News-Record.com

The North Carolina Piedmont Triad's top go-to source for News
A service of the News & Record, Greensboro, North Carolina

Home

The Front Pew

« Diocese bans nun's tribute | Main | Heard any good local faith speakers lately? »

Slippery slope?

A Virginia legislator has authored a bill (requires registering at Washingtonpost.com) that would allow congregations to pull out of their denominations and keep church property. The legislator, an Episcopalian, is in a congregation that has talked of pulling out of the Episcopal Church USA, where tensions have run high since the church confirmed its first openly gay bishop in 2003. Opponents say it would be an unconstitutional intrusion by government while the legislator says it would help distance the government from court disputes.
What do you think?

Comments (2)

To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.

Mark Sills said:

Nancy, I think this would be a disaster. It could lead to chaos in many denominations, as a group of disgruntled people try to convince their congregation to leave the "fold" of their denomination. It is none of the government's business how churches (and other faith groups) organize nor what their policies might be. Anyone is free to leave their denomination and start another church if they wish at any time. Would a business want a law that allows disgruntled employees at a company store to say they no longer want to be associated with, say "Wal-Mart" so they are going to take the store and it's inventory and call it a "K-Mart" or something else? Of course not. What if a majority of the customers at the "Wal-Mart" decided they did not like company policy? Could they rebel and take over the store and call it something else? Certainly not. Perhaps the store would go out of business if all the customers left to shop elsewhere, and perhaps a deonimiational affiliated church will die if all the members go elsewhere to worship, but the principle remains the same. It is not the government's business.

Fred Gregory said:

If in fact the congregations are free to pull out of the National body and form their own church then there is nothing left to quarrell over except who owns the building and the pews . Disputes such as this , even in the sacrament of marriage, are settled by one branch of government the courts. Martin Luther opened the gate for this kind of rebellion when he nailed th 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Post a comment

Users who post comments to this blog tacitly agree to observe the News & Record Online Service Terms of Use and Content Submission Agreement. Comments which do not adhere to the terms of this agreement may be removed and the submitter may be banned from further participation. Please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page to report abuse of this feature.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Search

Search

Channels
Font Size
Tools
Question, Comment or Suggestion? Please contact us.

News & Record and NRinteractive

200 E. Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27401 (336) 373-7000 (800) 553-6880
1813 N. Main Street, High Point, NC 27262 (336) 883-4422
203 E. Harris Place, Eden, NC 27288 (336) 627-1781
4213 S. Church Street, Burlington, NC 27215 (336) 449-7064

Copyright (C) 2008 News & Record and Landmark Communications, Inc.