Joshua’s People 6/26/08
Transitions
This series was prompted by my joining a new church (and almost a new religion) in preparation for marrying my wife–my wife of 24 years come this August, to put it into perspective. Though marrying my wife was one of my best moves, joining this church was not. At the start, it was a joyous place to be. However it decayed into an almost oppressive environment.
Under its wings, I moved into the Calvinist camp; for that I owe it something. Yet before long the leadership became something I could not recognize from the early days of its founding. At the start, we could ask any question we wanted after the sermon as part of the worship service. At the end, I was excommunicated for disagreeing with the Elders during a meeting that was called in order to get our opinion on a new fellowship hall. I noted that we would be better served working on building fellowship rather than a fellowship building.
They deemed I was being too disrespectful. They demanded I attend a closed door meeting by myself with all four Elders acting as judge over me. I said I would attend if I could have a witness. They refused. I refused.
Then they formally excommunicated me! Thirteen years of membership did not matter for much of anything.
Still, I did get at least some cartoons out of the deal. The funny part is that when these were made in the first years, they thought them funny. I even put them together in a very rough animated cartoon. Someday, I may post that on this site as well.
So the series moves from a Catholic setting to a Protestant one. To make a connection, I had the Baptist church meeting in the gymnasium of the St. Joshua’s Catholic Church.
Are you sure you weren’t just dis-fellowshipped from the soon-to-be-built fellowship hall?
On a more serious note, that kind of experience has to be terrible. I hope you can find another church that isn’t like what that congregation became.
—Rick Ritchie