VICTORY IN NORTH CAROLINA!

In the war against republicans' desire to unite church and state, a small but encouraging victory has been won. One Baptist pastor has been forced to resign after basically saying "God hates democrats". Wow! So even in red states like North Carolina, the born-agains are pushing their extreme agenda too hard for the average joe. It's that one-sided type of fundamentalism which condemns anyone who doesn't subscribe to their particular heavy-handed brand of christianity, and which funnily enough corresponds to Bush's "you're either for us or against us" foreign policy. Also corresponding to the Salem witch hunts, the Spanish Inqusistion and the Crusades, where misguided religious fervor led to the senseless murder and torture of hundreds of thousands. I'm sure that these religious nuts would dispute Darwin's theory of evolution and Halloween given half the chance. And you saw the brain-dead, mis-spelled signs of protestors outside Terri Schiavo's care center. At one point a lying priest claimed that Terri was holding a few stuffed animals to try and tug at a few heartstrings. Honey, you may have shoved some stuffed animals under her flabby arm but Terri wasn't HOLDING anything--except her mouth open...for 15 years! (And the real tragedy is that from most accounts, Terri was very concerned with her looks in her pre-vegetable days, so I'm sure she'd be horrified to know that such spazzy footage was aired nationally for years.)

I think it's time for intelligent, unbrainwashed, religious folk, who understand why the separation of church and state is necessary, to stand up and distinguish themselves from these uncompromising born-again fanatics. It doesn't mean that you love the Lord any less. It just means that you comprehend politics a little more. C'mon people! Falwell even blamed 9/11 on gays and abortion rights. And recently, pharmacists were organized by the religious right to stop prescribing the "day after pills", citing their religious beliefs as the reason. So some poor girl who slips up with her birth control one night, possibly in a rural area where there is only one nearby pharmacy, cannot fill her doctor's scrip due to your pharmacist's religious beliefs? Even though his beliefs fly in the face of his job description AND the law of the land? Is this your god? Because a lot of devilish things are being done in his name right now.

Yes, this was a small, but well-publicized victory. But we can't really win if you aren't fighting. And if the below article from CNN.com doesn't make your blood boil, you need a fucking transfusion!


From CNN.com: Pastor resigns after political spat
Ousted congregants say he mixed politics and religion.

WAYNESVILLE, North Carolina (AP) -- A Baptist preacher accused of running out nine congregants who disagreed with his Republican politics resigned Tuesday, two days after calling the issue "a great misunderstanding."

Speaking from the pulpit during a meeting at East Waynesville Baptist Church, the Rev. Chan Chandler told church members that it would "cause more hurt for me and my family" if he stayed.

"I am resigning with gratitude in my heart for all of you, particularly those of you who love me and my family," Chandler said, adding that the dispute was rooted in his strong feelings about abortion.

Chandler's attorney, John Pavey Jr., said the pastor has not apologized for anything he said and would continue to speak out against abortion. He said the dispute inside the church had nothing to do with politics, a contention echoed Tuesday by Chandler's supporters.

"I don't believe he preached politics," church member Rhonda Trantham said. "I don't believe anyone should tell a preacher not to preach what's in the Bible."

But some congregants of the 100-member church in western North Carolina have said Chandler endorsed President Bush from the pulpit during last year's presidential campaign and said that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry needed to "repent or resign."

The church members said he continued to preach about politics after Bush won re-election, culminating with a church gathering last week in which the nine members said they were voted out.

At Sunday's service, the 33-year-old Chandler said the flap over the church members' dismissal was "a great misunderstanding" and he tried to welcome them back.

"No one has ever been voted from the membership of this church due to an individual's support or lack of support for a political party or candidate," he said in a statement.

Blount Osborne, chairman of the church's elected deacons, said there was no warning Chandler would resign and the church had no severance agreement with him.

"That was surprising, him leaving as quick as he did. I didn't figure he'd walk that way," Osborne said.

Several church members said they agreed with Chandler on issues like abortion, but objected to him making those issues explicitly political in the church.

"I think everyone in there agrees with him on the issues. Politics was the problem," Carolyn Gaddy said.