Shunning

The "Message" cult and splinter groups practice both physical shunning and emotional shunning.  In severe cases, members who do not fully submit to the authority of the cult leader in their sect are banned from the church, and members who remain in the church are not permitted to interact with the members who are banned.  Cult leaders commonly use the phrase, "They went out from us because they were not of us" during the speech designed to attack the offending members.  Commonly, cult leaders also take the opportunity to instill fear of this punishment into the hearts of the remaining congregation.

example:
Brother, Sister Decker, I don't want you to come back.  You went down to a people that has been a lyin' and everything else they can do with his sweet little wife.  And I'm sad about it today, but I'm not sad about it because I have pressed in this battle and I've strained my throat and people sit out there and just look at me.  Well, don't look no more 'cause I'll kick you out of the floor.
- "Message" Cult Leader "Reverend" Jack Bell

Cult members can be shunned for a wide variety of reasons, but most commonly for raising questions about cult leaders and/or their doctrine.  Rather than address the questions and help other members to understand the truthful answers (if truthful answers exist), cult leaders instead silence the questions by banning the person asking them.  To prevent others from asking, members of the congregation are threatened with the same fate.

Some members are not physically shunned, but instead are emotionally shunned.  Friends and family members are permitted to interact with the former members of the cult but withhold any emotional connection.  Conversations are often shallow, and the interactions lack interest or agreement.  This strategy is sometimes more painful for former members than physical shunning; emotional shunning is designed to cause the former member to sever ties themselves due to the lack of connection.  This process takes much more time because former members sometimes do not understand that they are emotionally shunned until after several interactions.