What do you think it would take for one to be banned from his church indefinitely? What heinous sin would one have to commit to be told never to return to your place of worship? What do you think a person would have to do, to be banned for life from the Church of Jesus Christ? In my case, what got me banned for life was my stand for life.

On Sunday, February 7th, 2010, I joined Operation Save America to peacefully stand outside of Central Church of God in Charlotte, North Carolina, to pass out pro-life brochures to the congregation as they arrived for worship. Our intent was to help our brothers and sisters of Central Church of God become aware of the atrocity occurring at two abortion mills within a four mile radius of our church.

God had been urging us for the past year and a half to help Central to see what the devil was doing to fathers, mothers and children in her own back yard – her area of spiritual responsibility and authority. We made many attempts to inform the leadership but to little or no avail. With 2 abortion mills within such close proximity, we felt the call of God to make the church aware of the countless babies being murdered right at their back door.

What took place on Sunday morning, February 7th, 2010, was a culmination of failed attempts to meet with the leadership of Central Church and a burden to make known the horrible truth of what was happening to precious children, created in the image of God, just a few miles down the street. We went asking for our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us take a stand against this lie from the pit of Hell, called abortion. We went praying that eyes would be opened and all would see our obligation to give a voice to the voiceless and stand up for the oppressed. We went looking for godly people to join in this spiritual battle and give way to righteousness.

We chose Central Church of God for many reasons. Not the least of which was its proximity to the abortion mills themselves. Deuteronomy 21:1-9 gives specific instructions that in order for a city to be cleansed of the shedding of innocent blood one must declare, “…Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.” We measured the distance from the abortion mills to the nearest great evangelical church. That church was Central Church of God!

Another reason is because of the amazing Pastor that God has lifted up to be the shepherd of this flock. Pastor Loran Livingston has an unparalleled gift in preaching God’s word. He lifts up the name of Jesus and is bold for the Lord. He is not ashamed of the Bible and unyielding to its Truth. We chose this church because of his obedience to the Lord.

We also chose this church because of its pro-life stance. Like most Bible believing Churches, abortion at Central Church of God is considered murder and sin. Central has many pro-life members. Pastor Loran has mentioned that blood is coursing down the corridors of our streets, though I doubt he knew how close it actually was. It is time for all of us to begin acting on our beliefs and calling on the Father to save His innocent children from death. He will do it if we will storm these two gates of hell.

We chose this church because my boyfriend and I have been faithfully attending here for the past four years. We felt strongly that, if our church were aware of the abortion clinics in Charlotte, she would join the battle against the “choice” of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Finally, and again, we really did choose this church because of its location. No other God-fearing, Bible-believing, evangelical church with an immeasurable Pastor, incomparable choir, and over 7000 Christian members is as close to 2 of the 3 abortion clinics in Charlotte as Central Church of God.

We have been taught that Jesus wants His church to be the salt and light of the world. We are to be different from the world. We are to do as He wishes and not love our own lives so much as to forget about our neighbor. We are to help the poor, do unto others, share the Gospel, and stand up for the oppressed. We are to open our mouths for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Central Church of God has done 99% of what it is supposed to, but God is now sounding the trumpet for them to start standing up for these baby boys and girls and be their voice. It’s time to “stop sitting on our hands” and go outside the four walls and “be bulldogs for Jesus”, as Pastor Loran preaches.

I truly believe that if Central Church of God would join us in the streets at these two abortion mills to bring the Gospel of Christ to women in crisis pregnancies, and pray to save their babies, that God would hear our prayer and abortion could come to an end in our city very soon. Unfortunately, the leadership at Central Church of God feels otherwise.

When we showed up Sunday morning with our JESUS hats and pro-life brochures, we were met with contempt and hardened hearts by Central’s staff and security. They treated us as outcasts and criminals and tried every measure to stifle our message. We were told by an officer of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department that Central’s security and staff were pressuring them to arrest us, and three of us were, including my boyfriend Edwin McCora.

He has been attending Central off and on with his uncle since he was a young boy, and faithfully by my side for the past 4 years. He, however, was not arrested for anything that occurred on Central’s property, but rather for crossing the street to give a woman a brochure who motioned to him that she wanted one. The policeman arrested him for crossing the street where there was no crosswalk, then changed the charge to “impeding traffic”. He was taken to jail. Mecklenburg County has a documented 150 gangs with more than 1900 gang members, 500 open homicide cases, and an increase in reported rapes in 2009, but clearly crossing the street with no crosswalk warrants an arrest.

Central’s security and staff treated us worse than any secular security has since I’ve been involved with Operation Save America. For Edwin and me, it was both shocking and extremely disappointing. As Edwin stood handcuffed on the church’s property, humbly wearing his JESUS hat, he was told by the head of security to never return again, and that if he ever did he would be arrested.

You can only imagine the crushing blow to Edwin’s soul as he watched the church he loved so dearly crumble before him. He was always praising this church. While neither of us are officially members, we both felt like we were. We were always at home in the sanctuary. If Edwin told me once that Central was the “best church ever”, he told me a thousand times. He owns several sermons on CDs and has invited many friends to join us for worship. In fact, a Muslim co-worker he’s been witnessing to finally agreed to join us for church at Central. We will have to find someplace else to take him now.

