Not allowed to attend church services

[ppcbill]

A question came up during a conversation today about a Pastor not allowing a person to attend chuch services.
It seems a visiting person talked to a Pastor after hearing the sermon about some theological differences and told the Pastor his theology was incorrect and asked him to change his sermons. The Pastor subsequntly banned the person from attending services at this denomination.
Now I can see that there are theological differences within the Protestant community however I can not see an outright ban from the particular church. One of the conversationalist who is very biblically versed said that there is a biblical precident for this.
I had never heard of anything like this.Can anyone point to any verse that would support the Pastor banning aperson from attending church services?

 

[rskempf]

I have not read a statement that allows a priest to ban a parishioner.

I do know one pastor that delivered incredibly destructive homolies for 12 years at my parish. I bypassed the pastor right away and started recording concise facts. I sent these to the bishop and the congregation of the doctrine of the faith at the vatican. This is the right course by the way in your situation. You can get the vatican’s address on www.vatican.va.

If the pastor is not resonding, go around right away. It is time to fight back and not just move to the next parish.

 

[seeker57]

I have a friend who was told to leave her church.

She told me the preacher said it was obvious her son was gay because he had AIDS and, because of that, that she wasn’t welcome there any longer.

Her son died a short time later.

She was a Baptist.

To my knowledge she hasn’t set foot in any church since.

Seeker.

 

[beeliner]

I have not read a statement that allows a priest to ban a parishioner.

I do know one pastor that delivered incredibly destructive homolies for 12 years at my parish. I bypassed the pastor right away and started recording concise facts. I sent these to the bishop and the congregation of the doctrine of the faith at the vatican. This is the right course by the way in your situation. You can get the vatican’s address on www.vatican.va.

If the pastor is not resonding, go around right away. It is time to fight back and not just move to the next parish.

rsk, it appears to me that the original poster is Protestant and wishing to ‘compare notes’ with Catholics and other viewers of the forum.

I would guess that in those Protestant denoms with an established hierarchy (Episcopalians, Methodists, etc.) such a thing is probably about as unknown as in Catholicism. The more fundamentalist manifestations of Protestantism are, of course, a different story.

I have no doubt that incidents as related in the first and third posts are common there.

 

[ConstantineTG]

How significant is getting banned from a Protestant church? After all, isn’t accepting Jesus as your savior and establishing a personal relationship with Him is all that is important to Protestants?

 

[Dave_Noonan]

rsk, it appears to me that the original poster is Protestant and wishing to ‘compare notes’ with Catholics and other viewers of the forum.

I would guess that in those Protestant denoms with an established hierarchy (Episcoplians, Methodists, etc.) such a thing is probably about as unknown as in Catholicism. The more fundamentalist manifestations of Protestantism are, of course, a different story.

I have no doubt that incidents as related in the first and third posts are common there.

I recall that after the death of D. James Kennedy, there was a big rift between his family members and the new pastor (Billy Graham’s grandson; can’t recall his name)–after which the family members were banned from Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Matt 18:17 is usually used as justification.

 

[TracyR]

Not uncommon at all. Just today I was reading in the paper about a protestant pastor who says he’s going to preach to his congregation not to use Facebook and anyone who does will be ask to leave the congregation.

 

[seeker57]

I had never heard of that happening until my friend told me what had happened to her.

I haven’t heard of it from my other Christian or Jewish friends, nor seen it in a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

I should insert the caveat that most of my Christian friends are Catholic or Episcopalian, with a smattering of Presbyterians and one or two Methodists.

I really don’t know many evangelicals or fundamentalists.

It just seems this banning or turning away of church members is the antithesis of what I had always understood Christian teachings to be.

Seeker

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Not uncommon at all. Just today I was reading in the paper about a protestant pastor who says he’s going to preach to his congregation not to use Facebook and anyone who does will be ask to leave the congregation.

Is this the same story? Pastor orders church leaders to abandon Facebook

A New Jersey pastor is blaming Facebook for a series of marital problems among his church members and has ordered his church leaders to get rid of their Facebook page…or resign.
The Rev. Cedric Miller said 20 couples among the 1,100 members of his Living Word Christian Fellowship Church have run into marital trouble over the last six months after a spouse connected with an ex-flame over Facebook.

Because of the problems, he is ordering about 50 married church officials to delete their accounts with the social networking site or resign from their leadership positions. He had previously asked married congregants to share their login information with their spouses and now plans to suggest that they give up Facebook altogether…

It appears that his order is only to those in leadership positions. It is just pastoral advice to the congregation… The order appears to apply only to those in leadership positions. It is pastoral advice to the rest.

 

[4Squarebaby]

We recently picked up a family who were “excommunicated” from a growing non denominational church. A non church attending cousin from the Catholic side of the family commented that he thought only the Catholic Church did that.

We have dealt with hecklers and people who insist on speaking out in tongues out of order have been asked to move on to another church were they tolerate more enthusiasm but I never heard of an outright ban nor have I seen ushers, elders or anyone escort someone out

 

[1ke]

cousin from the Catholic side of the family commented that he thought only the Catholic Church did that.

Excommunication is very misunderstood, even by Catholics. Excommunication doesn’t kick a person out of the Church. It bars them from receiving the Sacraments until they reconcile with the Church. They are still Catholics, and they are still obligated to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.

