Excommunication

what it is and why it is used

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What Is Excommunication?

excommunication: to disfellowship a person; to bar someone from holy communion and the other services and privileges of the church community. The Biblical term for it is the Greek word anathema.

Excommunicated people can't hold church office, can't teach, can't lead prayers, and often can't even be in the church building. The idea has some roots in the Bible. In Matthew 18:15-18, Jesus sets out some steps to be taken when someone of the believing community acts like those who are not. The first step is to talk to the sinner in private. If there is no change, then it is discussed in front of two or three, then to the whole local gathering. If the person does not change, then they are to be treated as what they are : someone whose actions show themselves not to be a part of the group.

The apostle Paul made it clear to the Corinthian church that his call not to associate with immoral people was not about the outside world, but about those who supposedly believe but still live in their sin. He warns them not to even eat with such a person. This is drawn from the law of Moses. This may best be taken in the light of 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15, that the banned person is not to be treated as an enemy, but needs to understand the gravity of their disobedience. It's meant as a way of giving them a new chance by letting them know how high the stakes are, how far they have wandered. And it reminds everyone else of what's at stake, too.

You're probably saying, "sounds good, but...". That 'but' is big : 'but' excommunication has been done, as often as not, solely to bolster the authority of the leader who orders it. The duty to listen is replaced by the urge to keep power. Such excommunications have caused much injustice within the church. Even just the threat of it is enough for evil; for instance, the threat of it led to the betrayal of early Reformer Jan Hus.

Just about all churches (like nearly all religions and most groups of any kind whether religious or not) have some way of throwing people out of the group. And with it comes at least a foggy hint (if not the outright claim) that you have earned God's displeasure and might well roast eternally. If you're saying, 'my church doesn't', you're probably in for a shock. Even when there's no formal way to excommunicate, there are informal ways, and those can be harsh and unjust too. It's even used by those who were victims of it : In 1906, Pentecostalist founder William Seymour was locked out of a church he was to preach at; in 1914, he locked someone else out of his Azusa church over a doctrinal dispute that had gotten personal. I as a Lutheran have to cope with how Lutheran hierarchs have stomped on people over the years.

It's both a mystery and a paradox. Do you allow the death squad leader or the Mafia don to mock God by their unrepentant presence? Do you sit still as a college professor who speaks out against belief in Jesus as Christ comes forward for the bread and wine in a bald-faced lie? Do you stay silent as the church's ears get tickled and minds get swayed? Yet, do you allow the power of excommunication to be used to silence truth and stymie proper discernment from within your ranks? Neither choice is right, yet is any choice right? Perhaps one could let truth contend for itself, but our era has bred the best liars of all time, and they're so good at it that their trick theology and evil behavior often squeezes out the good. Perhaps all we can do is pray and leave it in God's hands, be as wise as we can be about what we do, and taste a bitter chunk of the grief God gets from dealing with such a twisted species.

Even then, anyone who cares about truth must feel queasy.

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