Note: I was working on this post when I noticed that my friend Anglican had this.
Warning to BB and others--this will depress the hell out of you. Found it over at Carlos's blog. According to this story a Waynesville Baptist church kicked out several members for voting against Bush.
Obviously this is an extreme example and should not be assumed to be a trend. But when you have people like Falwell, Dobson and Robertson weighing in on Politics with their own version of how God would vote, this kind of thing can happen. I say "can." When someone misses the point and may not be that smart to begin with (uncharitable, I know), this will happen. Here is where the grownups have a responsibility. Fallwell, et al., won't listen to me--just as Bush has shown that he doesn't care what half of the country thinks. But they will listen to the conservative Republican church goers. If you write them and say, "Pastor Jerry, you are annoyingly fat and stupid and need to shut the hell up before you make the rest of us look bad," he might listen. Feel free to use your own words. :)
This all reminds me of an email conversation from this week that continued the discussion of radio twit-boy. I said that one of the more offensive things was this guy claiming that God was telling him this garbage in an audible voice. The audible part isn't the part that bothers me, though I am not sure I understand it. It is the assertion that God is a right winger who likes strict gender roles. Those roles don't match with me prefering to cook over fixing the car. I am sure many men follow that model, but it is clearly not universal. The God he is hearing is more than likely his little god (self).
I think a good many people can make the distinction. My friend in Texas was not fooled by twit-boy's assertion that God was speaking to him, but a good many people have been trained to respond to that language. "Hey, this guy is hearing from God--listen up!" Again, I wish that the grownups would call those people to task and remind them how careful they should be when speaking for God. And it is often unnecessary to do the divine name-dropping, isn't it? If the stuff is really from God, it probably needs no such boost. Probably can stand on its own. It is the bad stuff that often needs propped up.
3 comments:
Didn't this same sort of thing happen in Europe, back when various popes and kings were in bed with one another? And shouldn't Europe's current state of athiesm teach us something about what happens when the state and church mingle in such a way? Or does the Religious Reich™ think it can pull off what past church states couldn't?
Yeah, people have been saying for a long time that separation of church and state is not meant to punish church, but to protect it from the political world. Mingling them just harms both.
Thanks for warning, but not necessary on this one. This story is actually a little exciting for me. Finally, the first pastor has stepped up and shown his true colors. For me this story has so many angles. First you have the right wing pastor who, according to the article, has been pushing his views since October. Next you have the membership who have sat in the pews and taken it each week. Not only did they not boot his ass out, they played the loyal drones and voted right with him when it came time to expel the others from the church. Then there's the state convention that writes this off to a local church issue. It's interesting to me that if a woman is called as a local pastor how quickly the local association and state convention can get interested in a "local church issue" to the point of booting out the offending church. If they vote members out on the basis of their political views, however, it's a protected local church issue- anyone else feel a little nauseated? I'm also glad to see in the article that the IRS is getting interested. Churches who are becoming little more than political programers or tax-exempt social clubs complete with fitness centers and shopping malls may some day not get to have it both ways. That's probably too much to hope for, but we can dream, can't we? Unfortunately, you also have the members who were voted out of church due to who they supported in the last election. While I would view this as a badge of honor, I know that there were probably kids involved, assuming these were families. Interestingly, one quote in the article indicates that the whole process probably didn't follow church guidelines. Maybe cooler heads will prevail and the next time we read about this the pastor will be out.
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