http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44152A Baptist pastor in North Carolina has touched off an exodus in his church by declaring Democrats are not welcome as members.
The Rev. Chan Chandler of East Waynesville Baptist Church in Waynesville ex-communicated nine members who refuse to support President Bush, according to WLOS-TV in Asheville, N.C.
Another 40 have left in protest in a controversy that began before the election last November and came to a head Sunday.
Chandler insists he's acting according to the Word of God, acknowledging in a sermon Sunday he has upset church members by calling them out for their political loyalties.
But WLOS said Chandler, who could not be reached for comment, has insisted his actions are not politically motivated.
Church member Lewis Inman said to the Asheville station: "[Chandler] told us that if we didn't support George Bush we needed to resign our position and get out, or go to the altar and repent, and support George Bush."
Among the ex-communicated were leaders who had been in the church 30 or 40 years.
"The members that were there even stood up and applauded that we left," an outgoing church member said.
Former member Frank Lowe told WLOS: "He says if we supported John Kerry, we have supported abortion and homosexuality."
But Lowe and other departed members insist they don't agree to those stances.
Responding to the news, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, a left-leaning group, issued a statement.
"This sad spectacle is the predictable consequence of the Religious Right's insistence on measuring a person’s religion by social-political litmus tests," Gaddy said.
"Not only does the pastor's reported action violate both the spirit and substance of the United States Constitution's provisions of religious liberty, it also offends the conscience of people who understand religion in terms of the realm of the spirit, not votes in a presidential election."
Addressing the Baptist pastor's call for repentance on the part of those who didn't vote for Bush, Gaddy said, "The screaming need is for repentance among those who would tie religion to partisan politics."
A contributor to the leading liberal weblog Daily Kos wrote: "For those that thought that there has not been a full scale war lanched against liberals; for those who didn't take the radical right's promise to "eradicate liberals" seriously, I present to you, Exhibit A: East Waynesville Baptist Church has just kicked out all its Democratic members."
In a later post, the contributor commented: "This isn't a 'culture' war, people. This isn't some sort of political game. This action merely foreshadows what is to come: the radical religious right seeking to impose a theocracy upon this nation. Purge the liberals from society.
"Welcome to the Blue Scare. Welcome to Grade-A, government-sanctioned McCarthyism against liberals and against anyone who doesn't embrace their distorted worldview. Here is the face of the American jihad."
===================================================
MORE...
Minister ex-communicates
Democrat church members
Baptist pastor reportedly insisted
supporting president is God's will
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/06/AR2005050601317.html
Dempcrats Booted From N.C. Church Over Politics
WAYNESVILLE, N.C. -- A pastor of a small Baptist church led an effort to kick out church members because they didn't support President Bush, members said
The nine members were voted out at a Monday meeting of the East Waynesville Baptist Church in this mountain town about 120 miles west of Charlotte. WLOS-TV in Asheville reported that 40 other members resigned in protest.
"It's all over politics," said Selma Morris, the church's treasurer. "We've never had a pastor like that before."
Pastor Chan Chandler had told the congregation before last year's presidential election that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should either leave the church or repent, said Lorene Sutton, who said she and her husband were voted out of the church this week.
"He's the kind of pastor who says do it my way or get out," she said. "He's real negative all the time."
Morris said some church members left after Chandler made his ultimatum in October.
Chandler didn't return a message left by The Associated Press at his home Friday, and several calls to the church went unanswered. He told WLOS that the actions were not politically motivated.
North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek sharply criticized the pastor Friday, saying Chandler jeopardized his church's tax-free status by openly supporting a candidate for president.
"If these reports are true, this minister is not only acting extremely inappropriately by injecting partisan politics into a house of worship, but he is also potentially breaking the law," Meek said.
==========================================
more on this ...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0505080215may08,1,6246571.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true"WAYNESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- Some members of a small Baptist church say their pastor led a charge last week to kick out nine members because they don't support President Bush.
They said Pastor Chan Chandler told the congregation before last year's election that they should support Bush and that anyone who planned to vote for Democrat John Kerry should get up and leave.
Selma Morris, a member and treasurer of East Waynesville Baptist Church, said some members of the church left in October when Chandler first made his ultimatum.
Chandler told WLOS-TV in Asheville that the actions were not politically motivated, and then hung up."