Splash: So you CAN associate with disfellowshipped relatives without fear of being DF'd yourself, so long as you don't discuss spiritual things!
Yes, but anyone that does that "would not qualify for congregation privileges, which require one to be exemplary."
So the elders have a tool of manipulation to hold over anyone that breaks their precious rules: don't let them give talks, hold the mic, pioneer or whatever. Although to most of us here, those things are not important, we know that status is everything in the KH.
Only recently, one of the GB members said in a talk that if a young man was 23 and not yet a MS, then he was not marriage material. Just imagine how congregation members view someone not even qualified to carry a microphone. It's social death.
Let's review: It's a cult!