1 /5 Michael Hogge: January. 2018: Had to literally walk out of a Mens Fellowship breakfast & what was to be my next church in Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian of Puyallup, or so I thought, after a completely sudden, unprovoked, angry, vicious, & very public attack on yours truly this Saturday morning by the man seated next to me & a number of those present claiming among other things that I was unfriendly to him & his wife who sings in the choir because I didnt say hello to either on Sunday; that I was like Trump in being "...loud, punishing & so into (myself)." I was even told by the same man seated next to me after his question of me in how I viewed him that my "...you are a child of God" comment to him was "...that child of God stuff is complete garbage & (he) didnt want to hear that"! Another man claimed a similar thing which wasnt the truth at all. They were being judgmental & disapproving & wouldnt allow me to say anything in defense & piling on me repeatedly, so I simply got up quietly & left. This was only my 2nd breakfast & Ive only been attending SOTH since December! I had been active in the choir, volunteered/served in the Feed My Starving Children event @ the WA State Fair in January, had volunteered for the Adult Mission Trip to Rockport, TX this coming fall & was about to volunteer/serve in tbe Freezing Nights Ministry yet after being treated this way, decided after contemplative prayer to sever any connection with this church which I had been actively seeking to join. What a rude, cruel, bunch of Christian charlatans these men were & they insulted & hurt me deeply with their egregiously offensive words & behavior which was quite uncalled for..this is the second church (first being Bethany Church a mile away) in less than a year I have had to walk away from because of horrible & very un-Christlike comments & behaviors.
Update Sun 02/18/18: went to do nothing more than peaceably retrieve my choir folder that belonged to me after service this morning and on the way out of the narthex, was physically grabbed hard & quite angrily so on my shoulder by the Mens Fellowship leader from yesterday who had joined in on the harsh treatment of me ~ I saw him walking towards me & after telling him I had nothing to say to him because of his & the others behavior yesterday & trying to get out of the church entrance door ~ he walked up to me & angrily grabbed & held me by my shoulder. After telling him three times to let me go & his subsequent refusal, I had to push-punch him away. I did consider filing assault charges on him with the Pierce County Sheriffs Dept...I have never, ever experienced this before in my 64 years of life including 47 years in PCUSA & in a church of all places ~ what a horrible experience! I do not recommend this unfortunately Christian-in-name only "secular-social country club" house of worship...
