woman whose pastor revealed her extramarital affair to the congregation after she confessed it in confidence,Whatever happened to "your right to swing your fist ends where it meets my face"?
Linda Tripp, for example, suffered no legal consequences for betraying Monica Lewinsky's confidence.Well, not quite. She was indicted, but the charges were dropped [...]
About fifteen years ago, my mother and I were disfellowshipped from a church, and this was after she and the pastor had been very close friends for the previous thirteen years or so. Why? Because she was divorcing her husband, my step-father, for frequently physically abusing me.Jesus. Talk about the polar opposite of my own experience. I'm sorry.
There probably is more to the story. Really, for all we know the lady is insufferable and the whole congregation wants her gone.True. On the other hand, "You're sowing discord" is often Christian-ese for "We disagree with you and you won't change your mind."
The core debate is whether Hyles Anderson is training its pastors to "steal" congregations. That is get a pastoral appointment to a church with weak or no outside leadership, kick out the old members and rebuild the church in a new way. This technique is what is controversial. Its often advocated under terms like "congregational renewal". More importantly it gets to the heart of the great debates that appear to be splitting the evangelical and fundamentalist community renewing the classic debate as to whether the church is broad or narrow, that is the issue of regenerate membership.Posts over at haloscan.com reiterate the "HA is a cult factory" theme...albeit badly spelled and difficult to decipher. However, buried in there are reports that Burrick has now stationed "bouncers" outside the church doors to stop the "unwelcome". The unwelcome of course being those people who wanted him to follow the church constitution and turn over the financial records. Infidel bastards.
I'm not sure how this works in traditional religions as my knowledge is quite limited, but in churches like the one in which I was born into you are told it is the ONLY true church and your only hope for salvation....No, that's pretty much the way all around, with few exceptions.
But yeah, I would say that forcing someone to leave sounds like it is contrary to to the whole "turn the other cheek" thing.Well, the 'turn the other cheek' principle is about how Christians are supposed to respond when they're attacked. In theory, kicking people out of the religious community is about something else entirely.
Maybe Mrs. Caskey is overly focused on place, but if that's what works for her, refusing her access to god in that way is what seems like the sin to me. One needn't approve, countenance, support, or frankly talk to the person you disagree with.Yeah, the Mrs. Caskey incident sounds a lot more like a pastor trying to orchestrate a power play. I've seen other cases, like the one I described above, where it was a different scenario by far.
« Older The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World.... | Michel Gondry Curates YouTube ... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by mds35 at 5:27 PM on January 18, 2008 [2 favorites]