Wow.
A few weeks ago, Nancy and I went to a new church near my house. In the sermon given, the pastor said some pretty horrible things. (Example: “Our country is a Christian country because its founders were Christians.” — Israel was founded by God speaking personally to Moses, did that make them a godly nation? Would a “Christian Nation” commit genocide against the American Indians out of lust for more territory, more lebensraum?)
Anyways, I went back there today and noticed in the bulletin that the upshot of the Lost Sheep parable was turned into a call for evangelism. I have written on this parable elsewhere (6-page .pdf) and went to speak to him about it. He was right next to the front door of the church (this was before the service began) and I literally got maybe one sentence out (that sentence being something like “I noticed what appears to be a misapplication of this parable “) before he said “we cannot have this,” opened the door, and directly his lay leader to take me outside.I then tried to discuss why the parable was really an exhortation for the Jews to make piece with Israel (at that time, Israel had been subsumed, so it came to be a representative of the Gentile nations at large). He soon had to go give the opening address, and after I told him that his pastor’s behavior was inexcusable he asked me to leave.
And then he told two other men who were outside to make sure I left, as though I were one of those theologian-pipe bombers you hear about in the news all the time!