[Granville-Hough] 7 Jul 2009 - Church Democracy

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:38:07 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: ChDemocracy - 7 Jul 2009

We stand corrected on yesterday's poem about the crabby old man. It is a 
remarkable poem by a living author whose work was appropriated by 
others. Thank you, Terry Lynn, for bringing us up to date. Grampa.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problems in Church Democracy. One can read between the lines and see 
that there were sometimes problems with the administration of punishment 
for transgressions in the Zion Hill Baptist Church. Transgressions 
included such things as dancing or plays in oneÆs home. Of course 
drunkeness and loud swearing were transgressions which were even more 
serious, even if done in oneÆs own home. Fornication was downright 
serious in any environment, but no males were found guilty or suffered 
church punishment. In Aug 1865, Zion Hill Church instructed its 
delegates to the County Association to seek answers to serious 
questions. The young men members had just returned from their service in 
the Confederate Army, and they were not tolerant of any discipline of 
their personal conduct. One specific question for the County Association 
was: ôIs it gospel order where there are charges against church members 
for misconduct for one accused to move and another (accused) to second 
to have the charges thrown out, male or female?ö (One can picture 
hard-bitten Confederate veterans, accustomed to swearing to high heaven 
over the most trivial events, being disciplined by the staid old elders 
of the church. Well, if you were brought up for confession, just bring 
along several of your buddies and outmotion and outvote the old guys. 
There are different ways to skin a cat, and outvoting the elders is less 
humiliating than confessions of guilt and abject pleas for tolerance.)
There was no record of any answer from the County Association. Likely, 
every congregation was facing the same problems. So Zion Hill was 
allowed to struggle to find its own answers. Some decisions followed the 
will of the majority; but they plainly did not follow the will of God.