I don't personally know Julie Rowe, so I do not know if she is somehow mentally challenged and/or not fully accountable.gardener4life wrote: ↑January 20th, 2018, 3:20 pm You know this actually is a bit worrying if she gets excommunicated.
The reason is that well if we start excommunicating people with mental illness or other problems of accountability...and how do you know if they are fully accountable or like 50/50 or somewhere in between you know? As I understand it, she was fine until she suffered a brain injury and then lost it. I have a couple family relatives that I'm not sure if they are fully accountable or partly there...
In general, I see your point. The priesthood leaders need to walk a fine line with mentally ill people teaching false doctrine. Church discipline has three purposes: 1) save the soul of the transgressor, 2) protect the innocent and 3) safeguard the integrity of the church. According to Handbook, discipline is mandatory in the case of apostasy. One of the given definitions of apostasy is to persist in teaching as Church doctrine information that is not Church doctrine after they have been corrected. So, if a person continues teaching false doctrine, that person should face church discipline. If the person has a following, then it serves the purpose of protecting the innocent. However, if the person is mentally ill, then the priesthood leaders should be very careful not to make things worse. They also need to be interested in saving the person's soul. It is also good to understand, that excommunication is not the only option for apostasy. However, it the person is placed under formal probation or disfellowshipped and still continues teaching false doctrine, then the person should eventually be excommunicated.