I have dealt with several cases of Church discipline in my ministr(ies) -- or I should say, we the Church have dealt with them -- it is Church discipline after all. One such situation occurred when a faithful Church member married a second wife at a large celebration -- yet omitted the detail of informing his first (existing) wife -- also a faithful Church member. Such situations can arise in Africa, where there are various systems of marriage: civil, traditional, and religious. The problem was not only that the second marriage was illegal and immoral, but he abandoned his existing wife, leaving her destitute. So we, the Church, negotiated a solution to the matter. We would suspend his Church membership until he would legalise his situation, and deal with the destitution of his existing wife. Things looked promising, but then the man seriously defaulted. We terminated his Church membership. However, he continued to attend Church, with his second wife.
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