Posted on 11/06/2011 11:03:15 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Like something out of the Old Testament, an affliction from on high has rained down on Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Fairfax County: golf balls.
One smashed the rear window of Pastor Bob Barnett’s Honda Odyssey on a Sunday. Another crashed through a church office window, and a third plunked the youth director on the head, knocking him down as he worked with a group of children. In all, 2,637 balls pelted the property during a recent year-long period, the church claims. Members know because they collected each one.
The source is not divine, but the adjacent TopGolf, a state-of-the-art entertainment complex that features a 76-bay, two-level driving range.
[SNIP]
The church is so teed off that members have invoked an obscure bit of Virginia law to seek relief. They petitioned a Fairfax court for a special grand jury to decide whether TopGolf could be prosecuted as an ongoing public nuisance.
[SNIP]
TopGolf chief executive Joe Vrankin said the complex has done everything possible to corral balls, including spending about $350,000 on possible solutions and working closely with the church.
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....Vrankin said TopGolf has paid as much as $2,000 for damage caused by balls hit onto church grounds in recent years.
Vrankin said it requires a “Tiger Woods drive” to clear the netting. The problem, he said, is that 10 million balls are hit at TopGolf each year, so some are bound to sail onto church property.
But he said it’s rare for a ball to fly so far. According to Vrankin, “99.9927 percent of balls stay in the property line.”
How does he know?
TopGolf outfits each ball with a microchip that allows the company to track the length of the drive and the number of balls hit.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The church in question is part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) denomination (www.epc.org), which does not condone gay marriage. The larger Presbyterian Church USA (www.pcusa.org) most likely does support gay marriage, but I haven’t looked into it. BTW, there is a very large net between the church and Top Golf that was put up by Top Golf and then increased. To get balls into the church property, golfers probably have to be trying very hard to do so. I think that a fully enclosed net is the best answer.
it may be judgement on the Presbyterian Church for accepting gay marriage — it’s raining (golf) balls ;-P
You need to keep your Presbyterians straight.
Do you mean any better than they're keeping themselves?
No wonder some folks in the Presbos in the US try to hide their affiliation. Sad puppies...
Presbyterian Church (USA)
ARP
OPC
PCA
PresRef
RPCNA
"One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?"
Yet, one cannot say “Presbyterians” are like this or that as quite frankly they do not share the same beliefs between the PCUSA and the PCA say.
Assuming there are still some straight Presbyterians, why is it your responsibility to keep them straight?
Aren't these among the same guys who squeal and protest every time someone mentions 33,000 denominations of Protestantism?
I guess it depends on whose ox is being gored. It remains perfectly OK to say you Catholics, or simple Catholics. But then again, I'm pretty sure there are no Catholic moderators either.
Are you referring to a certain recent convert to Catholicism?
Shouldn't you be pinging a person when they you mention them in a post?
Saying "Protestants" or "Pentecostals" or "Presbyterians" would not be making it about an individual Freeper.
But how do you address them when they are subsets without a formal name? For example, what are we to call those Pentecostals who are ruled by Bible codes, believe in UFOs and aliens, advocate the notion of Grey's feeding off of human flesh, have a drunken bartender as a leader, and thrive on their religious innovations like Ishtar Mary? How about those who sit at home in their La-Z-Boy as their family's own pope with their doctrine being whatever they think up at the moment after a few scotch and tonics and a reading of their truncated scriptures?
The term "your group" seems to fit pretty well.
No dice. If the group of believers does not have a formal name then describe their beliefs.
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