Religious disfellowship and shunning.

Is it ethical for a church to demand or encourage shunning of ex-communicated or disfellowshipped members. Like say for instance, someone voices their opposition to a churches stance on a certain issue; the church ex-communicates this member for not falling in line. From there, do you they have a (ethical) right to say to its members, "do not associate with that person again?"

Do they have a right to? Religiously, I guess they do have that right. It's a stupid move and I don't condone it, but you can't force somebody to associate with somebody else.

Chris wrote:Is it ethical for a church to demand or encourage shunning of ex-communicated or disfellowshipped members. Like say for instance, someone voices their opposition to a churches stance on a certain issue; the church ex-communicates this member for not falling in line. From there, do you they have a (ethical) right to say to its members, "do not associate with that person again" ?

This is one of the huge problems I have with religion & one of the reasons I walked away from it for--ever. I know of an instance where a gay guy was BANNED from the church. Permanently. Because he's...gay. He got "disfellowshipped". And no it isn't right. Ethically, morally, biblically or any other stupid excuse they came up with. But they get to set their own rules I guess since so many of them interpret their rulebook the way they choose.

I think a church is within its full right to ban someone from participating, but I don't think they have a right to try and make people social outcasts beyond the church walls.