Recently I was witness to a growing tone of disdain for a particular religions practice of what the religion calls…..disfellowship. Disfellowships in laymen’s terms simply means you have committed a sin, confessed that sin and are now suffering the consequence of that action by being expelled or shunned socially from your friends and family. This action being based on 1 Corinthians 5. I’ve yet to find the actual word disfellowship in the bible…….but I have seen the word “limiting” association with those who practice wrongdoing but have not found such strict shunning.
I’ve tried to practice the art of looking at things differently or in a comparative manner regardless of how completely unrelated they may be to bring myself back to center to see if something really makes sense or not. This allows me the power to exercise free will and reap my own consequences should I make the wrong choice. So I’ve thought about this a bit……………….here is my take………no matter how bizarre it may sound……perhaps it could help ease the sting of the tone around those who are going thru this even if it doesn’t make it any better.
Key word of the thought process: Consequences
As young children we are taught there is a consequence for bad behavior. This generally is known as Time Out……the art of secluding a human from social contact with other children until they have had time to think about what they did.
As children grow older and misbehave in school there is a consequence called In School Suspension or Out of School Suspension. This is the art of secluding a human from social contact with other students to ensure they do not continue to disrupt the general school day……..until they have had time to think about what they did.
We are taught through out life that if we break the law…….there is a consequence. The extreme consequence is jail. Jail is the art of secluding a human from the general population for wrongdoing….until they have had time to think about what they did.
Should said consequence of breaking the law land us in jail………we have all heard that there is a consequence for bad behavior in jail. That consequence is called Solitary confinement. This is the art of secluding a human from social contact with the other inmates for wrongdoing……until they have had time to think about what they did.
In some countries……..religion has nothing to do with being shunned out of your family. There are just certain dos and dont’s. You do…..you are excommunicated from your family…..and you don’t even get a chance to repent.
I will stop now with the comparative thinking. As there are several examples of social exclusion that I could examine. So the devils advocate question of the day is………should we not infuse consequences for bad behavior? Should a church be exempt from disciplining the law of GOD as they deem to be in the realm of their teaching? Why were the 10 Commandments created? Were they intended to result in a consequence should we not obey?
The realization is that we have a choice……aka free will. Should we choose to give in to the teachings of our faith or change our faith is our choice. We should not be guilted into obeying by losing our family based on the varying teachings of secular religion. We should however purpose to think differently which could change our attitude about the situation we have choiced ourselves.
And no matter how much we think we are escaping the path we have chosen or the “rules” we have broken…………I’m convinced that karma exists. There will come a day when we all must repent. Just remember that perhaps…….just perhaps……its that choice we made coming back to teach us a lesson. While the lesson may be a small one and we did all we could to make the best choices moving foward given the circumstance…..it may still be a teachable moment.
Here’s to re-thinking and acting differently in the face of a tough situation and coming to terms with the choices taken and the consequences received…… which is so much easier said than done……to a work in progress……..CHEERS!!!
CHEERS!! 