The more devastating blow was when we were told of what Pastor said about us at the end of the first service. He called us “radicals”, told the church not to talk to us, advised them against taking our literature, and said we were of the “wrong spirit”. This truly hurt. This godly man we had sat under for several years was preaching against us as if we were the ones killing the babies.

So what did we do so wrong?

First, we asked permission to pass out the literature and we emailed the leadership copies of the two pieces of literature we would be passing out. We were told not to come. When asked to leave the property, we did. Our venue then became the public sidewalk. People tend to forget that public sidewalks are, in fact, public, and that the first amendment guarantees our freedom of speech, but more importantly, we had a biblical message to deliver and our first allegiance is to God. I had, however, tried for a year and a half to reach someone in Central’s outreach ministry department to discuss abortion and the choice of life and no one would ever return my calls or emails. We tried to go through the proper channels and tried to reach the Pastor and other leaders, but were unsuccessful. Our next step was to go directly to the people. God directed our steps to this church, and I naively believed they would welcome us when they saw our message. Overall, the congregation did. The leaders did not.

When they told us to get off their property, we did. One error was made by our group. Two men, who had not been around when we received our warning, drove the van on to Central’s property to turn around: An ignorant mistake, but a mistake none-the-less. They were, of course, arrested, and the van was towed. We were told that the CMPD officers were going to let the men off with just a warning, but Central’s security pushed the officers to make the arrest.

We had a legal sound permit and used our microphone to ask people to take brochures as we informed them of the abortion clinics, as well as God’s calling for these precious unborn children. Pastor Livingston’s name was lifted up and laudatory remarks were made continuously of Central Church of God. We stopped preaching once service started. We did not behave rudely or incongruously. Most importantly, we did not interrupt their worship service.

We lifted up the name of Jesus and became a voice for unborn children in Charlotte. We left once the second service began. So I ask my brothers and sisters in Christ again, what did we do wrong? On Tuesday, February 9th, Flip Benham and I had a meeting with leaders of the church. Pastor Loran Livingston was unavailable. We met with associate pastor and choir director Dennis Livingston. Also at the meeting was the assistant to Pastor Loran, Janice Landreth, head of security and safety, Larry Bumgarner, and 3 administrative pastors. I was excited and nervous. I was hoping for reconciliation.

Not this day. Once again, we were met with contempt and hardened hearts. The meeting was not at all what I had envisioned. We were falsely accused of bashing and debasing both Pastor and Central. This was simply not true. Their security video taped us preaching. I was told on the phone by Janice that they would play the tape for us. At the meeting Flip begged them to play the tape, but they would not. When I asked Dennis what negative things were spoken, he replied that I called the church “inward”. In fact, I actually asked the question, “Have you become an inward church?”

This question, made as my boyfriend was being arrested and we had learned of Pastor’s remarks, is a fair question, considering they were rejecting us and rejecting God’s word on abortion. I told them of my effort to contact them for over a year and a half to speak about abortion in something as simple as a “Life Group” but we were told that it’s simply not a viable ministry. Since when is helping women not a viable ministry? And saving babies not a viable ministry either? Sharing the Gospel is not a viable ministry? Offering the gift of life is not a viable ministry??

They called us rebels, even though they were the ones meeting with us against their Senior Pastor’s will, and they mocked us to our faces. Dennis Livingston said “We’ve saved more babies than you ever will.” While I find this infantile at worst and sophomoric at best, he is possibly right.

If Dennis has saved even one baby, then his argument is completely true. I, myself, have never saved a baby and don’t expect I ever will. I just simply show up at the “gates of hell” (these abortion mills). Jesus has saved all the babies I have ever seen saved. All He needs is someone to show up at the battle front. Yes, allowing the theology of the church house to become biography in the streets, as the Rev. Flip Benham proclaims. I love that I’ve been his tool a few times and am extremely humbled by it, but I could never save a baby. I am too wretched and incapable of saving any one. To my knowledge, only Jesus can do that.

Finally, without debate, without a trial, without time for discovery or rebuttal, the judge, jury and executioner Dennis Livingston delivered the verdict and sentence to me on God’s holy ground: Guilty – Banned from Central Church of God for life. No trial was offered and no trial was given to us. No opportunity to present our case to a jury of my peers. Not even an explanation of why I am now banned. Even the terrorists are given trials in the United States of America, but no such avenue for us at Central. I am left to wonder what sin we have committed.

What did we do so wrong? What crime was committed that warranted being denied our place of worship? What act was so bad and perverse that we’ve been separated from our church family forever? What did we do that was so offensive that our own brothers and sisters in Christ have determined it unforgiveable? We were simply following the commands of Almighty God, as we do every time we stand up against abortion: Love thy neighbor; Thou shall not murder; Stand up for the oppressed; Rescue those unjustly sentenced to death, and go out to the ends of the earth and preach the Gospel.

So what act will get you excommunicated from your church for life? I’m sure there are many vile acts that would rightfully get one kicked out of church: Murder, rape, molestation, immediate danger to other human beings, but even these can be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ! In our case, however, it was our unforgivable stance for the unborn, but I can find no better reason to be banned from church than to be banned for LIFE!