[Vision2020] Banned From Church

[Paul Rumelhart]

Expelling your congregation one-by-one doesn't seem
like a smart move to me.  Eventually, you'll end up
preaching to an empty room.

Does a church have the right to call the cops to
arrest someone for trespassing at a public service? 
Sure, they own the land, but they don't have to pay
taxes on it because they are supposed to be providing
a community service.  I can see removing someone for
disorderly conduct or something, but how can you be
trespassing at a public event?

Paul

--- Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

> Cops arrest and handcuff little old lady banned from
> church because she
> didn't like the pastor.
> 
> >From the Wall Street Journal at:
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/2kjjh6
> 
>
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> 
> Banned From Church
> By Alexandra Alter
> 
> --------
> 
> Listen to 911 call
> http://tinyurl.com/34wx2a
> 
> --------
> 
> On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers
> settled into the pews at
> Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan,
> Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed
> his cellphone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher
> answered, the preacher said
> a former congregant was in the sanctuary. "And we
> need to, um, have her out
> A.S.A.P."
> 
> Half an hour later, 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey, a
> church member for nearly
> 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly
> donated 10% of her
> pension, was led out by a state trooper and a county
> sheriff's officer. One
> held her purse and Bible. The other put her in
> handcuffs. (Listen to the 911
> call)
> 
> The charge was trespassing, but Mrs. Caskey's real
> offense, in her pastor's
> view, was spiritual. Several months earlier, when
> she had questioned his
> authority, he'd charged her with spreading "a spirit
> of cancer and discord"
> and expelled her from the congregation. "I've been
> shunned," she says.
> 
> Her story reflects a growing movement among some
> conservative Protestant
> pastors to bring back church discipline, an ancient
> practice in which
> suspected sinners are privately confronted and then
> publicly castigated and
> excommunicated if they refuse to repent. While many
> Christians find such
> practices outdated, pastors in large and small
> churches across the country
> are expelling members for offenses ranging from
> adultery and theft to
> gossiping, skipping service and criticizing church
> leaders.
> 
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
> 
> "If I wanted to overhear every tedious scrap of
> brain static rattling around
> in your head, I'd read your blog."
> 
> - Bill Maher
> 
> 
> 
>
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