Banned From Church
January 20, 2008 by Luci
Reviving an ancient practice, churches are exposing sinners and shunning those who won’t repent.
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 While many Christians find such practices outdated, pastors in large and small churches across the country are expelling members for offenses ranging from adultery and theft to gossiping, skipping service and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.
The revival is part of a broader movement to restore churches to their traditional role as moral enforcers, Christian leaders say. Some say that contemporary churches have grown soft on sinners, citing the rise of suburban megachurches where pastors preach self-affirming messages rather than focusing on sin and redemption. Others point to a passage in the gospel of Matthew that says unrepentant sinners must be shunned.
Causing Disharmony
Watermark Community Church, a nondenominational church in Dallas that draws 4,000 people to services, requires members to sign a form stating they will submit to the “care and correction” of church elders. Last week, the pastor of a 6,000-member megachurch in Nashville, Tenn., threatened to expel 74 members for gossiping and causing disharmony unless they repented. The congregants had sued the pastor for access to the church’s financial records.
First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals, Ala., a 1,000-member congregation, expels five to seven members a year for “blatant, undeniable patterns of willful sin,” which have included adultery, drunkenness and refusal to honor church elders. About 400 people have left the church over the years for what they view as an overly harsh persecution of sinners, Pastor Jeff Noblit says.
Heaven forbid that churches should be allowed to determine their own rules for membership like any other organization.
[Reply]
ChrisB,
I don't think you'll find too many atheists opposed to the idea - if the church wants to throw people out of the congregation, that's their business. I don't think most of us would have a problem with church officials calling the police to remove "trespassers".
No, this is just an interesting story, something you probably won't see in church bulletins or newletters. It's not a good marketing point to say "We throw people out of the congregation if they don't devote enough of themselves to the church or challenge us in any meaningful way"
Any trap relies on a bait-and-switch tactic. Bait is anything the prey will find desirable. The trap itself must be camoflauged to the extent that the prey does not recognize the danger. The switch must be sufficient that the prey's efforts will not allow it to escape, otherwise the trap fails.
A fishhook may be the simplest trap - it has no moving parts - the "switch" is a simple barb. A mousetrap is significantly more complex, but works the same way. Hunters use a variety of lures and complex camoflauge systems.
This process isn't alway "bad" for the prey: The entire marketing industry operates in the same manner - promising certain results if you use a certain product. Scam artists use the same methods, though, to part fools from their money.
Religion is just another trap, albeit a VERY clever one. "Join us and go to heaven" leads to "Obey us or go to hell".
Instinctively, both statements lead us to the trap and/or keep us in it. Logically, though, the trap itself is a figment of our imagination.
[I think I might make a real post out of that...]
[Reply]
ChrisB,
I don’t think you’ll find too many atheists opposed to the idea - if the church wants to throw people out of the congregation, that’s their business. I don’t think most of us would have a problem with church officials calling the police to remove “trespassers”.
No, this is just an interesting story, something you probably won’t see in church bulletins or newletters. It’s not a good marketing point to say “We throw people out of the congregation if they don’t devote enough of themselves to the church or challenge us in any meaningful way”
Any trap relies on a bait-and-switch tactic. Bait is anything the prey will find desirable. The trap itself must be camoflauged to the extent that the prey does not recognize the danger. The switch must be sufficient that the prey’s efforts will not allow it to escape, otherwise the trap fails.
A fishhook may be the simplest trap - it has no moving parts - the “switch” is a simple barb. A mousetrap is significantly more complex, but works the same way. Hunters use a variety of lures and complex camoflauge systems.
This process isn’t alway “bad” for the prey: The entire marketing industry operates in the same manner - promising certain results if you use a certain product. Scam artists use the same methods, though, to part fools from their money.
Religion is just another trap, albeit a VERY clever one. “Join us and go to heaven” leads to “Obey us or go to hell”.
Instinctively, both statements lead us to the trap and/or keep us in it. Logically, though, the trap itself is a figment of our imagination.
