Judge leaves his church

Here's how his local paper covered it.
Judge Greer parts ways with his church on pastor's advice

(HT: Galley Slaves)

OTB reacted to that and commented:

Quite bizarre.
I know little about Judge Greer and his fealty to Baptist principles. Presumably, one could be devoutly Baptist--and even believe fervently that Michael Schiavo's actions are sinful--and still conclude that the law required that he rule as he did. While it's often observed only in the breech, a judge's ruling on a case and his personal belief in what is "right" do not always coincide. Indeed, many on the Christian Right complain bitterly about secularist judges imposing their morality on the country.

The story is a little more murky than you might think. For one thing, his minister did not turn him away at the door. Judge Greer had already had a hissy fit and stopped attending services.

It’s now a matter of public record – as reported by the St. Petersburg Times, New York Times and Miami Herald – that Judge Greer became estranged from his long-time church family at Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater in the fall of 2003 after the Witness editorialized in defense of Terri Schiavo and criticized his decisions. Greer was offended by my editorials and because Calvary sends the Witness to its membership via our Church Newsletter Service, in response the judge stopped attending church. (Interestingly, however, Judge Greer told us in the summer of 2004 when we interviewed him during his re-election campaign that he still considered himself an active member of Calvary, while admitting that he did not attend regularly.)

And he seems to have an odd view of membership

Greer, who said he had other unrelated problems with the church, said he explained to a deacon, "If I don't like what the St. Pete Times writes about me, my only recourse is to cancel my subscription." So he stopped his donations to the church, though he is still a member.

You can read more here and here.

Seems to me that the judge (who is, after all, also a politician) was trying to have it both ways. He was not willing to be an active member of the church. But he liked being able to wave his membership at reporters to deflect criticism about his handling of the Schiavo case. The minister called him on it (in other cases we might call this speaking truth to power) so the Judge quit.