Ruminations |
membership in a small and select community .
Zechariah Parker , Jr .
The Ludlow Baptist Church dismissed and excommunicated James Coleman in 1830 . Church elders appointed a committee of three to investigate Coleman . They visited him at his home , and had a very pleasant conversation , not dealing with the accusations against him . The committee reported Coleman was “ much better than expected .” The church then voted him out , without explaining why , but Zechariah Parker , Jr . thought he knew the real reason . James Coleman was a Mason , and in those days , when the Anti-Masonic Party wrestled for power with the Whigs , being a Mason was regarded by some as the opposite of being a Christian . Parker ’ s letter to the church led to his own excommunication . 19
In his letter to the church , Parker condemned how the church had done it all wrong . He turned to the Bible to illustrate how the process of excommunication should proceed . The first step should be confronting your accusers and learning what has moved them to act . He referred the church to these words attributed to Jesus from the Book of Matthew :
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee , go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee , thou hast gained your brother . But if he will not hear thee , then take with thee one or two more , that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established . And if he shall neglect to hear them , tell it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the church , let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican . 20
This is Biblical due process , and it necessitates open confrontation of accusers by the accused , and the opportunity to be heard .
There were other issues that separated Coleman from his church . He had doubts that baptism was the exclusive door into the visible church or a prerequisite to participating in the communion service , a belief that was directly contrary to the Baptist faith . But there was something going on here . The former Baptist pastor at Ludlow , Ruel Lathrop , made the separation even more painful when he said , “ Those members who are excluded from the Baptist Church , whether guilty or not guilty of the charges preferred against them , will most certainly be damned .” 21 There is no due process in that attitude .
Excommunication was not as smooth or deliberate a process in other towns .
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Azariah Wright
Azariah Wright was active in attempting to close the New York court at Westminster in May of 1775 , where one settler was killed . This incident was memorialized in Vermont history as the Westminster Massacre , claimed by some as the first blood shed in the Revolution . That effort made him a patriot and a hero to many . In the Revolutionary War , he fought valiantly and then settled in Westminster after the war . He was a member of the Westminster Congregational Church . He was also a problem . It was Wright who accused Thomas Chandler , Jr . of representing a black man in court , which Chandler strongly denied and triggered his suit against Wright for defamation . Chandler lost his position as Secretary of State and Speaker of the House as a consequence of the rumor . Then there was his attitude toward the clergy . In Westminster , Wright used to tweak the nose of pastor Joseph Bullen , cuff his cheeks , and perform other “ enormities ,” and one Sunday he shot a bear who was raiding his corn . To make it worse , his shot was heard by the congregation at Sunday service , a noise that was heard by everyone at the church .
Charges were drawn , and a hearing held , where Wright argued strenuously that there were exceptions to the rule but Bullen and the congregation rejected them . When services the next week began , Rev . Bullen started to read the order of excommunication to the congregation , as they had decided in a previous meeting . Once the reading began , Azariah Wright entered , raised his rifle , and pointed it at the minister ’ s head , saying nothing . The minister immediately handed the paper to Deacon John Sessions , as Wright ’ s gun shifted toward a new head .
Sessions is then reputed to have said , quoting St . Paul ’ s first letter to the Corinthians , “ All things are lawful , but some things are not expedient ,” and he handed the document back to Bullen , after which everyone fled the church . 22 Azariah Wright remained a member of the Westminster Congregational Church . 23
Deacon Sessions had an interesting early career in Vermont . In 1776 , he was appointed as a representative to the New York Assembly representing Westminster , which no doubt colored his relationship with Azariah Wright . E . P . Walton said of Sessions that at the time of independence , he realized it “ was not expedient for the deacon to adhere to Vermont .” 24
A Rupert Fornicator
In 1814 , the Rupert Congregational Church excommunicated a man , whose name is not mentioned specifically in a pamphlet published the following year , for
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unchastity . He was a 23-year-old member of the church , from a good family , who had relations with a 16-year-old girl , also from a good family , and who , following the birth of their child , “ forsook her under the pretext of being destitute of any affectionate attachment to her .” 25 The pamphlet was published as a warning to other young people , and their parents , to recognize that “ illicit intercourse ” is sin and “ followed by such deplorable consequences .”
The process Rupert ’ s church leaders followed to try the man was formal and deliberate . First a member of the brethren filed a complaint , alleging he was guilty of fornication and of refusing to marry the “ injured youth ” he had seduced . The charge was based on a violation of the prohibition instituted in in the law of Moses : “ And if a man entice a maid , that is not betrothed , and lie with her , he shall surely endow her to be his wife .” 26 He acknowledged the facts . There was the baby .
On Sunday , March 14 , 1814 , the congregation heard the evidence and decided that he must make a public confession of the crime , which he had already done , and must marry his “ criminal associate .” A week later , the congregation reviewed what they had done earlier and confirmed it by unanimous vote . Unable to persuade the young man to go ahead with the marriage , the church agreed that July to refer his case to a mutual council , made up of neighboring ministers and delegates , who would be “ unbiased and disinterested .” 27
Acting as an appellate court , the reverends and deacons of four neighboring towns confirmed the propriety of the sanction . Dr . Amos Pettengill served as scribe of the Council , and delivered what he called a “ Dissertation ,” but which reads more like a sermon and at the same time as a judicial decision , explaining the actions of the church and the Council . The sermon began by quoting Dr . Thomas Scott , whose Family Bible , published in eight volumes , was a popular source of commentary on the Bible , justifying the sanction of a forced marriage following a seduction . 28 Dr . Pettengill explained the relationship between civil marriage and a divine institution , and ruminated on the purpose and obligations of betrothal , the formal , public commitment to marry . The accused fornicator had made such a contract , and then repudiated it .
Taking liberties outside of marriage or betrothal creates a moral obligation to marry the partner , as the “ guilt he has contracted by associating with her , renders him unfit to marry another .” Marriage is the only “ reparation for the injury he has done her ,” the only way to “ retrieve her character .” Not only for her sake and his sake , and for that of the child , but for the society , the two should marry , to avoid a “ moral contagion ” to infect the community , the natural
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