Pride can be the underlying cause for excommunication when it leads to the breaking of sacred covenants. One of the less common ways this can happen is when the individual will not recognize the authority of the Lord's anointed servants. They become unable to submit to the counsel and recommendations of church leaders because their pride has elevated them, in their minds, above the counsel of the Church. Then and now, the sin of pride, when it leads to the spirit of apostasy, is grounds for excommunication.