There are a lot of people out there who claim to speak for God, but very few of them manage to make God sound this whiny.

Some members of the Cave City Baptist Church in Kentucky got a concentrated celestial finger wag in the form of a letter from Senior Pastor Ryan Broers (whose single year as the senior pastor really makes him more of a freshman). The letter basically boiled down to, “You haven’t been here or given money and God is disappointed.”

[Church] members are expected, first of all, to be faithful in all the duties essential to the Christian life; and also, to attend habitually the services of His church, to give regularly to its support and its causes, and to share in its organized work. “This letter is to inform you that your name has been removed from the membership roll of Cave City Baptist Church.

Pretty aggressive stuff coming from the person responsible for encouraging people to show up. The letter went out to folks who apparently hadn’t attended a church service in a year, which Pastor Broers insisted was a breach of the by-laws of the church.

Samantha Esters, a lifelong member of the church who had been to mass three weeks before receiving one of these letters, said she’s too furious to return.

“I don’t ever want to go back,” she told WBKO. “I was in shock that they could kick somebody out, especially after I had just been there a couple Sundays ago.”

Some of the Scarlet Lettered folks have extenuating circumstances that make attendance difficult. One comment on a Facebook post about the letters had a valid point.

Pastor Broers seemed to think that folks would get the letter, feel all the shame, and beg forgiveness. “If anyone wants to come back, they’re welcome to come back,” the pastor said in the WBKO interview. “There’s no hard feelings towards anyone that received the letter.”

Public reaction, however, has been mostly hard feelings.



Many replies had a philosophical take on the Higher Power and how Humans Tend to Misinterpret These Things.



Jason Pedigo, another (apparently former) member of the church who received the same letter, sent this story viral with a Facebook post. Most folks who reacted were incensed at the gall of Pastor Ryan Broers, but the letter did have one significant advocate who showed up to defend it.

The thread goes on for a while so we’ll let Jason Walsh have the last word.

Try not to be guilted into faith, folks.

H/T: Rawstory, Star-Telegram