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Pilgrim said:
John,

Let me relay something which I have personally gone through in a similar situation. We had once considered becoming members of a Free Presbyterian Church (Ireland) that has a congregation close to where we lived. When the time came, after attending there for about 8 months, we asked the pastor to come to the house for the purpose of discussing membership in that church. After he had arrived and we went through the normal "small talk", he presented us with a booklet, which set forth the denomination's requirements for membership. That booklet was entitled, Separated Unto the Gospel. It states very clearly that members are to vow to abstain from all alcohol, tobacco, dancing, card playing and any else deemed inappropriate by the Elders. To say the least, I was rather taken back and voiced my objections.

One of my objections was that these requirements were in opposition to the Westminster Confession of Faith, of which the church is allegedly committed. Specifically, I pointed out Chapter XX - "Of Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience" which states:

In His grace,

Hi Pilgrim,

I will point out that, according to my pastor, the church does not believe drinking to necessarily be a sin (although it seems smoking is). So there is a difference between your situation and mine. But, I can actually understand (but disagree with their conclusion) a church who asks their members to abstain from those things because the church thinks they are a sin. In this case, the reasons are because of past problems with alcohol and the desire for members to have a good testimony. As I said in my first post, I can somewhat understand the first reason (although I think it's an over-reaction and has many problems), but the second reason is flawed on many, many levels in my opinion. Anyway, I'll have more clarification on these points in a few days from the pastor.

Thanks for pointing out the WCF section. I was actually reading it last night and wondering how relevant it was to my situation. I'll read the other articles you listed after work tonight.

John

Last edited by john; Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:24 PM.