Church says woman, 103, can't return 'for any reason'

[mfcorey1]

ELBERTON, Ga. -- Members of Union Grove Baptist Church in Elberton recently revoked the membership of a 103-year-old woman from its flock saying she cannot attend the church “for any reason what so ever.”

“I was unhappy and shocked,” said Genora Hamm Biggs, who received a letter regarding her expulsion. “I joined the church when I was 11 years old.”
Despite the Aug. 2 admonition from the Rev. Tim Mattox of Athens, Deacon Glen Jackson of Elberton, and nine others who signed the letter, she returned to church the next Sunday. Someone in the church called the Elberton police. But the responding officer took no action calling it a civil matter.
The pastor then dismissed the service. The lights were turned off and Biggs, a member for 92 years, was left sitting on the pew of a darkened sanctuary.

Biggs, a retired school teacher who taught first grade for 40 years in Elbert County, plans to be back in church this Sunday. The Rev. Mattox was even one of her former pupils.
Also banned from the church was Biggs’ grandson, Eliott Dye, who has been a member for 30 years, and Kevin Hamm, an ordained minister who was also a member of the church.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2015-09-13/elberton-church-bans-woman-103?v=1442134722

[Sheldon Cooper]

1. That's exactly what Jesus would have done.

Call the cops, shut down the church altogether, and leave a 103-year old woman sitting alone in the pew.

[Oneironaut]

14. I remember that story in the Bible. It's next to the passage about gay marriage.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Small minds all around.

[Faux pas]

3. Yeah

that the xtian way.

[Rex]

4. “One woman talking to me this morning told me to stick to my guns,”

Yes stick to your guns! Jesus NEVER let his firearm drop from his hands!


Here we see Jesus getting ready to dispatch Pilate at 900 yards.

[lpbk2713]

5. Very cold and thoughtless if they had to inform her by mail.

Were they afraid to visit her at home to explain their decision?

If it was someone they thought they could get money from
I know they would be there without a moment's delay.

Maybe that's it. Maybe she left the church out of her will?

[ProfessorGAC]

17. She May Be 103, But. . .

. . .she's a serious badass! They were afraid.

[MineralMan]

6. I couldn't find anything in the linked story that explained

the reasons for her being banned from that church. Very poor article, indeed. All I can determine is that they got a new pastor, who this elderly woman did not agree with. Churches...bah!

At the church I attended as a youth, the deacons fired the minister suddenly. We didn't discover the reason for a while. It turned out that one of the deacons made a pass at the minister's wife, who spurned him and reported that to her husband. That, apparently, was the reason for the firing.

Oddest thing of all, the deacon continued to hold that position, even after the facts were generally known. I left that church not long after that, and left all churches and Christianity not much later. Ugly shit.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. I had to dig...

The outrageous behavior directed at Biggs is centered on the issue of the direction and doctrine of the church. According to Biggs, Mattox was hired as a baptist minister but in fact he revealed himself to be a holiness preacher. Biggs is quoted as stating, “He is a holy sanctified minister or so he says. We voted him in and we didn’t know it until he was there. We are Baptists and that’s what we want to stay.”

http://www.newsjs.com/url.php?p=http://rollingout.com/2015/09/14/georgia-church-kicks-103-year-old-woman/

[lpbk2713]

9. So he pulled the ol' bait and switch.

Maybe he won't last very long if he got his position through deceptiveness.

[Snobblevitch]

20. I know of a church in which the preacher was told to leave because he had an affair

with the church organist. They both ended up getting divorces. She left 5 children (ages 2 to 14) with their father (sole custody) and they got married. They were both scumbags.

[RussBLib]

8. ah yes, that sense of community that church provides

that people just can't get anywhere else.

[hunter]

10. I have some funny childhood stories like that...

... it's never safe to let my mom into any church.

We ended up Quaker because Friends could listen respectfully to what she had to say and then move on without rioting.

Previously, the Jehovah's Witnesses had not been so accepting, eventually posting a few large men at the Kingdom Hall to keep her out. By physical force if necessary, like club bouncers. And the story gets worse.

Most of my ancestors left Europe for the Americas in the 18th and 19th centuries as pacifist religious heretics, dissidents, and a few draft and impressment dodging scoundrels. I always picture them jumping off the boat swimming and then running into the American wilderness as fast as they could.

My last European immigrant ancestor was a mail order bride to Brigham Young's Salt Lake City. But she didn't like sharing a husband and ran away.

The Mormons still treat her descendants like we owe them money.

[arikara]

19. You should write a book

One of those fat multi-generational tomes. It would be a hoot.

[quickesst]

11. What is truly sad....

...is the fact she was left sitting alone in the church. This is what should have happened.

[KamaAina]

12. WTF?!

[Warpy]

13. I see two year olds

The whole thing started because a preacher got hired who didn't preach the way the church was used to.

The adult thing to do would be for everybody to put up with each other until the preacher's contract is up and then he's out on his bum to find a more compatible church. As it is now, everybody's wrong, with the cruelty on the party of the preacher just putting the cherry on a poisoned cake.

I suppose someone will step in as mediator now that this has hit the press, as it should have been done from the beginning.

It's just really hard not to feel sorry for Mrs. Biggs. Then again, maybe the fight is one of the main things keeping her going.

[yardwork]

15. That's really sad.

[WillowTree]

16. Why is this news?

It's a private matter among members of one specific church congregation. Why would anyone outside that congregation give a flyin' fig about any of it?

Must be a slow news day.

[madashelltoo]

18. Our church had a similar dilemma.

The Search Committee got swindled, presented him to the congregation with false credentials and he came in, changed the locks and demanded that anyone doing research into his past be taken off the roll. Everything about the man was a lie. Every effort to shine a light on him was rebuffed by the deacons. He eventually committed the unpardonable sin of having sex with a member in his office. She charged him with rape. They fired him on an ethics failure. They're still angry with the people who tried to tell them he wasn't who he said he was all of these years later. Pride is a mother.

I feel sorry for this lady and her congregation. However, I love her determination to attend every Sunday. If he keeps shutting the service down because she's there, his congregation might actually eventually wake up. Or, he'll trip himself up some other way. Fast, easy income and adoration feeds the ego of this type. He's not holiness. He's nothing but another fraud.