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From: karl@osu-dbs.UUCP (Karl Kleinpaste)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Church Discipline
Message-ID: <681@osu-dbs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Sep-84 17:08:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: osu-dbs.681
Posted: Fri Sep 21 17:08:06 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 21:48:51 EDT
References: <905@houxm.UUCP>, <991@akgua.UUCP>, <653@ihnp4.UUCP>
Organization: Society for the Advancement of Raw Weirdness
Lines: 48

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>From: cfiaime@ihnp4.UUCP (Jeff Williams)
>
>When speaking of church discipline, everyone so far has
>talked of "dress codes," and "undesirable people."  In
>the congregation where I am an elder (Missouri Synod Lutheran),
>you can see dress from coats and ties to blue jeans.  But,
>this is not concerning disipline, this concerns tolerence.
>...
>From [Matthew 17], we get both the excommunication process,
>and the "Office of the Keys and Confession."  The one problem
>in applying this procedure is that of determining the "unrepentent
>sinner."  The only criteria that you can use to judge unrepentence
>is that of "repeat offenders."  If I am really repentent, and am
>truely sorry for sinning, I will do my best not to sin like that
>in the future.  If I can be shown to attempt not to repeat the sin,
>but "back-slide," I am still repentent.
>
>Several months ago, "Leadership" magazine had an article concerning
>the excommunication of a church member because of adultry.  (Actually,
>two members of the congregation were involved, and both were treated
>according to Matthew 17.)  Church leaders are very reluctent to use
>this procedure simply because we can never be SURE of what is in a
>person's heart.
---------
Jeff makes a very good point here.  The question of a dress code is a
common problem which churches have, but it is not as important as this.

My fellowship has had to deal with this problem to a certain degree as
well.  It is an extremely difficult question.  The problem is of
paramount importance in the life of a church when a repeatedly-failing
Christian begins to affect negatively other Christians in the church.
One cannot simply stand aside and let the problem continue, dragging
everyone else down with the first person.  When someone does something
which is blatantly against church doctrine, doesn't consider
him/herself to have done anything wrong, and therefore effectively
encourages others to do the same, a church must not let that one
individual destroy the whole church.  Those who question whether or not
we should do this generally point out the tolerance which Christ
taught, but they usually forget that Christ also cleared the temple
with a whip on one occasion.

Without a doubt, such decisions are not made arbitrarily, but sometimes
they are not made at all, to the detriment of the church.
-- 
Karl Kleinpaste @ Bell Labs, Columbus   614/860-5107    {cbosgd,ihnp4}!cbrma!kk
                @ Ohio State University 614/891-5058        cbosgd!osu-dbs!karl
                                                     karl.Ohio-State@Rand-Relay