It is good that you noted this…thank you,NotWorthy!St. Paul exhibits this authority when he pronounces more than one person “anathema”. I believe one incident is in 2nd Corinthians when a parishioner is having an affair with his step-mom and the Church doesn’t do anything about it.
Do you believe that Apostolic Authority is passed on through the Church, as is exhibited in Paul’s writings to Timothy? If so, then its biblical.
But if one doesn’t believe in Apostolic Authority, then they won’t buy this argument.
You know… its amazing how many cross-denominational arguments all boil down to authority.
I know I’m “dating” myself (or more accurately “carbon-dating”?), but whenever someone describes “shunning”, I think of the old series, “Branded”, with Chuck Connors. The show opens up with a 19th century US Calvary soldier being stripped of his stripes, his hat taken off and stomped on, and his saber broken in two before he is “escorted” out of the fort.
As a fellow fossil, I too remember that show, and you are right, that was a form of military excommunication. It actually was a formal ceremony conducted to put out the miscreant and serve as an example to all the others in the formation what would happen to them if they did likewise. It went by the names “putting out,” “breaking,” and others. You may also recall there was a drummer playing the march beat in the background, where the popular name for this ceremony, “drumming out” came from.