Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

GMan wrote:

Lev wrote:

Struggler wrote:Head elder was a mean SOB who carried a gun, even to church, in violation of state law, and often talked about using it on people at church. Evil man.

Whoa, crazy. What good can possibly come of a gun at church?

1 Timothy 3:2-3
Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome...

Lev

I have heard of fear and trembling, but this is so wrong.

Very wrong. Sad part was that his partisans would say, "Oh, that's just how he is."
He once told me he'd use it on my father. SOB also controlled the treasury so his word was law in that church.
Was removed when he threatened another minister with arrest several years later, in front of several members and visitors The minister was fired, but the other elders and most of the congregation had enough and "fired" him, too. I was told he padlocked the church and the cops had to order him to unlock it so that minister could remove his personal effects from the office.

In the wake of the various shootings, I know of several churches, including 2 CofCs, that keep at least one armed person (read: a bubba who wanted to bring his gun to church) on the premises during services, and one who has a preacher who comes to church armed and preaches from the pulpit with his gun visible on his shoulder holster. None of these people are cops or retired serving officers, and have never fired a gun in a tense situation other than at a deer or a turkey, but there you have it. I think they enjoy the feeling of power and connecting to their supposed frontier roots more than anything else.

Exactly. While there were a couple off cops in our congregation, they basically "deputized" some good ol' boys, It was commonplace a few years before I left.

margin overa wrote:I think they enjoy the feeling of power and connecting to their supposed frontier roots more than anything else.

Nailed it.

Lev