As we talked about my research for this sermon, my wife said it seemed to her that the message of the New Testament on discipline in the church was that we should use the minimum action, or the minimum amount of force necessary to accomplish the desired result.
In the comedy move “Police Academy” that came out in 1982 one of the recruits, who is very badge heavy and loves his weapons, is walking down a residential street. A sweet little old lady is standing by the walk and as he approaches she says, “Officer, would you get my kitty out of the tree?”
He looks up, says “Sure, ma’am”, draws his gun and shoots the cat.
And thinking this through, I have to agree that when church leadership goes overboard in reacting
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