The Royal Gazette's website and Facebook page were inundated with reaction to Cabinet Minister Neletha Butterfield's argument over seating arrangements at the AME Church last week.Readers made more comments on that issue than any other, with some quoting passages from the Bible to back up their cases.Ms Butterfield had threatened to boycott part of the AME annual conference after she and Acting Premier Derrick Burgess were asked to sit on the second row, behind Opposition leader Kim Swan, at the annual welcoming service at Mount Zion in March.The Cabinet Ministers were eventually moved to the front row, and the church later apologised following an intervention from Bishop Richard Norris; Ms Butterfield is now hoping a protocol workshop will prevent any repeat incidents.Many people online took offence at Ms Butterfield's comment, in her e-mail to the AME Church: “This business that we are all VIPs in God's sight needs to stop and respect be given to those who not only serve or have served in the Cabinet but also work in God's vineyard.”Former Bermuda Democratic Alliance by-election candidate Sylvan Richards, who worships at St Paul AME Church, said: “Derrick & Neletha, please read Matthew 23 verses 5-7 the next time you are sitting in St Paul's.“Jesus is speaking to the crowds and his disciples warning about hypocrisy: Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them ‘Rabbi'.“Matthew verses 27-28 go on to say: Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”Ray Charlton pointed to Philippians 2:3-11: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”Girl By the Sea said: “Humility makes great men (and women) twice honourable.”Ellen Brown said: “You are in a place of worship and frankly in God's eyes we are all important and equal, no matter where anyone sits.”On Facebook, Michelle Burgess Collins wrote: “Matthew 20:16. So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”Cindy O'Brien argued later down the line the Lord will choose where everyone sits.“It isn't about how often you attend or where you sit,” she wrote. “It is that you accept the Lord as your personal Saviour and live as He leads and instructs in the Bible and by doing so, your seat will be reserved for you in Heaven or you will go through the tunnel of death, sit where you are plumped and live eternally in torment.”Blah Blah, responding to around 70 messages mainly criticising the Minister, wrote: “Cmon people! Respect is due. This is protocol worldwide whether you like the MPs or not.“The reason you don't hear of this anywhere else is because it's protocol. This is done for various reasons, one is security and judging by some of your comments I can see why.“Whether you like them or not they do compare to the Obamas and Clintons because they are leaders of a COUNTRY and a well respected country worldwide!”Ms Butterfield has stated she has no problem where she sits in her regular church but for important events protocol stipulates Cabinet Ministers should get priority seats.To join our Facebook page go to www.facebook.com/royalgazette.bmTo comment on stories simply register on our website.