Baptist Church Excludes Democrats

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perfessor
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Baptist Church Excludes Democrats

Post #1

Post by perfessor »

http://www.wlos.com/

I don't get it. Didn't Jesus ply his trade among tax collectors, prostitutes, and other "sinners"?
East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them the ultimatum, saying if they didn't support George Bush, they should resign or repent. The minister declined an interview with News 13. But he did say "the actions were not politically motivated." There are questions about whether the bi-laws were followed when the members were thrown out.
So my question for debate: Should the East Waynesville Baptist Church lose its tax-exempt status?

I say they should, since the pastor has turned the church into an arm of the Republican party.
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

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micatala
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Post #21

Post by micatala »

AlAyeti wrote:I was suggesting that Christians can have bitter disputes and not have to have a jihad over it.
I would suggest the Muslims can as well, or even Muslims and Christians. Your original comment came across as a slam on Muslims.

I would suggest that any group as large as 'all democrats' or 'all republicans' will have both wheat and tares, under any reasonable understanding of these metaphors.
Like Jesus said get the log out first.
Not sure if you are referring to the 'take the log out your eye before trying to remove the speck from your brother's eye' here or something else.

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Post #22

Post by Vladd44 »

You see that they are tares among the wheat.
NO.
I said worse case scenario, they could be construed as tares.
Do you let these tares take your children?
I don't know where this is going or coming from. We are talking about a inter-church dispute, not a weekend at Neverland Ranch.
Did Jesus ever let sin or a sinner slide?
If you are right, and jesus is a god. YOU better hope he grades on a sliding scale. According to your bible, all have sinned etc. Heaven would be empty if he judged you strictly according to the penalty you would deserve.
John 8 wrote:10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Sounds like a slide to me, but then again, the whole forgiveness thing would be called a slide if we accept the proposition that all have failed and deserve a penalty that only jesus could redeem.
The Pastor had the right to tell them to become wheat or else.
How so? He is a fallible human being just like everyone else. Unless he could become the first pope of the Southern Bapt convention, I dont think infallibility comes with the job.

Maybe instead of looking at his congregation as a hinderance, he should have looked at them as the imperfect tools that his god had given him. He would have been better served to observe the imperfections within himself rather than obsess and chase away those in which he found not holy enough for his liking.

You seem fond of telling me to read a bible. Perhaps you should examine the story of hosea and gomer. If we are to look at that as an example of how far your god is willing to go for his people, then maybe, just maybe, this pastor jumped the gun.

Voting records seem a bit insignificant in the light of a man (your jesus) making the ultimate sacrifice that others could have "eternal life".
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.[GOD] ‑ 1 Cor 13:11
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Post #23

Post by Vladd44 »

I noticed you're a student, I usually don't explain the obvious. Don't get used to it.
I havent bothered to closely monitor post count, but the student, apprentice etc are simply rankings set arbitrarily over how many total posts you have made. OFC that is just an assumption, but its a standard feature of a phpbb forum. I would hazard to guess that the switch would be @ 100 posts, maybe 150, but more likely 100.

usually rankings are more like

newb from 0- (10 or 20) not sure what they are set for here, but a forum search for ranking title should have it somewhere, I'm sure someone has asked b4.
Since I am still student @ 93 posts, I would guess the next level would be at 100. (Apprentice)

Next would be 200 or 250 if I had to guess the setting. I dont pay enough attention to such things to even bother knowing what the next level would be, or how many more levels there would be.

But I am sure someone more enlightened to the details could clarify such things for you.

I guess you could say I wrote this post in faith. :whistle:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.[GOD] ‑ 1 Cor 13:11
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Post #24

Post by Amphigorey »

AlAyeti wrote:Amphigorey,

I was suggesting that Christians can have bitter disputes and not have to have a jihad over it.
Or a Crusade?
H is for Hector done in by thugs.

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Post #25

Post by AlAyeti »

Amphi,

The Crusades was a response to Christians being murdered and their lands being taken by Muslims.

Fact.

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Post #26

Post by AlAyeti »

"Sounds like a slide to me, but then again, the whole forgiveness thing would be called a slide if we accept the proposition that all have failed and deserve a penalty that only jesus could redeem. "

Vladd,

"Go and 'SIN' no more." 100% judgment. That He (Jesus) forgave her her debts? 100% Jesus. He did not condemn her to death which was not the rights of the Jews to do in Roman occupied and ruled Judea.

Jesus saved many lives that day.

All very historical.

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Post #27

Post by AlAyeti »

Vladd,

You're as "agnostic" as Saul of Tarsus.

You perspective is a welcomed addition to my quest for "knowledge."

I have no higher compliment to pay anyone.

Hosea and Gomer? You stress forgiveness exactly the same way as the God of the Bible. Unending yet undeserved. Long-suffering and desiring the return of the unfaithful. Perfect place to find the description of the God I believe in.

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perfessor
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Post #28

Post by perfessor »

AlAyeti wrote:"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
I like this one too.
If there is a seperation of church and state than what a church says within (or without) the walls of its church cannot be challenged in any way. Seperation means seperation. Congress shall make no laws. . .!
This is an interesting point for you to be making. Do you suggest that we repeal the laws granting tax-exempt status to churches? That would be fine with me.

It is a matter of fact, that the pastor can indeed say anything he wants within the walls of his church. This is NOT a free-speech issue, but a tax law issue.
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

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Post #29

Post by AlAyeti »

When was the tax-exempt thing put into place?

Certainly didn't have its root in the words and actions of Jesus.

You are not using the powers of reason if you think that the "tax- exempt" thing is not being used to discriminate and silence Christians. That is simply being disingenuous.

That anybody can sit by and watch an entire culture being attacked every single day on every imaginable level is astounding to me. Christians are demanded to take what other religious people have entire defamation organizations to fight off their oppressors.

If HBO (as one example) denegrated one single Jewish or Muslim or homosexual person the way they do an entire population of Christians, they would have been sued out of business.

But Christians must take the discrimination BY LAW.

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Post #30

Post by youngborean »

I personally can't see this as discrimination. Churches choose this relationship because they want tax exempt status. Christians are able to form religious political groups, however this shouldn't be the same status as a church.Although 527s are greying all boundaries between fair exemptions. Churches recieve the finanicial benefits of the seperation of church and state, and therefore have an obligation on the basis of that benefit. If they don't want to be exempt then they can form a different group with no democrats as their mandate.

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