It's Sunday Morning and a 911 dispatcher receives a call from a Baptist pastor who says a former member came to church, "And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P."
Why was the pastor so afraid of a 71 year old church going grandma with two artificial knees and a double hip replacement? Apparently, she criticised the pastor and claimed that he didn't follow the church bylaws. She was expelled. The other members were told to shun her and the pastor had her arrested when she returned to church.
Please read this article at the Wall Street Journal Website. It provides fascinating details about disciplinary practices at some conservative Protestant churches. I'm not saying that all church discipline is wrong, but it can easily turn abusive and trample on human rights. I enjoyed reading about how that grandmother stood her ground and eventually won a moral victory against the intolerant pastor.
4 comments:
I followed the link and the article clearly stated:
"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."
From the title of your post it was implied that this was Jehovah's Witnesses, when in fact it was not.
As long as someone is not causing a disturbance or harassing anyone, everyone is welcome to attend meetings at a Kingdom Hall. I have known many disfellowshipped ones who attended with no incident or having the police called on them. Eventually, they were reinstateded and fellowshipped with.
I don't see how the title of the post would suggest that it was Jehovah's Witnesses, but I see how the title of the blog might lead to that assumption. Later, I said that the article was about some conservative Protestant churches. However, I edited the first sentence to make it clear that it was a Baptist pastor.
You are entirely correct that Jehovah's Witnesses do not bar disfellowshipped ones from attending their meetings. Perhaps it should be pointed that this is actually required in order for them to be reinstated and no longer be shunned by believing family and friends. If they no longer believe and stop going to meetings, then the shunning becomes a life sentence.
The shunning that the Watchtower enforces is absolute,my own JW mother was required to 'treat me as dead' when I exercised my religious freedom to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses and become a born again Christian.
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Danny Haszard~been there
The important part to remember about shunning amoung JW's is that it is institutionalized; it is across all lines friends, family, business assoc. etc., and is enforced as policy by the WT societies local representatives, the Body of Elders at each local congregation.
I'll use this as an example;
JW person A; Axe murderer who killed 5 men, 3 women, 1 child, a dog, and ran over a squirrel during his getaway.
He gets disfellowshipped, and shunned.
JW person B; Stands up at a JW meeting and makes the following statement:
"The Watchtower Society is NOT Gods Organization"
He gets disfellowshipped and shunned.
Two drammatically differently people, with different situations, yet, the outcome is the same.
Welcome to the Watchtower.
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