[Vision2020] Getting Kicked Out of the Kirk

[Michael]

For those of you following any of this Christ Church stuff, the following is
the elder's letter kicking me out and my response.  Does this mean that my
wife and I, and my children, are no longer "kirkers"?  

 

thanks

Michael


The Elders <http://poohsthink.com/?p=472>  of Christ Church Kick Pooh Out


 

General Pooh Thoughts <http://poohsthink.com/?cat=1> 

 

The Elders just kicked me out of Christ Chruch as a member not in good
standing (as of this morning I thought I was a member in good standing), and
they did so just in the nick of time: my duties as a full time graduate
student end tomorrow at 5 pm and Chris Schlect had promised to help me
formulate charges against them by about now. Below is first my response to
them, and then following that is their letter to which I'm responding
(perhaps not the best ordering, but I sort of prefer this way by now):

May 11, 2006

Dear Elders,

I just received your letter. I am certainly horrified that the Session of
Christ Church, as a group, would now be willing to impulsively take such a
quick turn in their approach to me and sign their names to the numerous
lies, rhetorical deceit, and subterfuge contained in just this one short
letter. This kind of arrogant unaccountability can only lead you as a
Session to greater corruption, which saddens me greatly. I have of course
been bringing my concerns and accusations to you for half a year in
countless ways, and at every step I have been belittled, discouraged, or
else simply ignored-and at times I have even been mocked. Any later
punctuations for the public record expressing your willingness to meet with
me have not been "invitations" at all, but rather self-defensive arguments;
and what follows these hollow claims has consistently revealed your
hypocrisy in making them. Your recent "go ahead and file charges" conjoined
with "you don't even believe what you are saying and you are living in a
fantasy world" is a good illustration of your warm "invitations" to go to
you about my concerns. 

The meetings between me and Wilson were only made available because Peter
Leithart did precisely what the elders of Christ Church were responsible to
do, yet refused to do; Leithart did not have the responsibility that you did
to do what he did. Your reference to these meetings in your own defense is
shameful deceit. Leithart was not prompted by the elders of Christ Church;
rather, Dr. Leithart initiated bringing me and Doug Wilson together as equal
parties so that I could finally express my concerns and accusations to him
privately. Doug Wilson would have never encouraged meetings like this since
he was busy merely accusing and belittling me. Leithart did this with the
attitude that he was sufficiently "sympathetic" with both sides, an attitude
completely antithetical to that exhibited by Wilson, Jones, and Lawyer since
even before 6 months ago. And of course Wilson's refusal to listen to me and
his continual self-incrimination during these meetings is not the same thing
as the elders of Christ Church willingly hearing my concerns-you have in
fact successfully refused to listen to any of my concerns the last six
months. These meetings initiated by Dr. Leithart reveal only your failure to
act according to your most basic responsibilities and now it reveals your
own incoherent hypocrisy, not my refusal to make my concerns and accusations
known to you. 

The steady response of Wilson and others attacking my character,
intellectual ability, and even mental sanity over the last six months is
clear enough evidence that my concerns and accusations have been registered
perfectly well. I have just recently specified my accusations once again in
emails to the Session. And yet here you say that I have not brought my
concerns or accusations to you for almost half a year; and you even suggest
that I have not made specifiable accusations. The pattern is clear here: you
will lie and say anything you want, regardless of what the clear facts are. 

You have not been willing to provide support, evidence, or argument in your
claims against me; the "proof-texting" of numerous dates of correspondence
in this letter only evidences further rhetorical dishonesty, not careful
citational support for your slanderous claims. The Session of Christ Church
has therefore decided to become a band of liars and cowards. In order to
claim here that I am no longer able to fulfill my membership vows you simply
twist my own words after ripping them out of context. You have not presented
a cogent reason why I would be released as a member not in good standing nor
have you given me the ability to defend myself against whatever fresh
accusations you wish to now bring against me. You continue to not even
answer simple questions from me nor even respond to my correspondence in any
way that acknowledges what I have written to you. This is consistent with
how you have treated me the last half a year, and how Wilson has treated me
for far longer. 

