Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 12, 1993 TAG: 9304120278
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CHURCH
ONE RHETORICAL question of modern life finally has an answer, it seems: Is nothing sacred anymore?No.
The spectacle of people hauling their church conflicts into a court of law offers further evidence of the wisdom and foresight possessed by the nation's founding fathers when they guaranteed separation of church and state.
How is anyone - in this life, anyway - to judge who is right and who is wrong in the dispute between Calvary Baptist Church in Salem and two longtime members? (Or, rather, former members, at this point.)
Pauline and Harvey Richardson, members of the church for 39 years, now find themselves out, apparently the result of a rift between younger and older members of the congregation that landed in court. What was it doing there?
Historically, churches have been as prone to seek allies in the state as they have been vulnerable to schisms. This makes no less bothersome the notion that nothing is beyond the reach of law.
In Calvary Baptist's case, both sides can share blame. You have to question the wisdom of having recalcitrant church members arrested for trespassing when they show up for services. (What's next: Read him his rights - he sang the hymn off-key?)
On the other hand, churches, thank heavens, are private organizations; they can include or exclude anyone they wish. The couple's presence at an earlier meeting to vote on a new pastor had proven disruptive enough that they had been asked not to return. Showing up at church "to see if they would arrest us" hardly seems a healing gesture.
So, as is all too often the case these days when people treat each other in ways not reflecting Christian ideals, they turned to the court system - rather than to each other - to settle their differences.
At least church officials offered to drop their misdemeanor charges if the Richardsons would not return to the church - and the Richardsons agreed to the deal.
But was the proverbial lesson learned? Did all parties repent of their prideful ways?
Forget about it. As the flock was leaving the courthouse, the unseemly matter seemingly behind them, Pauline Richardson was overheard to ask: "Can we sue them now?"
Undoubtedly. We don't know for what, but we wearily concede there must be some grounds for getting at least an airing. Every wrong - large or small, real or imagined - has to be righted these days in a court of law.
As a first and last and in-between resort, this does not fulfill the soul like forgiveness does. But it does stuff lawyers' pocketbooks.