The following thought occurred during my participation on another thread, but since it is only tangentially related to that thread, I am giving it its own home here.
If a member of the Church has concluded within his own mind that the doctrinal claims of the Church are fraudulent, excommunication is not such a severe penalty. Why would a rational individual want to continue association with an entity that continuously perpetrates a fraud? The only reason I could see would be that, as a matter of strategy, he thinks he can do more destruction to the organization from within than without. In which case, the religious organization, for the sake of self-preservation, is within its rights to boot him out.
If a member of the Church has concluded within his own mind that the doctrinal claims of the Church are fraudulent, excommunication is not such a severe penalty. Why would a rational individual want to continue association with an entity that continuously perpetrates a fraud? The only reason I could see would be that, as a matter of strategy, he thinks he can do more destruction to the organization from within than without. In which case, the religious organization, for the sake of self-preservation, is within its rights to boot him out.
