Posted on 05/11/2005 4:47:45 AM PDT by Crackingham
A Baptist pastor accused of threatening to banish from his church anyone who didn't vote for President Bush has himself chosen to depart, leaving in his wake a divided community and a cultural chasm. The Rev. Chan Chandler, 33, walked out of the church he had led for three years Tuesday night after delivering a brief statement of resignation. With him went many of the young congregants he had attracted to the modest brick church on the outskirts of this small mountain town in western North Carolina.
In leaving, Chandler did not apologize for the controversy that made him a national lightning rod — the claims by some church members that they were told to leave if they voted for Democratic nominee John Kerry.
"For me to remain now would only cause more hurt for me and my family," Chandler said. "I am resigning with gratitude in my heart for all of you, particularly those of you who love me and my family."
The dispute that engulfed East Waynesville Baptist Church in recent months would have sounded familiar to many an American congregation: Aging congregation brings in dynamic young preacher to turn things around. New pastor attracts young members who push for change in traditional ways of doing things. Battle ensues.
As Chandler and his wife drove out of the church's parking lot followed by a police escort, about 40 of his supporters walked out as well, with many saying they were resigning their memberships.
"I'm not going to serve with the ungodly," an angry Misty Turner declared.
But Maxine Osborne, 70, and among those who stayed behind, had a different view of what had transpired.
"A lot of these young people had not been in the church more than a year," she said. The Chandlers "brought in a lot of young people, but they also brainwashed them."
Unnngh, y'all.
Alot of people need their "brains washed", particularly the older "gimmee" types that crave socialism.
This minister stood up for what he believed in. He should be applauded instead of being sent out of town by a small group of whiners who didn't agree with him. The little community in NC will go back to obscurity but will suffer for their intolerance.
The preacher can explicitly endorse any candidate for politcal office that he wants from the pulpit, as long as he gives up his church's tax exempt status.
That is a very insightful paragraph.
Unfortunately, churches full of elderly yellow-dog demoncRATs will be more than happy to see their doors close than to engage the morally-decayed culture around them with the Truth of the Gospel.
It's all about creating issues to divide the congregation especially aimed toward unbelievers in the church, or more exact those that do not make Jesus, Lord.
My goodness if Paul's teachings along with the first chapter of Revelation don't make the church aware of these issues, nothing will.
..and yes, I believe it's that simple.
Please if this was reversed the Media would praise the Minister for standing up on principle by banishing evil Republicans. This guy was attempting to teach his flock not to be hypocrates!
Good for you.
My brother in-law left his baptist church because the pastor, in a prayer thanked God that Bush won. My inlaw said he didn't believe God works in this way and the pastor had no right to bring politics into the church. I sarcastically called him a communist
Hmmm!I wonder when one of a hundred pastors will resign for telling people not to vote for Bush or leave the church.
I stand by the pastor and this is why!
Can a Christian be a liberal? Short answer: no. There is no way a Christian can buy into neo-liberal ideology and be faithful to the bigger-than-Dallas teachings of the scripture and expect to continue enjoying his hard-won religious liberties.
For the "Christian" to lean politically to the left means that he must blow off huge chunks of the Bible and replace the scripture with the make-believe notions of postmodernism's malleable "Christ." Only after torturing the scripture can the Christian then fit liberalism into his supposed relationship with God.
For the Christian who believes that unfeigned faith in Christ should correspond with Jesus' high view of scripture, it is… now… impossible to believe in God and be an adherent to postmodern liberalism. The twain no longer meet. Liberalism has been hijacked by bizarre special-interest thugs who spit on the Word of God and believe that the Bible has no place in public life, (except maybe in a museum where people can look at it from time to time).
The Christian who has a bent to the liberal left needs to understand something: while he is skipping around the maypole with his rose-colored glasses on, if it were up to the modern, secularized liberal establishment, he would be more restricted than Bill when Hillary's in town. Yes, if the Christophobic thugs had it their way, Christians would be relegated to a marginalized spiritual ghetto on the sidelines of life.
For the naïve Christian voter who thinks he can toss a ballot in the Nuevo liberal direction, please know that a vote toward the secular left could leave you bereft of sacred liberties. Thanks to the aggressive ludicrous liberal lug nuts' anti-Christian agenda, your vote for a liberal, Christian, is a vote for …
1. Christianity to be scrubbed from government and whatever turf the government owns. Thanks to the liberals, the Ten Commandments have about as much acceptance in our government and their properties as Rush Limbaugh would at Al Franken's family reunion. Yes, the Judeo-Christian principles that formed the rock-solid foundation of this great American Experiment are now aggressively fought against by the lascivious left.
