(Headline article below) An interesting report on church discipline. Though legal, you can not like the H-1B visa scheme as employed by corporations for cheaper indentured servants. But the conclusion of the church that “we don’t think you’re a Christian anymore” is comical, as most churches today are pretty worthless and full of people who aren’t saved, as Christ was complaining about that in Revelation, so not a new phenomenon. And if he were committing an actual sin and wouldn’t repent, they would be right in casting him out of the church. But looking at the church, it looks like a normal church hustle that didn’t want undue exposure, with a brochure style financial report which was odd, but I think this is the smoking gun, the dedicated phone app for your giving. So far their budget is just under $2 million, but they look to have moved into a new church building, and they gave about $150k to mission work out of a $2 million budget. And a group of younger elders, I think not. And their lead pastor does look like a grifter. I think they did him a favor.
https://thelibertydaily.com/we-dont-think-youre-christian-any-more-church/
By Bob Unruh
(WND News Center)—There are a lot of people in America who are opposed to, critical of, and even resentful toward, the nation’s H-1B visa program, which is a scheme that corporations can use to fire American tech workers and replace them with much cheaper employees, either located overseas or brought to America from their home countries for the work.
Those already critical of the visa manipulations include those hundreds of thousands put out of work by the operations, their families, likely their friends, those business leaders interested in making America’s business climate stable and prosperous and many more.
But now the fight has escalated to the point a church in Texas is attacking one of its members, actually an ex-member now that the elders of the reportedly Baptist-affiliated church have tossed him out over those very sentiments.
It is a report at the Blaze that details of the fight involving Daniel Keene, a small-business owner in a suburb of Dallas, Texas.
He noted that community members from India, which plays a massive role in the agenda to replace American workers with overseas hires, took over an entire street in his suburb for a block party.
He posted video online, and he commented, “We have to cancel the H-1Bs. I want my kids to grow up in America. Not India.”
He later deleted that when he came under attack at his business, at his home, at his health club, and at his church, identified as Trails Church.
He more or less expected some backlash online, but it got “worse” when church officials “decided to interrogate him on his immigration stance,” the report said.
“The elders at the Trails Church called him about his initial post, telling him to repent and that the post was ‘uncharitable,’” the report said.
Church officials demanded he and his wife come in for a meeting, with “all the elders and staff who could be there.”
“They hammered me for … hours,” he explained.
The Blaze said, “The elders had apparently gone through the last three years of Keene’s X account, looking for problematic posts. Keene said they brought up two posts that they found ‘concerning.’”
But Keene said they kept shifting the goalposts, so he was left confused by their demands.
“On one hand, they are saying that the issue is not the position itself; it’s how I expressed it. … but then we’ve had three hours of phone calls, and they’re just hammering me on the position itself.”
He asked for the elders’ position in writing; they refused.
He explained, in the report, the elders “wanted him to apologize for his original post showing the Indian block party on his street and abandon his position on Indian immigration. While he respected their right to disagree with him, Keene told Blaze News he did not think apologizing for the post was appropriate.”
Then, he said, elders threatened him with a “path to discipline.”
Keene noted his detractors claimed, “We don’t think you’re a Christian any more because you haven’t repented of a sin.”
Later, he followed up his deleted post with a podcast talking about immigration, and questioned, “What would get you in more trouble at your church? Significant doctrinal error on the Trinity? Or opposing immigration to the harm of your neighbor?”
The elders, whose online store sells mugs, hats and $50 shirts, then “formally asked Keene to leave the church,” he confirmed.
Church officials did not respond to a Blaze request for comment.
But other hits he has taken: Doxxing and threats, his business was review-bombed, someone claiming to have access to millions of Indian-American contacts apparently tried to extort him for $20,000. And his gym membership was canceled.