 

[HAnne]

How significant is getting banned from a Protestant church? After all, isn’t accepting Jesus as your savior and establishing a personal relationship with Him is all that is important to Protestants?

Not necessarily. Many Protestants rely heavily on their church for spiritual growth and development as well as support, friendship, and other things Catholics depend on the Church for. Being “kicked out” is extremely upsetting to them.

I have been a Protestant who has lost her faith community repeatedly due to moving - it’s like losing a loved one every time. Catholics have the great benefit of going to another Church that will (theoretically) have the same Mass, the same Sacraments, the same Traditions and traditions, etc. Protestants don’t have that stability so it’s incredibly painful to lose what you know to be true and have to find the strength to go and search it out again and find what “fits you and your faith.”

 

[ignatius777]

We recently picked up a family who were “excommunicated” from a growing non denominational church. A non church attending cousin from the Catholic side of the family commented that he thought only the Catholic Church did that.

We have dealt with hecklers and people who insist on speaking out in tongues out of order have been asked to move on to another church were they tolerate more enthusiasm but I never heard of an outright ban nor have I seen ushers, elders or anyone escort someone out

“Banning” someone from a church is MUCH different then ex-communication. I have never heard of a priest banning someone from the church and a priest can not excommunicate anyone

 

[Nine_Two]

The concept of banning people from the congregation is quite biblical. I don’t have any bible verses on hand, I’m lazy and don’t feel like looking. In Revelations the letter to one of the Churches, I believe Laodacia was criticized for accepting heretics. 1 Corinthians I think is another book which deals with it.

In the early Church this was known as “Anathema”, to cut someone off from the church. Essentially it is a pronouncement that in your current condition you are too much of a risk to the parish to be allowed in it.

While this concept clearly exists in the Apostolic Churches, Protestant Churches have quite commonly practiced something which is pretty much the same thing. A number of New England settlements are the result of one group being kicked out of congregations in older settlements. Many of the Reformers saw each other as being what amounts to anathema, such as Luther and Calvin.

Among Protestants the practice seems most common among non-denominationals today. I know someone who was kicked out of a non-denominational church that he hosted in his home, talk about awkward.

 

[7_Sorrows]

i briefly attended a church with a friend that had a pastor who told a young person who was studying to be a pastor, that he could no longer attend the church because he disagreed with what the pastor was teaching and said it was incorrect. the pastor leaned heavily to john calvin. several years later, this young person was going to be wed and wanted to invite a few of his old friends that he knew at this church. he asked the pastor if he could invite these friends to attend his wedding and the pastor said “no”.

this pastor preached that the people in the congregation were supposed to cut off ties with other people who left this church.

it was definitely a protestant church and i felt like the pastor wrongly had a lot of control over his congregation.

 

[Newbie2]

“Banning” someone from a church is MUCH different then ex-communication. I have never heard of a priest banning someone from the church and a priest can not excommunicate anyone

I think it’s worth nothing that Catholics have rights under Canon law which a Priest cannot overrule. I’m not aware of any such rights that protestant churches extend to the membership, at least in the mainstream. The independant small ecclesial communities seem to have authoritarian control over their membership.

I’m sure Fred Phelps would have no trouble kicking someone out of the Westboro Baptist Church if you disagreed with his/their theology…but of course, one would probably not be admitted to their congregation in the first place…

 

[seeker57]

I’m sure Fred Phelps would have no trouble kicking someone out of the Westboro Baptist Church if you disagreed with his/their theology…but of course, one would probably not be admitted to their congregation in the first place…

BRRRRR - a cold shiver just ran up my spine.

 

[Randb]

I had a elderly friend that asked the preacher if she could wear pants to church in the winter when it was so cold and windy, she had trouble with her legs. The preacher told her she couldn’t wear pants to the church.

We just went to a independent baptist church funeral yesterday & I found out I was going to hell for wearing pants cause the bible tells them so! Most of the people that didn’t go to that church had pants on.---------- They didn’t talk much about the deceased but they sure talked about the sins of the world and you better repent! Come on down now, we have time , he said after about 2 hours of preaching!
No one came down, guess the 6 or 7 families that go there are already saved & the viistors have a church to go to.

 

[HAnne]

I had a elderly friend that asked the preacher if she could wear pants to church in the winter when it was so cold and windy, she had trouble with her legs. The preacher told her she couldn’t wear pants to the church.

We just went to a independent baptist church funeral yesterday & I found out I was going to hell for wearing pants cause the bible tells them so! Most of the people that didn’t go to that church had pants on.---------- They didn’t talk much about the deceased but they sure talked about the sins of the world and you better repent! Come on down now, we have time , he said after about 2 hours of preaching!
No one came down, guess the 6 or 7 families that go there are already saved & the viistors have a church to go to.

Ah, the women must wear pants people. I intentionally wear a skirt every time I visit a church for the first time unless specifically told otherwise just to avoid this controversy. I’ve also taken to wearing a chiffon scarf as a headband I can turn into a headcover in a pinch.

Truthfully, I like to wear skirts, but to attack a visitor who didn’t know about the church’s practice is just rude!

 

[Holly3278]

Not uncommon at all. Just today I was reading in the paper about a protestant pastor who says he’s going to preach to his congregation not to use Facebook and anyone who does will be ask to leave the congregation.

Whoa! Really??? Wow. I don’t see how he could do that. What is so wrong with using Facebook anyway other than the fact that it can be a huge time killer??