More shameful alternatives to church discipline

Kent Brandenburg has posted the third installment in his series on shameful alternatives for church discipline. The latest installment is on how gossip grows in churches that don't practice biblical discipline. Here's a sample:

And in these churches that don’t practice church discipline, certain gossip is actually approved. You can gossip about people who deserve it. It isn’t gossip then. It’s a warning. Matthew 18 still hasn’t been practiced. No one can scripturally tell anyone else, because we haven’t had one-on-one nor two-or-three-on-one, but that’s OK. They’re bad people. People need to be told not to hang around them. Or that they are on the unofficial bad guy list. We’ve got trouble in River City with the billiard players putting a ball in the corner pocket. Inquiring minds want to know.

Without discipline, gossip becomes the great religious pastime of the church. It’s one way the church develops a good dose of self-righteousness. You good. I’m good. We’re both good. That’s good. He bad. That’s bad. Good thing you told me. It is. Thank you. Good thing we’re not bad. Yah, good thing.

Ken's really on to something here. The number of congregations which actually practice the form of discipline Jesus explicitly directed seems vanishingly small. We really do need to pay attention and do what Jesus says.