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Pastor pushed out after parishioners complain about focus on racial justice
npr ^ | 02/04/2025 | Frank Langfitt

Posted on 02/04/2025 7:58:44 AM PST by BenLurkin

The Sunday after Donald Trump won a second term, Pastor Ben Boswell took to the pulpit at Myers Park Baptist, a liberal [FAR left] church in Charlotte, and delivered the sort of blunt, provocative sermon for which he is well known.

Several weeks later, the board met on Zoom. They voted 17-3 to ask Boswell to step down. NPR obtained the audio.

...

Marcy McClanahan, then head of the board, said the first reason Boswell needed to go was plunging attendance. Myers Park had gone from average weekly attendance of about 350 when Boswell arrived in 2016 to about 150 last year.

...

Myers Park Baptist Church has a rich civil rights history and sits in one of Charlotte's wealthiest neighborhoods.

"We have got to put more butts in the seats, butts in the seats," he said.

In a statement later, Dulin said he personally loved what he called Boswell's "powerful prophetic preaching."

The problem, he said at the meeting, is that too many other parishioners didn't.

...

During his nine years at Myers Park, Boswell says he pushed the church to confront what he called its whiteness.

Several years ago at an anti-racism seminar, he said Myers Park needed to change its wedding policy, which had been described as "WASPy," and decolonize its interior space as part of what he called a "whiteness audit."

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


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To: Fester Chugabrew

*without


21 posted on 02/04/2025 8:26:21 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew
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To: Pontiac

“Southern Baptist racism has a new face.”
In the South, but no longer affiliated with Southern Baptist Convention churches.


22 posted on 02/04/2025 8:27:11 AM PST by PsyCon
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To: PsyCon
In the South, but no longer affiliated with Southern Baptist Convention churches.

Do you mean the church in question, you personally or some other way?

23 posted on 02/04/2025 8:29:48 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: BenLurkin
During his nine years at Myers Park, Boswell says he pushed the church to confront what he called its whiteness.

Yeah, we’ve gotten tired of your brand of hate, “Pastor.”

He added that Trump's election would lead to the "crucifixion" of immigrant families as well as transgender and nonbinary people.

Oh, what a bunch of hand-wringing B.S.

24 posted on 02/04/2025 8:33:40 AM PST by Allegra (It’s MAGA time! )
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
One of us needs to ask one of these "liberal" "pastors" how many illegal immigrants God will allow to migrate from Hell to Heaven.

Become a citizen through Jesus before God closes the border.

25 posted on 02/04/2025 8:35:18 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: MayflowerMadam

It sounds like the board approved the message but didn’t like the results. I suspect “cash in the collection plate” was more important to them than “butts in the seats”.

I attended a protestant church where they began to emphasize reflecting the community, which was probably 33% white, 33% black, 33% yellow. The church was mostly white. The problem was most black people attended black churches and most yellow people attended Catholic churches. The believed they needed to adjust the worship service and activities to attract more black and yellow people. The sermons were mostly fine, and the members were not racists, but the drum beat of we need to attract other colors got tiresome. It was like being sinners because we were white. If a young black family visited, they were swarmed by people welcoming them. An older white couple, not near as much. Different colored skin was the current rich man. I helped them out of there perceived problem by changing churches.

Too many churches just mirror society, be it racism, feminism, environmentalism. birth control, etc.


26 posted on 02/04/2025 8:38:24 AM PST by alternatives?
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To: Fester Chugabrew

The problem with “justice” in society is the same as “male/female” in society. They are defined differently than in the Bible.


27 posted on 02/04/2025 8:44:19 AM PST by alternatives?
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To: alternatives?

and in the end...
The God business is ALL about the money..

1/2 the attendance, probably means 1/10th-1/2 the revenue.

He guilted those “waspy” rich people right out of the pews and they just stopped paying.


28 posted on 02/04/2025 8:48:54 AM PST by uranium penguin
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To: BenLurkin

“During his nine years at Myers Park, Boswell says he pushed the church to confront what he called its whiteness.”

...I stopped there. Libs don’t really go to church do they?


29 posted on 02/04/2025 8:59:42 AM PST by albie (U)
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To: BenLurkin

Part of a Pastors job is to console. If you were white, I guess you just had to go see a therapist?


30 posted on 02/04/2025 9:01:19 AM PST by albie (U)
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To: BenLurkin
"We have got to put more butts in the seats, butts in the seats," he said.

Sounds like a scene from Mad Men.

31 posted on 02/04/2025 9:04:49 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: BenLurkin

Progressivism is the off-ramp away from Christianity.


32 posted on 02/04/2025 9:05:31 AM PST by Quality_Not_Quantity ("...for the sake of His name." Psalm 23:3)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Same happened to Jim Jones back in Indiana when he first started “preaching”.

And we know the rest of the story.


33 posted on 02/04/2025 9:06:09 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BenLurkin

“pushed out”??? Like out of a window? That is called defenestration. Use the word, dammit! Amaze your friends. And, where is the bloody video?


34 posted on 02/04/2025 9:18:05 AM PST by bobbo666
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To: BenLurkin

Must be the bible. Or not using it enough.


35 posted on 02/04/2025 9:31:57 AM PST by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: alternatives?

Yep. Just do the right thing, and God will send the right people.

The “seeker-friendly” fad is disgusting and pandering.


36 posted on 02/04/2025 9:48:36 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino and)
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To: BenLurkin

Just another example of leftism taking over Christian churches and leading them to destruction.

This joker’s nine-year tenure saw attendance drop to 150 from 350? What is wrong with the membership to tolerate this social justice idiot?

I’m a Latter-day Saint living in Calgary. Our pastors don’t get paid during their five-year term (my current bishop is a high school teacher). But we would never tolerate our pastor teaching the nonsense this guy did.


37 posted on 02/04/2025 9:56:43 AM PST by Raymond Pamintuan
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To: wardaddy

Ditto that.


38 posted on 02/04/2025 10:11:59 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: maro; All

Bump!

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,
27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.


39 posted on 02/04/2025 10:16:43 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

The head of the deacons is a woman. A North American short hair.


40 posted on 02/04/2025 10:20:50 AM PST by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI...)
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