Democrats Voted Out of N.C. Church

As politics has corrupted the message of the gospel in some evangelical circles, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. MSNBC reports on events at East Waynesville Baptist Church in North Carolina:

Members of the congregation said [head pastor] Chandler told them during last year’s presidential campaign that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry needed to leave the church.

Longtime member Selma Morris, who was treasurer at the church, said Chandler’s sermons remained political after Bush won re-election. This past week, his comments turned to politics again at a church gathering that ended with nine members voted out.

Many other members, including a deacon, of the church have left in protest of this move, and Robert Prince, another local Bapist pastor, calls it "disturbing." Prince is also quoted saying,

he noticed during the presidential campaign that more pastors made endorsements — although not from the pulpit — than in past years.

“It used to be that pastors would speak about the issues and not specific candidates,” he said. “I think that line is being crossed.”

Absolutely, a line has been crossed. The lure of politics and of power and influence is distorting the gospel for many Christian brothers and sisters. Ours is not a message of salvation through politics or values, but of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus did not make political views a part of the salvation equation. When our churches degrade themselves to be merely a forum to host political advocacy preaching, as in the case of Justice Sunday, or to rejecting members who may not pass the political litmus test, it is safe to say the gospel has been perverted in those churches. And this happens far more often that we read about in the news. Most churches just don't go as far as this church did.

We believers must not stand by passively and watch this corruption grow. It's time to take the evangelical church back for Jesus.

Update (5/9/2005): WLOS News quotes the pastor in question saying last October

the question then comes in the Baptist Church how do I vote, let me just say this right now if you vote for John Kerry this year you need to repent or resign you have been holding back God's church way too long and I know I may get in trouble for saying that but just pour it on.

Hmm. I thought repentance was for sin. Now it's for who you vote for too? Is a vote for the Constitution party also something for which one needs repentance? For what political parties does a vote not require repentance?

As to the comment that Kerry voters have been "holding back God's church," I that pretty neatly illustrates the point about confusing the gospel with politics.