NJ Reverend: Thou Shalt Not Facebook

A New Jersey pastor has demanded that all married church officials under him delete their Facebook accounts or resign, lest the social networking site lead them to sin. Rev. Cedric Miller says 20 couples from his 1,100-member congregation have had Facebook-related marital problems in the past six months alone. “What happens is someone from yesterday surfaces, it leads to conversations and there have been physical meet-ups,” he tells the AP. “The temptation is just too great.”

Miller has even preached about the evils of Facebook from the pulpit, and on Sunday will “strongly suggest” that congregants give up their accounts, too. “They’ll hear what I’m asking of my church leadership,” he says. “I won’t mandate it for the entire congregation, but I hope people will follow my advice.” In a previous sermon, he told spouses to give each other their passwords. “Some did. Others got scared and deleted their accounts right away.” (More Cedric Miller stories.)