Posted on 09/11/2013 5:19:41 AM PDT by Morgana
Hamlin, WV -
The mayor of Hamlin, WV was asked to resign as pastor of his church after he let Lincoln County Sheriff's deputies use the church bus in a drug bust.
Chris Wilkinson has a few jobs in Lincoln County. He's the mayor, the Chief of Police, and up until Monday, was the pastor of Morningstar Community Church. After being pastor for ten years, he said his congregation asked him to resign. He said the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department asked him if they could use the church's bus last Thursday. Nine officers needed to get to a meth bust in Harts without being noticed. Mayor Wilkinson said. "Rumor had it that people living at the mouth of the holler were calling them people living up in the holler, telling them that the police were coming."
He said the officers parked their cruisers in Hamlin, and rode to the scene of the meth bust in the bus. Three people were arrested on meth related charges as a result but Wilkinson said his congregation wasn't happy that the church bus was used by the Sheriff's Department. Then, he said he got the phone call from a church member Monday night asking him to resign.
He said he stands by his decision. The mayor said this wasn't the first time the bus was used in this capacity. He said the State Police used it around three months ago and netted nine arrests. "I just assumed since they didn't care that time, that they wouldn't care for me doing it again," said Wilkinson.
(Excerpt) Read more at wowktv.com ...
He should be fired, because he confused the line between the neutrality of the church, and involvement in secular matters.
What if next time, the bus was full of church goers when it ventured into the territory of a ruthless and armed meth lab operator?
Not ironically at all, this is little different from the days of moonshining. Were a pastor to aid “revenuers” against the local moonshiners, using the same logic that alcohol harms people, his name would have still been ‘mud’.
Yes, because now the bus could be a target of the dealers thereby putting innocent children/adult members of the church at potential risk.
Where is the line between church and state exactly? That is not a Constitutional statment.
These are “agents” of the government (whether local, country, state or federal) using church property to further government purposes. The agents should have bought and outfitted their own bus for their purposes.
Yeah, and they got hit in the pocket book. I always heard that the kicked dog yelps.
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