{"id":75,"date":"2009-03-02T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-02T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/when-things-get-squirrelly-at-church-or-synagogue.html"},"modified":"2009-03-02T17:43:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-02T17:43:00","slug":"when-things-get-squirrelly-at-church-or-synagogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/when-things-get-squirrelly-at-church-or-synagogue.html","title":{"rendered":"When Things Get Squirrelly at Church or Synagogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There were four country churches and a synagogue in a small TEXAS town: <\/p>\n

The Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church , the Catholic Church and the Jewish Synagogue. <\/p>\n

Each Church and Synagogue was overrun with pesky squirrels. <\/p>\n

One day, the Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. <\/p>\n

After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and the church shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will. <\/p>\n

In the BAPTIST CHURCH, the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a cover on the baptistry and drown the squirrels in it. The squirrels escaped somehow, and there were twice as many there the next week. <\/p>\n

The Methodist Church got together and decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God’s creation. So, they humanely trapped the Squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back. <\/p>\n

But, the Catholic CHURCH came up with the best, and most effective, solution. <\/p>\n

They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the Church. <\/p>\n

Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter <\/p>\n

Not much was heard about the Jewish Synagogue,
but they took one squirrel and had a short service with him called circumcision, and they haven’t seen a squirrel on the property since. <\/p>\n

P.S. Can you identify the South Florida squirrel in one of the three pictures above?<\/p>\n

A shout out to my sister in Jacksonville for this one. BW3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were four country churches and a synagogue in a small TEXAS town: The Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church , the Catholic Church and the Jewish Synagogue. Each Church and Synagogue was overrun with pesky squirrels. One day, the Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Things Get Squirrelly at Church or Synagogue - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/when-things-get-squirrelly-at-church-or-synagogue.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Things Get Squirrelly at Church or Synagogue - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There were four country churches and a synagogue in a small TEXAS town: The Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church , the Catholic Church and the Jewish Synagogue. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. 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