Hummm.....getting rather old that the cult "pretends" it is backing off and giving a contrite second thought to its Ex-ing threat when they are hit with too much sympathy for the person they are going after with an ax.
Maybe they'll have it on Sunday, March 27th, which is Easter and it doesn't happen to be conference weekend. After all, they barely acknowledge Easter, the most important day on the Christian calendar.
Now they want to have a meeting to talk to him in March. I suppose this means they want to find out if he has a testimony and not trying to lead people out of the church. If they think he is no longer a believer, they will drum up some charges for a Disciplinary Court.
I've been listening to Jeremy Runnell's ex-Mormon stories on John Dehlin podcast.
Trying to understand where's he's at in the process of leaving the church from where he once was.
His testimony has crumbled, beginning in 2012. I wonder why he'd consider going before a court tribunal when it's become a house of cards to him nowadays? And knowing the odds would be stacked against him were he to go.
I really like what he just shared in his Part I video recording with Dehlin after his testimony had crashed and burned: "There is no such thing as a graceful exit from the church." He learned firsthand it isn't as easy as simply walking away. But why suffer through a court tribunal knowing he doesn't need to in the first place?
Why placate church authorities by feeding into the BS?
The church always wants the high profile ones to walk away. Keep it quiet and under the rug.
By forcing them to go through with the excom, they are declaring what is apostacy. In this instance, discussing certain questions and sharing the questions broadly is apostacy.
Jeremy has placed them in an very uncomfortable position. If they do not excom him they are giving implied permission to ask this type of question openly. If they do excom him they are declaring we are embarrassed and hiding stuff. "Don't look behind the curtain."
How much you want to bet they are going to try for something like "speaking ill of the Lord's annointed" in the court.
If Jeremy resigns he is just another disaffected member who left to sin. They can point out this "character flaw" and discount his efforts.
Jeremy is putting himself and his family through a lot to do this. You have to respect his integrity to do so. The CES letter is what the exmo community has been missing for a lot of years. A concise easy to read introduction to the problems with the church. Plenty of links to much more detailed analysis. He didn't discover anything but he did a damn fine job of summarizing the efforts of many others.
When listening to his podcast after he shared that there's no such thing as exiting 'gracefully' from the LDS church, Dehlin replied in a quote he repeated from someone well established inside the church who said, "A cult is an organization that does not let a member leave with their dignity intact."
From the horse's mouth! That would appear to be the only reason they'd put him through an excommunication, only to make 'an example' of him to other actives.
Jeremy doesn't come across as an apostate at all. Just disaffected, and lost his faith in the religion he was born into. The church must really feel threatened by the ex-Mormon community because we represent a lost chord they have yet to find themselves.
I wonder, if they wonder, how many TBMs have made their way to the top of the fence, waiting for answers to the questions that one man, full of integrity, was brave enough to ask for TBMs everywhere?
I wonder how many TBMs, having sacrificed so much, desperate for more than the emptiness of "doubting their doubts," will find that their shelves can bear no more?
I would think there are many, many of them. We know they are not fools or stupid. We know they were the victims of greedy, power-hungry men. For the most devout, this cartel takes children, newborn infants, to imprison them in fear, for their entire lives.
I think the greedy power-brokers have no answers for this good and brave man, nor for the thousands of TBMs, so weary from holding up their ever-growing shelves, all by themselves.
My advice to Jeremy would be to keep the status quo and do what he's been doing.
Excommunicating a deaf, non-attending member, will call a lot of attention to the CES Letter which would be BAD for LDS, INC.
I am sure that excommunication has no down side for Jeremy. Once your family, friends and associates know you no longer believe, excommunication may no longer be a big deal.