liz3564 wrote:Thanks for responding, Ray. It sounds like you were a good bishop. Your Ward was lucky to have you.
Liz, I made mistakes as a bishop. Every bishop makes mistakes, as they learn. I recall one time when I, at the constant urging of my counselors, excommunicated a brother and sister. He was a new member, and held the Aaronic PH, so he came under my jurisdiction. They were living together, and one of my counselors discovered this as he was her home-teacher. I wanted to leave them alone, because how many inactive members live "in sin", yet we never pursued them. It seemed to me like only the active ones, "living in sin", were pursued.
Ain't that strange? What's the message here? If you want to live sin - don't come to church! It's almost laughable.
So a bishop's "court of love" was convened. They were given an ultimatum - stop living together, or face excommunication. They refused to stop living together, and were excommunicated.
He never returned to the Church. Years later, long after I was released, I saw her at a sacrament meeting, standing in the foyer. I felt too ashamed to approach her and shake her hand, so I avoided her. She left after about 20 minutes, never to return.
Of course, in retrospect, as an exmo, I thought maybe that wasn't such a bad thing (she's probably very happy now). But if I was a concerned member, I'd be worried about the devastating effect that court had upon them. We virtually drove them away, when, if we had just let it be, maybe she would have returned to full activity. And no one knows how much the daunting task of rebaptism might have made her feel.
A whole family was lost, and from my perspective now it really doesn't matter, because as I said, she may be very happy. But from the Church point of view - decisions like this can have catastrophic long-term effects, for generations.
