One Pastor Widely & Deeply Separated from God

I find it sad when pastors, as Pastor Chandler, are widely and deeply separated from the word of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Most others, though, take a less charitable view of the ones who should know better, but who arrogantly take on God's job as judge.

I've always admired Billy Graham's approach to politics. He's never hidden that he is a registered Democrat, and that he votes for candidates of both major parties. He never publicly supports any political candidate, directly or indirectly. He's clear that God transcends the politics of men, and that there, of course, are faithful and unfaithful Christians in all political parties.

I suppose it's all too easy to confuse one's self with God when one has a pulpit, a tithing congregation and the power to mold thinking...and when one is lacking humility and respect for all God-created life, not just life with which the pastor agrees and finds agreeable.

It is easy, and it's highly seductive. And it's sin.

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Pastor stirs exodus for spurning Bush by The Associated Press, via DenverPost.com

Waynesville, N.C. - Some in Pastor Chan Chandler's flock wish he had a little less zeal for the GOP. Members of the small East Waynesville Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who didn't support President Bush. Nine members were voted out at a Monday church meeting in this mountain town, about 120 miles west of Charlotte.

He's the kind of pastor who says do it my way or get out," said Selma Morris, the church treasurer who was among those voted out. "He's real negative all the time."

Chandler didn't return a message left by The Associated Press at his home Friday, and several calls to the church went unanswered. He told WLOS-TV in Asheville that the actions were not politically motivated.

The station also reported that 40 others in the 100-member congregation resigned in protest after Monday's vote.

During the presidential election last year, Chandler told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should either leave the church or repent, said former member Lorene Sutton. Some church members left after Chandler made his ultimatum in October, Morris said.

George Bullard, associate executive director-treasurer for Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, told the Asheville Citizen-Times that a pastor has every right to disallow memberships if a church's bylaws allow for the pastor to establish criteria for membership.

"Membership is a local church issue," he said. "It is not something the state convention would enter into."

He added that the nine members were not legally terminated because Monday's meeting was supposed to be a deacons meeting, not a business meeting. They have a lawyer looking into the situation, he said.

The head of the North Carolina Democratic Party sharply criticized the pastor Friday, saying Chandler jeopardized his church's tax-free status by openly supporting a candidate for president.

"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," Chairman Jerry Meek said.

Doris Wilson, one of Chandler's neighbors and a member of First Baptist Church in Waynesville, said God doesn't play partisan politics.

"I hate to see the church suffer like that," she said. "God doesn't care whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. It just hurts to see that going on."