NOTHING in the constitution prohibits a pastor from requiring his flock to vote a certain way as a condition of membership in a church.
The 1st amendment protects RELIGION from the hand of the state. It does NOT prevent religion from having a hand in picking the representatives OF the state.
There are many reasons that you wouldn't want to belong to a church that would do something like this (and I still imagine there is more to this story). But there is nothing at all subversive or anti-democratic about it.
Since it has nothing to do with the constitution, or how government works, nor is it in any way related to or part of a discussion about how government SHOULD be doing, or the solution to any of the problems we might face, OF COURSE the democrats will be talking about it.
That's what they do, talk about things they can't change that are of no consequence, simply to get people riled up against the foundations of our society like religion.
There has to be something ironic about DU (where you are banished for even expressing a coherent argument which violates the orthodoxy) complaining about a church having a banishment policy of membership (again presuming that this is true which we don't know).
yEAH, BUT THE CHRurches are afraid to talk politics because they are afraid of losing their tax exempt status. Except the Catholics occasionally.