We had a rough evening last night, and the sadness continues today.  Our pastor has decided that he can no longer bear the gossip that has corroded our 800 member church, so he’s leaving.  I have a very hard time understanding the concept that liars should take control of a community of worshipers; and equally, I have a hard time of grasping the idea that you give up on something – in reality, the losers have won.

I may have previously mentioned the issues at our church in Utah.  A group of people within the congregation decided to oust the pastor, and they did it.  Whether he was the right pastor for the church was not the issue for me and my family – it was that a group of people, without caring what anyone but their little huddle thought, decided what was best for everyone else….and they set out to get rid of the pastor, and they succeeded.

Losers should not win. 

Winners should not quit.

And Christians should go back to their Bibles and study harder on how we are asked to live our lives.  We are Lutherans, so even reading through Luther’s Small Catechism should be enough to learn the 10 Commandments – and to realize that gossip is a sin.

The Eighth Commandment:  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.  What does this mean? –Answer:  We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.

Now, the question for our family is – will we give up on them?  We quit the church in Utah, because we did not feel that the losers should win.  We were duped and lied to (in our opinion) — and there should NOT be a place in a church for those types of behaviors to exist.   I don’t feel lied to in this church, though I do feel that we are a long way from living a life of faith as a community – and that, above all else, is the heart of the matter with me.  I am a Christian.  I choose to go to church because Jesus speaks of us rising above and joining together, to share our faith with others.  But, as it is now, with a portion of the church who choose to live in their own community of gossip, we are not one in the spirit, we are not one in the world.