Week 10 Church Fight - Anton Folz March 24th 09

Week Ten – Anton Folz
March 24th, 09

Church Fight

I interviewed Rev. Brad Terhune on Sunday March 22nd, 09 at Lakeview Church

1. There were a number of doctors attending this local church and one of which was an OBGYN, and happened to deliver a number of the babies that were from families in the congregation. There was one girl in particular that was born, and was delivered by this particular doctor, and ended up being very physically and mentally handicap due to a number of health concerns and entanglement of the umbilical cord. As the years moved on, some people began to convince the mother of the disabled child that she was in the right to sue the doctor that delivered her baby. This is where the problem began to amount to something real and divisive.
When the daughter was about six or seven years old, this whole issue began to grow rapidly, and soon the family with the child were no longer allowed to speak to the family of the doctor due to the legal advice of their lawyer. Both families continued to attend church faithfully, but always apart and sat on the opposite sides of the church. This began to breed disconnection and confusion among many in the congregation that knew the situation was taking place. There was not necessarily anger or strife; so much as it became a divisive tool that was pulling the church apart.

2. It got to the point that many, if not all of the people in the church knew what was going on, and the even though the two families worshipped in the same area, they could not ever talk to one another. This carried on for years, and to this day has some very deep and unresolved conflict that still occurs between the two families because of their inability to have fellowship and to communicate to one another.

3. It seems that some in the church, along with the pastors on staff, should have tried to talk with the two families. Although there was some deep heart and disconnect due to the legal advice that the family with the disabled child received, there could have been some sort of attempt to bring the two parties together to have them reconcile the problem, rather than allowing it to grow and continue to feed into the thoughts and feelings of disunity within the body of that Christian church. The senior pastor should have sat down with each party individually and then maybe tried to bring the two together. If they refused, then he should have gathered others with him, such as the supporting staff, and got to talking to the families. Anything would have been better than allowing the two to grow apart so far that there now seems to be no reconciliation possible between the two.