I remember two. If I remember correctly (it has been many years) both were called as leaders after they came back to church. One was my Elders Quorum President, and the best friend I ever had.
Yes, me. After being a member for a couple of months, One of the LDS found out I was Black. They handcuffed me, took me into this dark room, and made Tom Cruise brutally spank me. No, I did not try to rejoin the church, because I am still quite traumatized.
Just getting a few weeks off from church is often enough to get a person out of the controlling church mindset and into a more realistic and freer lifestyle.
Yep, I know someone who was excommunicated. No, he did not come back to church and cannot come back. He was a speech therapist at an elementary school and he slammed a kid against the wall.
Interesting. C. said before she left the church. Now she admits she was excommunicated. I wonder what the reason was.
@Michael No. That person is not allowed back in the church and not just our ward. That's just one of many reasons he was excommunicated.
There are two men in my current ward that had once been excommunicated. They both realized that they had made the biggest mistakes of their lives, and worked hard to come back.
I do know someone. He is in our ward and a very good man. He made a mistake early on in his life and though I don't know the details I do know that he was excommunicated. It took him many long years to come back into the church.
It was his sister who helped him return. He had lost everything. His marriage, his religion, and only saw his kids part time.
Then his sister showed true Christ-like love toward him and helped him. He moved in with her family and some of his kids moved in too. The sister had 6 kids of her own, but she still welcomed him in and loved him back into the gospel. He finally was re-baptized and brought back into full activity over years of care and love from the people around him.
He met a beautiful girl and they were married. They liked the ward so much they bought a house in the ward boundaries, and now they have 3 beautiful little girls.
He is a great man and from his trials and experiences has turned from being a haughty rebellious type of person into a humble and wonderful person who loves his wife and children.
That's my experience anyway. I know that it doesn't always turn out that way, but as with any trial in life a person can choose to blame others and even God for it and become bitter and hateful, or learn from their trial and become a stronger person for it.
Yes. Always a beautiful thing to see. And as for Marvel M.'s example, that person can come back; about the only time excommunication is a permanent thing in this life is for intentional murder, which incidentally doe not include abortion, which is still forgivable and is not even a cause for automatic excommunication, though lesser disciplinary action and counseling may result.
When someone is excommunicated, part of the disciplinary process at that time is to set forth goals and guidelines by which they may regain their membership in the Church. He or she is asked to continue attending meetings, keep the commandments, meet regularly with the bishop to evaluate and encourage progress, and be ready for baptism and confirmation back into the Church 1 year from the time of excommunication. Bishops work with a lot more people in the repentance process than are ever excommunicated; excommunication is unlikely, on the average, unless the sins are not only very serious, but the person who committed them is not willing to repent or even stop committing the sin.
Another big factor is whether someone goes to their bishop with a voluntary confession and genuine desire to repent, or whether the bishop has to find out some other way and call them in to account for their sins which they may have intended to continue committing. The second one is more likely to face possible excommunication, particularly if they do not become sincere about repenting, but again only for quite serious sins.
The greatest comfort I know for repenting of such sins as need to be confessed to the bishop is to pour out ones heart in prayer to our Heavenly Father, asking His help in sharing with the bishop what needs to be shared, then go to the bishop being willing to share all the burden with him, trusting that the Lord will direct the bishop to do what is right to help that person accomplish his or her repentance and receive total forgiveness. First of all, this is gaining the Lord's support and guidance for repentance unto forgiveness, and the bishop's role is simply an important support system in this through which the Lord may make His will known and have it accomplished. If one feels excommunication could result, so what, if that is what the Lord deems necessary and so informs the bishop? It is the Lord whose requirements must be filled for us to eventually gain eternal life and exaltation, but sharing our burdens with the bishop is one of the ways God may make His will known to us. When we are willing to repent this way, this sincerely, excommunication is almost never on the table of options.
Yes, lots actually. Some of the finest people I have ever met. When I myself was becoming active in the church, I had a Sunday school teacher who was teaching us the New Testament--amazing man. HIs lessons were fascinating. They were one of the big reasons I wanted to return to church. One day I happened to mention to his wife how much I enjoyed his lessons and she responded rather casually "Well, yes, he has really rededicated his life to Jesus since he was re baptized. It's been a long road for both of us but we did it."
All of the occasions of excommunication and subsequent re baptism that I have been personally familiar with were due to marital infidelity--that's how seriously the covenant of marriage is in our faith. But the beautiful thing is that marriage is STILL important after infidelity, even more so, and when God is the third partner in the marriage, healing can be a success.
Mormons/ LDS: Have you ever known someone who was excommunicated? Did they rejoin the
