Just because my Mom & Dad let some charlatan sprinkle tap water over my head does not make me a lifelong member of some insane cult:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4243727.stm
2007-01-09 00:41:07 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Excommunication is a religious censure which is used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word literally means out of communion, or no longer in communion. In some churches, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the subject member or group. Censures and sanctions sometimes follow excommunication such as banishment, shunning or shaming depending on the group's religion, its religious community or, its broader religious community.
Excommunication has been used in various religions, notably Christianity, as a punishment for grave offenses such as heresy. In Roman Catholicism an excommunicated person is barred from receiving the sacraments and from burial in consecrated ground. The offender may be absolved by a priest (in some cases, only by a bishop or the pope) and received back into the church after confessing his or her sin and doing penance for it. In Protestant denominations other terms, such as “church discipline,” may be attached to essentially the same censure. Although now seldom used, the practice of herem in Judaism was a form of excommunication that excluded people from the community for prescribed times or forbade them from hearing the Torah. The term is also applied to the expulsion of Buddhist monks from the sangha.
However, if you disagree with Catholicism, you can always be a convert in another religion. You don't have to be excommunicated, simply quit or relinquish your "membership" in that Church.
2007-01-09 00:59:31 · answer #1 · answered by BEL76 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think the priest says " I excommunicate you" , spins in a circle 3 times then spits on your shoes.
or i could have that wrong.
Why not just walk away. Who cares whether they "ban" you or not. As you say, just because some guy in a silly costume splashed tap water on you when you were an infant doesn't committ you to anything...you have to actually believe the nonsense too. It's not like this is military service and they can arrest you for desertion.
I left my parents evangelical church many many years ago, and for a while after, the church would occasionally send me a letter showing their "prayer list"...and my name was on it. I eventually threatened legal action if they didn't take my name off the list and stopped harassing me. (It was a bluff, I couldn't afford a lawyer or anything back then, but at least I stopped getting the prayer letters)
2007-01-09 00:49:59 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Why do you think you have to be excommunicated from the church? Why not just leave? Or write a letter to the priest saying you are no longer a member.
2007-01-09 00:49:07 · answer #3 · answered by TexasRose 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's called apostasy and means rejection of the faith. To get formally excommunicated nowadays you would have to beat up the bishop or the break into a convent of nuns with papal enclosure.
Remember though that you will always be baptised even if you end up in hell.
2007-01-09 01:00:23 · answer #4 · answered by carl 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Just ignore them, it's much easier.
You are not a member of the cult if you dont participate.
2007-01-09 00:46:40 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Just start asking pertinent questions of the Priests. They'll soon want to shut you up, and get rid of you.
2007-01-09 00:47:32 · answer #6 · answered by Lukusmcain// 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You are a very disrespectful child of your parents. If you are an adult, make your own decisions, but be a decent person! Do not mock them. Big SHAME on you!!!
2007-01-09 02:24:58 · answer #7 · answered by June smiles 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
You can do it yourself, just do not attend and you have done it.
2007-01-10 23:42:46 · answer #8 · answered by OPM 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