I don't fear being excommunicated,this just resonates with me, especially the highlighted part:
“Now, any day now, the church might decide to dispense with me, and I
will say very frankly and very honestly, I don’t see any reason why they
shouldn’t. I really don’t. It’s just that simple. And if I were called
in for ex… sometimes they say, “What would you do if you
were called in to be excommunicated?” Well, I can tell you one thing
for sure. I wouldn’t miss the trial like some of my friends have, who
don’t bother to go to the trial. I wouldn’t miss it on a bet. Now, I
would want a witness there, but not a witness on my behalf. Now if
President McKay had shown up, I wouldn’t have objected to anything he
said. But I wouldn’t want a witness there on my behalf. But I would want
a witness, somebody else who could tell what happened there. I would
want somebody to see what happened. But I wouldn’t try to defend myself
at all in an excommunication trial. Because I don’t have any defense. I
would have to say, “Now look, you are the people who are sort of on
trial. You have got to decide whether you want guys like me in the
church or not.” And there are good reasons for not having people like me
in the church, and there may be, for all I know, there may be some good
reasons for having people like me in the church. When I was a young man
and started teaching seminary for the church there were liberally
minded seminary teachers, you know. And we thought we could make a
contribution to the church. We really did. Well, I don’t think that any
longer. The church belongs to the true believers who are 100% tithe
payers and the general authorities. I used to think the church belongs
to all of us. That was back in my youthful idealistic days, you see. I
don’t believe that any longer. I seriously don’t believe that any
longer. And if they decide to get rid of people like me, which I am well
aware would include a lot of people in this audience, I would think
they would be perfectly within their rights." -Sterling McMurrin
