Shunning and Excommunication

In some churches, leaving has a price. Members who stop believing, marry outside, come out or break the rules are removed, and the rest are told to keep their distance. Sometimes that includes their own parents. It's usually explained as love: if the one who left feels the loss, maybe they'll come back.

You're not imagining it. Many people who leave a church, or come out, or simply stop believing lose their friends, their community and sometimes their families overnight, and are told it's for their own good. That's a real harm, done in Jesus' name, and it's worth seeing how far it is from the chapter it claims.

Measured against the center