Pastor accused of running out Dems quits

The Charlotte Observer/AP ^ | 05/10/05 | TIM WHITMIRE

[rikkir]

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. - A Baptist preacher accused of running out nine congregants who refused to support President Bush resigned Tuesday.

"I am resigning with gratitude in my heart for all of you," the Rev. Chan Chandler said as he left a closed-door meeting at East Waynesville Baptist Church.

[rikkir]

I heard that the real story behind this is some Dems didn't like the moral absolutes the guy was preaching, and took a vote to have him removed a few months back. It didn't work, so they started to heckle him during his sermons. That's when he told them to leave.

[Kenny Bunkport]

[auboy]

AP's version seems somewhat different. I'm shocked. /sarcasm

[demkicker]

If what you say is true, then their entire congregation is pathetic whimps to have let this happen.

[Rightly Biased]

I'd stand with that pastor 100% and here 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.

[demkicker]

is are

[rikkir]

CBS is reporting that the IRS may come after this Church.
I am extremely angry about this. If they do, I will not rest until I see every church, that every democrat has ever campaigned in, investigated by the IRS.
I'm going to make it my life's work to see this happen.

[bookworm100]

Here is a typical media report.

Pastor: Dems aren't wanted
Church member says Baptist preacher wants everyone to be Republican

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Some members of a small Baptist church say their pastor led a charge this 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.

"It's all over politics," said Selma Morris, a member and treasurer of East Waynesville Baptist Church. "We've never had a pastor like that before."

Morris said some members of the church in this mountain town 125 miles northwest of Charlotte left in October when Chandler first made his ultimatum.

"A week or two before the election he gets up and says we should resign or come to the altar and repent," added Lorene Sutton, who said she and her husband were voted out of the church this week.

Chandler didn't return a message left at his home Friday, and several calls to the church of less than 100 members went unanswered. But Chandler told WLOS-TV in nearby Asheville that the actions were not politically motivated, and then hung up.

But Morris said Chandler is "a Republican and he wants everyone else to be Republican."

At a Monday church meeting, the talk again turned to politics, Morris and Sutton said. It ended with a vote to kick out nine members who didn't support Chandler's political view. WLOS reported that 40 other members resigned in protest.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek sharply criticized the church Friday.

He said Chandler jeopardized his church's tax-free status by openly supporting a candidate for president.

"One of the Bible's most repeated commands is to 'Love your neighbor.' 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.

Sutton said in her 25 years with the church she's never before had such a problem.

Chandler arrived in the pulpit less than three years ago and is "young and he thinks he knows everything," she said.

"He's the kind of pastor who says do it my way or get out," she said. "He's real negative all the time."

For now, she and her husband are without a place of worship.

"We just have to wait and see what happens," she said. "If we can get him out of there, we can go back."

At http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/050507/pastor.shtml

[StonyBurk]

The state of the church in America today. The congregations
(in general -but certainly not every congregation) does not want a Pastor tolead-they want one that follows and
provides them with entertainment-so they can pretend to be good Christians while supporting and embracing all manner
of behavior that Scripture calls contrary to Gods will.
So long as there can be no discipline in th echurch there
can be no purpose to attend church except to be entertained even a Barry Lynn - or Rev.Al Sharpton can be
be entertaining for anhour but there is hell to pay if any
follow where such lead.

[rikkir]

It is the most amazing thing to watch the DUmmies scream about this. Must be seen to be believed.

[Coldwater Creek]

Love the sign!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[swampfox98]

That's when he told them to leave.

What about the rest of the congregation? If they didn't defend him, he should leave the Baptist Church for good. Too many Baptists are like Jimmy Carter. Trying to teach people like this is casting pearls before swine.

[StonyBurk]

Jesus couln't have been born in a Blue State-- because they
couldn't find room at the Inn,Couldn't find any virgins, and everyone knows there haven't been any wisemen that
register Democrat since Zell Miller voted for Bush.

[rikkir]

The story I heard was from a caller on the Jason Lewis show yesterday. My hunch is that this Pastor has too much class to drag his congregation through any more of the media anal examine they have been receiving.
I am going to watch where this guy lands. Might be interesting to see if he pastors again.

[Coldwater Creek]

Totally disagree with you that you cannot be a Christian and be a liberal. I believe that you can not be a spirit filled Christian and be a liberal, because there would have to be so much disobedience to the Word. People get sidetracked for one reason or another, but if they have had a personal experience with Christ, then they are still a Christian.

[anniegetyourgun]

That makes more sense than the actual "news" accounts. Seems the libs have come to cause strife within the congregation. The church will split, the finances will fall apart, and there will be much sadness.

Pray that what Satan means for evil, God will turn to good.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

It just seems to me that if it were about politics, the whole thing would have hit the news back in Oct. when the members were kicked out. SOMETHING is not being reported, I just don't know if it happened as post one speculates...

[bookworm100]

[Rightly Biased]

Salvation is not a prayer and an experience its a life changing event

[Coldwater Creek]

I wondered how long it would be before the Baptist Bash began!!!!!!!!!!!!!