Is Alan Cumming Exaggerating About Being Excommunicated From Church of Scotland?

One thing The Good Wife‘s Alan Cumming, one of our charity superheroes, has made part of his activism spiel is that he was excommunicated by the Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian church, after he publicly acknowledged being an atheist. In an online chat with fans, Cumming says, “I began to talk about my lack of belief in the press, because, just like gay rights, I think more people need to speak out to highlight hypocrisy and fear. The Church of Scotland wrote to my mum and said they had read something about me being an atheist and would I like to leave the church, and I did. So I was ex-communicated.” Except? The Kirk has no record of any excommunication. Says a church spokesman: “We have no knowledge of this. Such a decision could be made at the discretion of an individual congregation’s Kirk session.” Oh.