If… if… the secularists continue to stay behind the wheel of this American bus, you can kiss all semblance of Christianity good-bye in this heretofore God-graced government. Saint, you might as well say farewell to our government's recognizing Christmas and adios to Good Friday if you're going to vote the liberal ticket. If the secularists have it their way, Easter will be behind your keister, and you can kiss the Cross good-night as an acceptable public symbol that represents your faith and our nation's recognition of Christ's atoning work.
2. Secularism to be continually mainlined into our public school system. Thanks to rabid vapid secularism, our public schools and universities would rather you be a Rocky Horror super freak than a Christian. If your beliefs run to the bizarre or the banal, or if you want to smoke the same philosophical crack that Caligula, Nero, Castro or Lenin freebased, they'll accommodate you.
Our schools are totally open to anyone and to anything, unless, of course, you're a Christian. And if that's the case, then you're likely to get more sympathy from a badger with minimal sleep than you will from liberal educators who are hard at work making your life hard. A vote for the secular left is a vote for Christianity to continue to be officially vilified on campus and Christians to be ostracized in campus life.
3. Public officials, employees and appointees to be pressured to hide their faith in the closet and suppress their public displays of belief in God lest they be grouped with Hitler, Osama, or Mussolini and then fired. Not only will the liberals aggressively work to prohibit the State from green lighting and recognizing Christianity as a legitimate and positive force in our land, they will also attempt to stifle Christians from influencing the path of government.
4. Public attacks on churches and Christians and attempts to restrict them in the private sector. Consider this, Christian pastor and Christian lay person looking to vote for the ludicrous left: the secular Mafioso's intent is to make your ministerial life difficult, your evangelistic work taxing and your voice minimized. And good luck, pastor and church committee, in trying to buy property and get zoning with the anti-Christian libs at the helm.
5. The continued media endorsement of the same putrid hedonistic stuff that sunk ancient Rome. Yes, with the liberals in place, expect more weird crap in movies and on television. Expect to see more paintings of Christian symbols/ saints smeared with elephant dung. Expect Christianity to be bashed and vilified and Christians made out to be buckled-shoed morons with three teeth and an IQ of 50. Expect the culture to coarsen. Expect your kids to continue to be exposed to things that only rock stars see backstage with groupies. A vote for a liberal is a vote to see Christians continue to receive special ridicule and be flogged more than a piñata during a Cinco de Mayo festival.
My clashpoint is this: Modern liberalism tosses the scripture out on several different levels. How a true believer in the Christ defined by the scripture can buy into what Jesus, the prophets and apostles said and also what these secular thugs say is beyond me.
In addition to liberalism's obvious and odious pro-holocaust-like abortion stance, its anti-biblical view of marriage, its scripture-slamming aggressive secularism, and its feckless view of our nation's defense, liberalism completely clashes with the Christian worldview. Secular liberalism's aggressive desire to eradicate Christians' rights should cause Christians to be concerned.
The Democratic Party's liberalism has degenerated over the last 40-50 years in regard to its view of Christianity and Christian rights. This party, which formerly embraced and protected our nation's great Christian heritage and teachings, no longer does so.
Thus, today the Christian is between a rock and a hard place: he can either be a Christian or a liberal, but he cannot be both.
He sure cut out on what he believed in once he felt a little fire. He doesn't seem to have the backbone to stand up for what he believes. Not a leader obviously.
Agreed
I believe that pastor was out of line, and should as well resign.
Unless you happen to actually be Doug Giles, you might want to consider properly attributing your post to the person who wrote it.
And the MSM claims another church.
Maybe we should have a separation of Church and Media.
More seriously, this is probabl what should happen one way or another. It isn't good for a church to have too much diversity of opinion. Better to split, so that each group can worship God, rather than focusing on each other.
I'm a strong supporter of people of faith LIVING their faith, which means including it in their decisions regarding the people who lead us. But church itself should, in my opinion, be focused on our relationship with God, not on fighting each other.
I haven't been a part of a solid church that hasn't had to divide. The only ones that seem stable are ones where they don't actually have a firm set of beliefs, so they attract those who want the "experience" rather than the religion.
"He sure cut out on what he believed in once he felt a little fire. He doesn't seem to have the backbone to stand up for what he believes. Not a leader obviously."
I read somewhere (can't remember exactly where, sorry) that this whole kerfuffle had prompted an IRS inquiry into his church's tax-exempt status. That may have prompted the resignation more than anything else.
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