[I think I might make a real post out of that...]
[Reply]
Chris
This lady is 71 years old. She taught Sunday School for nearly 50 years AND she donated 10% of her pension. I think she deserves some respect, but obviously you disagree.
Her offense is spiritual. She did not steal, she did not defraud the "organization", she served for 50 years WHILE she gave them money.
If you think this is fair treatment, so be it. I think it stinks.
Lu
[Reply]
Chris
This lady is 71 years old. She taught Sunday School for nearly 50 years AND she donated 10% of her pension. I think she deserves some respect, but obviously you disagree.
Her offense is spiritual. She did not steal, she did not defraud the “organization”, she served for 50 years WHILE she gave them money.
If you think this is fair treatment, so be it. I think it stinks.
Lu
[Reply]
@ ChrisB
"Heaven forbid that churches should be allowed to determine their own rules for membership like any other organization."
========================================================
But they aren't just "any other organization." Now are they? Do you go on other webpages to defend other organization's rights, like Dupont? Exxon? Halliburton? They're organizations too, you know.
But its apparent to me that you didn’t even read the article. Either that, or you’re obtuse. Or maybe its simple prejudice. Because HAD you read it, you would have concluded that its was a "lack of adherence to the RULES" on the part of the minister of the church, which was the cause of her being thrown out.
You imply from your post comments that you believe that allowing churches to establish and enforce their own rules is very important. So tell me, if the rules are preeminent in their application in her case, then why isn't the same consideration applicable to the minister? Her church’s bylaws call for deacons to be established to oversee the church (as is supported by biblical instruction in the new testament / 1 Timothy 3-1:16).
So are you saying that Protestant ministers are "infallible" just like the Pope???
"Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone….."
[Reply]
@ ChrisB
“Heaven forbid that churches should be allowed to determine their own rules for membership like any other organization.”
========================================================
But they aren’t just “any other organization.” Now are they? Do you go on other webpages to defend other organization’s rights, like Dupont? Exxon? Halliburton? They’re organizations too, you know.
But its apparent to me that you didn’t even read the article. Either that, or you’re obtuse. Or maybe its simple prejudice. Because HAD you read it, you would have concluded that its was a “lack of adherence to the RULES” on the part of the minister of the church, which was the cause of her being thrown out.
You imply from your post comments that you believe that allowing churches to establish and enforce their own rules is very important. So tell me, if the rules are preeminent in their application in her case, then why isn’t the same consideration applicable to the minister? Her church’s bylaws call for deacons to be established to oversee the church (as is supported by biblical instruction in the new testament / 1 Timothy 3-1:16).
So are you saying that Protestant ministers are “infallible” just like the Pope???
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone…..”
[Reply]
I can only giggle maniacally.
The atheists are growing, the church is declining. Enforcing homogeneity is a defense mechanism. They are losing.
We are Legion!
Bwahahaha.
[Reply]
I can only giggle maniacally.
The atheists are growing, the church is declining. Enforcing homogeneity is a defense mechanism. They are losing.
We are Legion!
Bwahahaha.
[Reply]
As all the last ditch efforts to resume its all consuming power, the monotheistic churches will burst from the last three decades of growing pains. Now as the spiritual wunderlusts will spread and fill various eastern and local mystic versions of the fundimentalist creeds they've left. The three cousins will never join, they will forever stay broken and fighting - and as they lay waste to each other…brights and biologists, agnostics and atheists, thining man and thinking woman will watch them. I hope that in the end they only destroy themselves and don't take the whole world with them
[Reply]
As all the last ditch efforts to resume its all consuming power, the monotheistic churches will burst from the last three decades of growing pains. Now as the spiritual wunderlusts will spread and fill various eastern and local mystic versions of the fundimentalist creeds they’ve left. The three cousins will never join, they will forever stay broken and fighting - and as they lay waste to each other…brights and biologists, agnostics and atheists, thining man and thinking woman will watch them. I hope that in the end they only destroy themselves and don’t take the whole world with them
[Reply]