leader was furious, and I got frantic messages on my answering machine from my discipler who said she was worried about my spiritual state of mind, and a call from the sector leader to call him.
-Mary Beth
MJaybird7@aol.com
Former member ICOC/ and LDS
Not depending on what I do, but what Christ did.
Galatians 2:21 "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be attained through the law, Christ died for nothing."
©1998 by Mary Beth <MJaybird7@aol.com>. All rights reserved.