I can't answer that question, HalfFull. I have no experience with this sort of thing, and have never thought about the propriety of a church community placing its members under observation and discipline for perceived sins. It's not for me to say how various duly-constituted church communities ought to conduct their own affairs.
In general, I think it's probably best just to leave people alone to follow whatever institutional arrangements and traditions characterize their church community, especially if they are of long-standing practice.
Still, one has to be very careful about this sort of thing, it seems to me. Human beings aren't always very good at making judgments about evil (e.g., there may be issues of self-interest, or envy, etc., that affect one's objectivity, for instance). But once a good rhetorician, pointing the finger of blame, and waxing eloquent in censure of some identified miscreant, gets up a good head of steam, chances are he can carry the crowd away with him. I wonder: Would justice be the outcome of this sort of thing?
How good is human justice, really, when it comes to matters of sin? How deeply do we penetrate the deeper strata of the souls of our fellow men, so as reliably to tell their "guilt?"
I was reading a review of Lance Morrow's new book, Evil: An Investigation in NR today. There was a very sobering passage in it that touches on the present issue:
"Evil," [Morrow] writes, "is a strange, versatile, and dangerous word that can be used to describe a genocide or to incite one ('Let's kill all of the ______s. They are evil.')."....
The reviewer, Michael Potemra, continues:
"Evil cannot finally be understood, [Morrow] concludes, but wisdom helps us deal with it: 'The task is to recognize evil for what it is, and yet to respond to it with discernment. See comprehensively, as a hedgehog does, but respond discriminately, flexibly, as a fox does, without the dogmatism that makes zealots stupid and prompts them, from time to time, to burn people at the stake."
Morrow has this further perceptive and thought-provoking observation regarding the nature of evil:
"Evil portrays itself, almost without exception, as injured innocence, fighting back."
Just some things to think about some more. I know I will. Thanks for writing, HalfFull.