@ Mouthy I am so happy it was encouraging to you ! I read your posts all the time and love them :) For a very long time I have not had the courage to post in here but its getting better all the time. Someday I will post our story in full just to purge myself of all the trauma...reading about what other people have experienced has helped me not feel alone in all of this..and its nice to contribute a little for a change
@problemaddict We live in the eastern US. Also the elders book outlines most of these issues in some way. Its available in PDF online. It covers a lot of these things...what can be judicial and what is not.....there are grey areas too....leaving some things up to the elders to decide if its they want to form a "committee" (such loaded language!) And they do have schools where they write "additional instructions" in the margins...I think someone else already mentioned that. Some things like Birthdays and 4th of July and Thanksgiving are not Judicial under the Holiday section because it specifies religious holidays only but could fall under the new "Brazen Conduct" clause which could be almost anything. So some things officially like Birthdays, non-religious holidays, and even voting would not be a judicial matter outrightly, But and that is a big But, if it is considered "Brazen Conduct" than it could be. What was really interesting to me was the part in there that if an elder had committed a judicial offense but considerable time had passed since he had committed the offense then he wouldn't necessarily be removed as an elder...so keep it a secret for a long time and then confess and not only may you not risk disfellowshipping you may not even be removed!