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| Sermon on the Mount including Matthew 5:38-42 |
What do you get when you mix one long-term church pastor, three angry deacons, and a Princeton attorney?
Trouble… with a capital T, and that rhymes with B, and that stands for Brawl.
Trouble had been brewing for a long time at the well-known Jerusalem Baptist Church in Trenton, New Jersey. It had apparently been fueled by a power struggle between Pastor T. L. Steele (who had been there for 28 years) and an unholy trinity of deacons. Tensions spiked on Sunday, September 5, 2011 when Pastor Steele asked ministers rather than deacons to help serve that day’s Communion.
According to the Trentonian, this tension then erupted into threats and violence. One deacon reportedly shouted to the pastor: If you say another word, I will kill you. Another deacon reportedly grabbed a Communion tray, served some parishioners from it, then threw the tray back on the table. The Trenton police were called to the scene. That was allegedly their fourth call to the church within a year.
Perhaps this is just an isolated case. After all, things like this don’t happen very often in church – or do they?
The Associated Press reported on January 31, 2011 that a church in Western North Carolina was suffering from a similar violent atmosphere. Approximately 30 police officers were summoned to the Greater New Zion Baptist Church in Fletcher because of fights centering upon the recent dismissal of the church pastor.
Dr. Barbara Reynolds, a religion writer for the National Newspaper Publishers Association, reports about many other church-related incidents in which the phrase “laying on of hands” has taken on a whole new abusive meaning.
Resources
http://fwix.com/trenton/share/71b2c03300/trenton_church_gone_wild_fist_fights__death_threat_to_pastor_at_jerusalem_baptist
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013101713.html
http://www.blackpressusa.com/Op-Ed/speaker.asp?SID=16&NewsID=14129
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount
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