What's Up With That: Mystery of the Chained Up Church

In what sounds like a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book, the mystery of the chained up church has been solved.

Neighbors of the Central Avenue Baptist Church in Old Seminole Heights thought that maybe it had closed.

After being greeted by pad locks and "private property" signs, the neighbors who usually exercise their dogs on the church's property were left singing not hymns but "who locked the dogs out?"

A call to the church revealed the congregation is fine. Worshippers are still welcome, but the dogs have been excommunicated.

Apparently, they'll embrace sinners...but not Saint Bernards.

Church officials thought the neighborhood dogs had become a nuisance, if not a danger, to the churchgoers, so the gates are now kept locked.

Though they didn't say whether all dogs can go to heaven, they did say all dogs can go to the dog park.

Seminole Heights' remains open for canine "business," with plenty of oaks to baptize.

It promises more dogs. Less dogma.