Man Arrested After Fight Over Church Seats [Mormon church fight over pews spills into parking lot]

And lo, it is written: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor thy neighbor’s seat… Unless that seat is being saved, apparently.

Wayne Dodge, 51, was arrested Sunday following a violent row at a Mormon church that reportedly started over seat-saving.

According to Deseret News, Dodge, a regular at the Meadows Ward LDS Church in Plain City, Utah, sat in a section of pews being reserved by a family who does not usually attend the ward.

“There [were] some seats that were allegedly saved, and there was a disagreement over whether they were saved or not… This continued to escalate throughout the day,” Weber County Sheriff Lt. Mark Lowther told FOX affiliate KSTU.

Police said the argument spilled out into the church’s parking lot and became physical. Punches were thrown, and after one man returned from cleaning himself up, Dodge allegedly struck him with his car, according to Deseret News.

Brett Ferrin, bishop of Meadows Ward told KSTU that about 400 people were gathered for a missionary farewell and a baby blessing. Many of the faces in the crowd were unfamiliar as a result. So much for loving thy neighbor.

Ferrin called the incident a “teaching moment”; Dodge might learn the hard way that lame as it is to save seats, it’s not worth felony aggravated assault charges. If convicted, Dodge could face up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to the Utah State Courts website.

but the extreme actions of this Mormon guy puts the burden upon you to back up this statement

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Your challenge is as silly as the original post being put in the religion forum.

Once you demonstrate that the action was taken because of Mormonism, then we have a useful challenge. Until then, all I see is a story of a guy behaving badly in church.

But to satisfy your odd need to see this happening in other churches (not Mormon), here you go.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/around-louisiana/Fight-breaks-out-in-the-middle-of-church-service/-/9853348/15891728/-/4fe0b4/-/index.html

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/mobile_county/pastor-allegedly-tased-in-church-brawl

You completely miss the point. Bad behavior knows no religion any better than the rest, as all religions are made up of flawed human beings.

Well, my points weren't presented completely.

There is one thing that Hindus, many New Age people, and Mormons have in common: They think they already are divine.

For Hindus & New Agers, they simply need to "realize" their divinity.

For Mormons, their leaders present themselves variously as...
future gods running entire planets
gods-in-embryo
CURRENT divine beings

It's this "CURRENT divine beings" categorization that gets my attention as it relates to our discussion here.

People sin; but in my book, truly CURRENT divine beings don't sin, lest you start throwing stones @ God, Himself...and accusing Him of being less than holy.

Allow me to give you but a few examples:

* "When you dwell on your limitations excessively...you mock God in his very creation. You deny the divinity within you." (Patricia T. Holland, BYU Speeches, Sept. 6, 1988, p. 25)

* When a woman ignores her familial responsibility, frustration will become apparent in her divine nature." (Susan Easton Black, LDS Women's Treasury, p. 18) [And Lds author Aileen H. Clyde likewise references this CURRENT "divine nature" in her book Hearts Knit Together, p. 177]

So...which are we? Flawed human beings? Or divine beings?

Mormonism, like the New Agers & Hinduism, makes claims beyond a simple "flawed human beings" approach.

So how do then some Mormons try to explain such obvious flaws?

Ah...we just forgot for a moment our "divinity within":

"Our forgetfulness of our divinity causes us much grief..." [Lds author Margaret J. Wheatley, Women and the Power, pp. 170-171]

Ah...isn't it "great" to see how Mormons have integrated this New Age "tinge" into their very religion? /sarc [They all agree that we simply have "forgotten" or stuffed this "realization" of our divinity...and we just then need to focus on "self-realization]

they found they could not sit with their family/friends and were upset.
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Couple of things Jeffie

1. Maybe they’ll be on time and not late next time

2. Isnt the guy part of the “family” himself ??? “Brother” “Sister” etc

3. Arent the Mormon one big happy famnily ???

4. Whats with the clichy stuff ???

5. Arent the family going to the celestial kingdom with this guy ???

6. the family are just apostates eh ???

7. the family are just “gentiles” eh ???

8. the family are NOT good neighbors thats fer sure...

No, TN, this story is simply about a guy who lost it in church over a seat. No need for all that other you are trying to bring into it.

And..."Jeffie"? Come on TN, do you think you could work harder at being even a little more condsescending?

It was unfortunate, sad, and totally unseemly behavior, which ultimately became illegal and dangerous.

So the guy was a Mormon? So what? Does that alone make it newsworthy? No...but it is not a common thing in church, although it does happen in other denominations too.

He lost it, assaulted another person, and was arrested and will now be tried in court.

As I said, from people who were there, he apparently deserves to go to jail for what he did.

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