PebbleInAPond

It's interesting how the Church's official position is the murder and adultery (next to denying the Holy Ghost) are the two most serious sins a person can commit. In reality, murder harms a persons body, while domestic violence harms a person's soul. I have seen atrocities committed that are way worse than murder or adultery/fornication. I disagree with the point that more people should be disfellowshipped/excommunicated to help them repent. The vast majority of those who enter the Church's disfellowshipped/excommunication process never, ever emerge as healthy members again. As a business person you can't continue using a process with such a high failure rate. Too often the disciplinary process looks to correct behavior and not treat the root of the problem. This is the reason that so many who do come back from DF/ExComm end up back in the process again....only to ultimately fail again. The DF/ExComm process is slow, lonely, provide very little if any real guidance, has poor communication, and more often than not, provides very little hope. More people need to be left in fellowship and in active association and participation with the general body of the church. Remove them from a calling? Sure! Limit temple attendance? Yes for a while! But process that drag on for years is not right. The current process actually forces more people to fear the repentance process and keeps them from clearing things up and serving in positions of leadership and trust when they shouldn't and live a life overshadowed by guilt. By some estimations, roughly 80% of male LDS members have problems with pornography. Out of fear of the repentance process most will never come forward to get help. These tendencies and habits will destroy a marriage and a family (again an act way worse than murder). Bishops and SP and HC's need better training, the process needs to be better structured and more consistently applied, and members need to be less scared of the process and less judgemental of those who are in them.

There is no rule in or out of the church that's says you can't bear testimony in a church meeting regardless of whether you are a member, disfellowshipped, or excommunicated. Nether the bishop, stake president nor the prophet can restrain an individual from testifying of Jesus Christ. We all have agency and every knee shall bow and every tongue can and will confess the Christ. To prohibit someone would take away their agency.....only an anti-Christ would attempt to stop a person from bearing testimony.

There really is no set process or timeline for the disciplinary process and many thing can impact how long it takes and what needs to take place. In addition to the attitude and actions of the member who is undergoing the process, there are other things that play a role. Each individual Bishop impacts the process. The culture of a ward, the stake and the area also impact the process. What may be completed in 5 months in a BYU ward may take a year in a family ward in California. Remember also that inspiration comes from many places. A bishops own experiences, education, knowledge and wisdom, in addition to what he hears and sees around him is where he will draw judgement in addition to the inspiration of the holy spirit. Also, when a member is disfellowshipped or excommunicated there are actually two process at work that, while intertwined, are really independent of one another. The first is the repentance process. This process is taking place between the person and their Heavenly Father, with the help of our savior and the spirit. A bishop, stake president or the prophet himself can not set a timeline on this or tell you whether your repentance is complete. This process could be over in weeks or months or in the case of Paul, just a couple days. The second part is the disciplin or punishment part which can and will take longer. While the Lord promissss us that when we repent fully that HE remembers no more, man isn't quick to forget or forgive so the disciplinary process will likely go on for a longer period of time, even once the person has fully repented. A couple of the comments above are a bit short sighted and even possibly reference a catch 22 type of mentality where they suggest that if a person is anxious or inquiring as to when the process will be over then they aren't ready. It is my observation that too many disciplinary process linger on longer than they should and the lack of structure an communication on the part of priesthood leadership help cause this. I have heard leaders use terms like "you're so close" or "you're almost there" like repentance is a destination instead of a process we all must undergo.