[Vision2020] Banned From Church

[keely emerinemix]

Legally, what churches call "church discipline" -- the specific exclusion of one former member from church activities as punishment for sin -- doesn't seem enforceable unless the congregant signed an official membership contract, I'd imagine.  I don't know of any church that considers its membership agreement to be a binding legal document.

Frankly, I wish more American churches were full of congregants who questioned their pastor's teachings if found to be objectionable.  It would be a refreshing change from merely bitching about chorus vs. hymns or pews vs. chairs.

Keely




> Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:01:56 -0800
> From: godshatter at yahoo.com
> To: thansen at moscow.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Banned From Church
> 
> 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
> > 
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > 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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> > Internet, 
> >  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. 
> >  
> >                http://www.fsr.net                   
> >    
> >           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> >
> =======================================================
> > 
> 
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet, 
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>                http://www.fsr.net                       
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================

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