A Response To J D Hall’s Vomit-tastic Post about Village Church’s Handling of Certain Members, Covenants, and Marriages
Before we get to the post by J D Hall:
Background:
- The Village Church (TVC) of Texas has placed Karen, who was once a member of theirs, under church discipline because she did not, according to them, abide by the church covenant she signed.
- Instead of conferring with the church on what to do, Karen, on her own, sought an annulment from the state of Texas, once she discovered her then-spouse, Jordan, was a pedophile.
- Karen said she spent about 50 days conferring with other Christians (not from the TVC), and in prayer, mulling over what to do, before seeking the annulment.
- This action of hers has ticked off TVC leadership, because Karen did not get their permission to get the annulment.
- Matt Chandler is the lead preacher of TVC.
You can read additional reporting of this situation here (additional material is at the bottom of this post):
- (Link, off site): She Wanted an Annulment from a Pedophile. What Happened Next Ignited a Controversy
Here is the page I am responding to:
(Link, off site): A Rational Response to the Criticism of Village Church by J D Hall, Pulpit and Pen blog
The covenant that Hall is so rigorously defending – TVC’s membership covenant – here does not even mention annulments.
As Karen explains (off site Link, Source):
- …it is worth noting here that although The Village Church claims [in their e-mail] that “We see an annulment as a subcategory of what Scripture defines as a divorce in Mark 10:9” …, this cannot be found anywhere in their Membership Covenant or Bylaws.
- In signing their Membership Covenant shortly after my 24th birthday, I had agreed to nothing in regards to the possibility of annulment should I come to realize that my marriage had been a complete sham from the beginning.
- There is a vast difference between a divorce and a marriage that is voided on the grounds of fraud, and I had no way of knowing that the leadership of The Village Church would respond to it in this fashion.
Christian Pundit 