Honeybucket makes a good point about rich and prominent members
in a congregation being treated differently. I knew an elder named
David Hader in the Whittier congregation in California.
His daughters, especially the younger one, were wild and promiscuous.
Anyone who knew them knew the girls were going to nightclubs
and having sex with anyone they met and they were drunks.
He was a Dentist, very wealthy, lived in a mansion,
and was an elder and no matter what his younger daughter
did he just turned a blind eye. His older daughter got disfellowshipped, but he
never shunned her and his wife was only concerned about
her house and clothes and spending money, yet they all considered themselves model JW's.
Astounding. There was another couple in that congregation,
the elder dad, was an engineer and made good money and
his daughter confided in me that you will never get disfellowshipped
as long as you deny everything, which she did.
She had a baby out of wedlock but never got difellowshipped
because her father was an elder and had money - this is a true story.
But if someone was poor and alone, they would be disfellowshipped
and shunned for a tenth of what these wealthy well connected
young women did as a lifestyle with complete impunity.