Excommunication is a spiritual thing and up until now the Guardian has
always been the one who exerted this power, and he feels for the present
he must continue to be. Only actual enemies of the Cause are
ex-communicated. On the other hand, those who conspicuously disgrace the
Faith or refuse to abide by its laws can be deprived, as a punishment, of
their voting rights; this in itself is a severe action, and he therefore
always urges all National Assemblies (who can take such action) to first
warn and repeatedly warn the evil-doer before taking the step of depriving
him of his voting rights. He feels your Assembly must act with the
greatest wisdom in such matters, and only impose this sanction if a
believer is seriously injuring the Faith in the eyes of the public through
his conduct or flagrantly breaching the laws of God. If such a sanction
were lightly used the friends would come to attach no importance to it, or
to feel the N.S.A. used it every time they got angry with some
individual's disobedience to them. We must always remember that, sad and
often childish, as it seems, some of those who make the worst nuisances of
themselves to their National Bodies are often very loyal believers, who
think they are protecting the true interests of their Faith by attacking
N.S.A. decisions!