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Aug
6
Someone please explain this to me. An excerpt from the letter in Ohio 21st’s post:
Two Sundays ago, two members of the Minutemen group attended worship and simply observed. Last Sunday, six members of the group came to the worship service. During our time of joys and concerns, one of the group members, who identified himself as their pastor, came to the microphone and shared not a personal joy or concern, but some of their judgmental message. When it seemed that he intended to “kidnap” the service and move into a criticism of our welcoming and affirming perspective, I took the microphone away from him, at which point the entire group of Minutemen stalked out of the service.”
Many of us have been subject of protests because of positions we or our churches have taken but seldom have our worship services been disrupted. We do want to welcome all people to worship, affirming that wherever you are on life’s journey you are welcome here, but we do not want and can not allow the sacred time of worship and praise to be disturbed by persons who disagree with our welcoming of all of God’s children. I understand this group has also recently targeted King Avenue United Methodist Church.
And then explain why a Google Blog search on the church where Minutemen United were disrupting worship turns up several accounts of the same incident but a search on Google News turns up zip.
I know what it’s like to be a Jew who is accused, by another Jew, of being an anti-Semite. What does it feel like to be a Christian who is being picked on by other Christians?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:11 pm August 6th, 2007 in Politics
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I don’t like the enmity between Christian denominations. Everyone knows that each denomination has a slightly different take on doctrine, for if doctrine were 100% agreed upon, there’d be just one Christian denomination, not thousands of denominations. Yet, I don’t believe this disrespect between denominations is really about differences of doctrine. I think the arguments over doctrine are merely a cover for a more troubling motive . . . money. For some ministers, church is big business, and the more parishioners a minister packs into the congregation, the more the minister makes. If the minister fears the competition from another denomination, the minister might even go so far as to portray the rival as a “cult,” and use doctrinal differences to illustrate how wrong the rival is, and why the rival is deserving of the “cult” label. Meanwhile, there might be a denomination whose doctrine is even farther afield that the minister doesn’t label as a “cult” merely because that denomination is not perceived as a rival for parishioners and donations. I am a Christian, and I’ve visited many denominations over the course of my lifetime, and when a minister starts preaching intolerance toward some other denomination, it absolutely turns me off. Often, I’ve noticed the ministers who preach that way are well-to-do or at least moving up the economic ladder. In my experience denominations with only lay ministers, instead of paid clergy, don’t seem to be as eager to malign other denominations.
“What does it feel like to be a Christian who is being picked on by other Christians?”
I can say I’m the Queen of Sheba; that don’t make it so.
Know what I mean?
Jill:
As Daniel said, every Christian denomination is the result of an argument somewhere along the line. Same with Judaism and Islam.
Our congregation is affiliated with the Ohio association of American Baptist Churches, which is currently headquartered in Granville. The First Baptist Church of Granville was also a member of this association, but was kicked out over its ‘welcoming and affirming’ stance relative to homosexuality. I think King Ave Methodist (on the southern border of the OSU campus) takes the same posture, and would guess that this is the reason they’re being targeted by these disrupters.
I don’t know about Judaism, but Christianity is struggling with how to deal with homosexuality. The Episcopalian Church is apt to split over this issue. So may the American Baptists. I’m not sure why it draws so much more emotion than the other sins of man, but it saddens me that it leads to so much divisiveness.
I remember the dialog in the movie ‘Oh, God’ when John Denver’s character asked God (played by George Burns) what he thought about religion. God answered that he thought it was crap, or something like that. Just love each other and do what comes from that, that’s all God wants, according to the character.
I tend to agree.
To answer your question, to charge into a worship service and take over is outrageous and unacceptable. These guys are schmucks.
PL