Church Politics Send Woman to Jail

Last Sunday, Karolyn Caskey decided that since she just returned to town from her extended winter stay in Florida, she should attend church. She put on her Sunday best and arrived in time for Sunday services at Allen Baptist church in Allen, Michigan, a church she has been attending since 1959. But on Sunday, June 17, Karolyn Caskey became the victim of church politics.

As Mrs. Caskey told me in a recent phone conversation, the problem revolves around the hiring of a new minister for the independent Baptist church. After hiring the new minister, Pastor Jason Burrick, the church members noticed some immediate and troubling changes. “One of the first things he did was do away with all of the deacons and the officers of the church”, Caskey explained. She also shared that the business meetings of the church, once a place to fellowship and share ideas for the church, had become a dictatorship where no ideas were welcomed and silence was the rule. Pastor Burrick, whose Allen Baptist church job was his first, began to rule the church with an “iron fist” and consequently, “drove away members to neighboring churches in the area”.

After a heated argument with the remaining deacons, Pastor Burrick took control of the church accounts and book keeping. For Caskey, this was the final straw. She sought legal advice to determine what she could do protect her church. It was at this time that Mrs. Caskey was told, “This is against the church and church matters should be kept within the church.” After receiving a registered letter in December, forwarded to her winter-home in Florida, she was ordered to a church disciplinary meeting on December 27th. According to Mrs. Caskey, she contacted her lawyer and asked her to represent her in the meeting at the church. The meeting was not held, and through friends in the small town of Allen, Caskey was told that “they were going to try and dismiss me from the church.”

Having just returned from Florida in mid-June, Mrs. Caskey returned to church on the 17th of June and was approached by a deacon who asked her to step outside the church. According to Karolyn, “the deacon then asked me to please leave the church and told me I was not welcome here anymore”. When Caskey demanded to no why, the police were called and Karolyn Caskey was subsequently arrested for trespassing at the request of Pastor Jason Burrick.

According to Sheriff Larry Burchardt of the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office, Mrs. Caskey was arrested for trespassing as she refused an order to leave the church by church officials and a police officer. In a phone conversation with Burchardt, he told me, “The fact is, this was private property, and if someone in charge of private property asks you to leave, it is breaking the law not to do so.”

After a trip to jail in handcuffs, the 71-year-old Caskey says she was ultimately released after paying a $62 fine. Caskey, still shocked by the events of Sunday, June 17th said, “It’s a good thing I did not put that into the offering plate or I couldn’t have gotten out of jail!”

Multiple telephone calls to Pastor Jason Burrick and deacons of the Allen Baptist went unreturned. Karolyn Caskey has a court date on June 26.


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