but has the cult relaxed the rules recently?
Depends on your individual situation. I’m neither disfellowshipped or disassociated, but I was a known and active apostate for a time so I was being shunned by all my former friends and shunned by family.
However, after the changes in March of last year, my father reached out to me to extend an olive branch. Of course he wants me to come back to the organization, but I made it clear I just don’t believe it anymore. However I was very respectful of his beliefs and said I thought some of the recent changes were steps in the right direction.
After that conversation, we continued to talk weekly, I visited them in person for a week a few months ago, and next week I’m seeing them again.
The major on paper change is that you can greet and talk to disfellowshipped people at the Kingdom Hall now. However they still discourage unnecessary association outside of the hall.
Active Apostates are still considered persona non grata.
Interestingly, my father told me he doesn’t consider me an apostate anymore because I’m no longer actively opposing the organization. By the definition of the word, yes I’m an apostate. However, he, an elder of 40+ years, says that the organization considers someone apostate if they’re an opposer, not just someone that no longer believes.