Church Prunes Gay Trees in Sin.

Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church, in Charlotte, NC, has been hit with a $4,000 fine for excessive pruning. That's right...$100 per branch, for trimming its own trees...incorrectly!

The Charlotte Observer reports, that city officials slapped Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church with a fine of $100 per branch for “excessively pruning” its crape myrtles.

Now,  it just so happens that is the same church at which the debate to end the "ban on gays and lesbians becoming clergy and lay leaders in the Presbyterian Church took place, which culminated in a vote of 162-154 to change the denomination's constitution by removing a 1997 amendment that said the ordained must either be single and chaste or in a heterosexual marriage".

The Presbytery of Charlotte added its support Tuesday to ending the ban on gays and lesbians becoming clergy and lay leaders in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Presbyterian church leaders from the seven-county Charlotte region voted 162-154 to change the denomination's constitution by removing a 1997 amendment that said the ordained must either be single and chaste or in a heterosexual marriage.

Going into Tuesday's local vote, that change already had won the backing of a majority of presbyteries in the country. It was scheduled to become effective in July, whatever the Charlotte vote.

Still, Tuesday's debate at Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church drew about 40 speakers - in addition to the two Charlotte pastors chosen to present the two sides.

Could it be, perhaps, that some of the church's more homophobic members,  who just so happened to be in the employment of the city, blamed, what they assumed were "gay" trees, for influencing the end of the ban on gay clergy? Because, you see, the fine will be dropped if the trees are REPLACED...with homophobic trees, no doubt.

"Tom Johnson, senior urban forester for the Charlotte Land Development Division, said, the fine would be dropped if the church replaced each of the improperly pruned trees".

Just a thought.

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Couple May Lose Home Over $1.63 Tax Bill

In 2000, a Louisiana couple, Kermit and Dolores Atwood, learned their house, which they had owned mortgage-free since 1968 had been sold three years earlier -- about a week after the three-year period in which delinquent taxpayers can reclaim their property had ended -- all because a $1.63 property tax bill was sent to a wrong address and then returned undelivered to the St. Tammany Parish sheriff's office.

The State Tax Commission nullified the sale so the Atwoods thought everything was alright until they tried to sell the home in 2002 and found that the people who bought the house were suing to get them out of their house, meaning they don't have a clear title.

When Katrina hit, trees fell on the house, but the Atwoods didn't have insurance, and because they didn't have clear title, they didn't qualify for federal help.

In May 2006, the State District Judge ruled that the property title belongs to the Atwoods. The buyer appealed and was turned down and now the buyer plans to take his case to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

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