Two point. Whether you believed or not the bishop still did have power of your status as a member. He certainly did have the power to terminate that status.
I already was a total non-believer and did not care in the least if my name was on the roles of the church. I think the whole Court of Love thing is completely ridiculous; an archaic form of shunning, totally about power and control. I felt no need whatsoever to meet with any LDS leader, Catholic leader, Imam, or Christian pastor to explain my personal spiritual journey. :-)
Dr. Shades, my family are all believers so I still go to sacrament meeting with them, not for any religious reasons but to be supportive. They all know I am not a believer in any sense of the word.
So what did I do?
It was quite uncomfortable and awkward for sure. If my family were not there I would have refused to go up and walked out of the church but I didn't want to embarrass my loved ones so. The Bishop was purposely trying to exert his power and authority (gag) which I found as sick as it was desperate.
As I walked up to the pulpit I tried to think of a scripture that reflected the difference I felt between the church and what I consider true holiness. One of my favorite scriptures popped into my mind; I still love it today and hold it in my heart as a teaching worth embracing: Corinthians 13: 1-13, on love. I had it memorized so relayed the teaching of Paul, then briefly shared my belief that all the church "stuff" didn't matter at all but what is important is love for one another. No testimony, no praise of the church, no "I know," the church is true, nothing like that.
The Bishop at the time was an extraordinarily boastful, arrogant, man constantly trying to wow the ward with his revelations, I actually had a few TBMs in the ward tell me that the Bishop needed to hear that scripture. :-) So maybe the bishop was inspired after all? LOL!
~dancer~
Corinthians 13:
Love
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 ¶ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.