You also would know that the incredible burdens I am currently under due to
your recent aggressive stance towards me, my business, family, and my full
time status as a graduate student are to be lightened enormously very soon.
I have put off all sorts of personal and professional meetings and tasks
over the last three weeks because of this. In fact, my duties as a full time
graduate student will end completely tomorrow at 5pm; Wilson and Jones are
not ignorant of academic calendars or my current burdens. Whatever formal
charges I have been considering and my expressed determination to begin
meeting with elders individually would have obviously been expressed by me,
at this point, after 5pm tomorrow. We are now even nearing the time that
Chris Schlect promised to begin helping me formulate charges against you. I
can find no other explanation for the impulsiveness of your removal of me
and my family from membership, although this is perfectly consistent with
your cowardly stance against me. There are no important effects that would
come about soon because of this impulsive decision of yours outside of my
inability to file formal charges against you, or my right to request private
meetings with the elders as a member. Also recall that I just recently asked
you what Sunday would work best for me to spend 10 minutes before the entire
congregation. You did not respond to this of course, but rather formally,
and unjustifiably, removed my ability to do this. This is simply more
evidence that your cult-like status is moving closer to a full cultish
expression. 

This is by no means my full response to this letter; I simply wanted to
briefly acknowledge here my receipt of your letter in some kind of
meaningful way.

Yours,
Michael Metzler 

 

The Letter I am responded to:

May 11, 2006
Michael Metzler
P.O. Box 8282
Moscow, ID 83843 

Dear Michael, 

The session of Christ Church received your letter of May 9, 2006 in which
you emphasize that "the Session is required to discipline [you] formally."
We certainly agree with all your quotations from Mother Kirk, and we
continue to excommunicate and suspend members as their circumstances
require. But we have never excommunicated someone for disagreeing with us or
for being emotionally confused. You're a brother, and your own letter says
that you have lost "any remaining emotional ability to show up at Christ
Church in a spiritually healthy manner." In other words, you have lost the
ability to uphold your membership. 

You say that we are "required to finally listen to [your] concerns and
accusations." But you had face-to-face meetings about your concerns with
pastor Wilson with pastor Leithart mediating (meetings 2-6-06; 2-20-06) and
then you declined to pursue those meetings further (your correspondence
2-22-06). In addition, you've had ample opportunity and invitations from us
to bring your concerns formally or informally (our correspondence 12-28-05;
1-19-06; 1-31-06; 3-18-06; 3-20-06), and you have not done so for almost
half a year. In our most recent letter (our correspondence 5-4-06), we made
the offer yet again to hear you out carefully, if you requested it. You
declined again (your correspondence 5-9-06). From the start, you have not
followed through on your numerous threats to bring charges while either
apparently urging us to formulate them for you (your correspondence 3-20-06)
or saying we refuse to hear you (your correspondence 5-4-06). You need to
take responsibility for specifying your own accusations and for not
requesting to meet with us. 

In your most recent letter you speak of our "tyranny" and "harassment."
Similarly, in the past, you've suggested that we're guilty of spiritual
abuse and of being a cult. We're, now, merely freeing you from our supposed
"tyranny." In light of the above comments, our May 4 letter, your continued
inability to heed the golden rule on your blog as we exhorted (our
correspondence 1-23-06; 5-4-06), and your own choice to withdraw from
worship with us while not pursuing your accusations in an orderly manner,
this morning the elders voted to release you and your family from membership
in Christ Church. Obviously, given the above, we do not release you as a
member in good standing. We wish this could have turned out differently. May
the Lord have mercy on us all and bless us all with greater sanctification,
creativity, and joy. 

For the session of Christ Church, May 11 2006, 

Douglas Jones 

 

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