I was brought up in a Christian household, have always maintained my faith (despite momentary weaknesses), yet have been forced to change my church four times in my life. Today was one of those times. While I was aware of the fact that my church has had conservative leanings for a long time, today, they stepped over the line and the only responsible decision my wife and I could come to was to leave. Unfortunately, I think that many churches across this nation have married themselves to conservative politics to the point that they have lost what their real focus should be: as the scriptures call us to do - "imitate Christ". Until my wife and I find a church that comes a little closer to this ideal, we are, sadly, unchurched.
More after the fold...
Update: Hey everyone, I am off to go door-to-door for Obama! Thanks for the Rec List, and please keep the wonderful comments. I will check back in later when I am exhausted from getting out the vote!
Update: A Quick Shout out to the Jewish people, who I left out of the poll - wish i could delete, but not sure how. I was writing too quickly so that I could GOTV in a bit, so no offense meant :) Other groups missed: Scientologists, Presbyterian, Wiccan, Secular Humanist, Buddhist, Pagan, Spaghetti Monster (?), and any others. Sorry, now I am off to GOTV - wish me luck!
We have been attending a church that we chose because they had a great focus on international issues and missions and we have good friends that attend there as well. For the entire six months, I knew there was a conservative bend to the service and felt that conservative politics had invaded the sermons, but not to a point where I was too discontented about it. It was slightly worrisome, but we were happy because of our friends, the international focus and the classes that our friend was teaching - which were on a great series on Jesus' miracles and parables. They were incredible classes focused on learning about the culture of the time and really seeing the true meaning of Jesus' works.
Overall, it was not perfect, but we were happy. Then, one week ago, it all changed. As i have described, I knew that the church had a conservative bend, i knew that the people in the church were probably at least ninety percent conservative, and that conservative politics had invaded the sermons a bit, but I fooled myself about how big of a problem it was.
I had been advocating for Obama since 2003, when i first read an in-depth article on him and wrote a blog entitled "Why this Man should be President someday". I have volunteered for him, spent hundreds of hours advocating for him, knocked on doors, made phone calls, put reminders on doors, sent in as much money as I could, and the whole time despaired how Christians I knew were demonizing him as: the anti-Christ, a Muslim manchurian candidate, baby killer, etc. This was not the Christianity I knew - and these e-mails were flying through the list-serves of many of the churches that I was connected to - including a group associated with this church. I would swiftly defend him, but most of the time to no avail. Luckily, many of my friends, my relatives, and even people in my Bible group became Obama fans, so I held out some hope.
At my Church however, we had the only Obama bumper sticker in a sea of "McCain / Palin" and "I Proudly Cling to my Guns and Religion" stickers (which seemed to me an odd combination, but freedom of speech is of course very important). So one week ago, my Pastor, announced from the pulpit that there was a "non-partisan" voting guide in the front foyer. I was afraid of what I might find, but still grabbed one on the way out. What I found when I got home was quite disturbing. The voter guide had the appearance of non-partisanship, but the questions were formed to demonize and distort Obama's record, here are some of the positions (my comments in [] ):
Traditional Marriage into Federal law: McCain For, Obama Against
[of course, it would be written: Writing Prejudice into the Constitution]
Supports Human Cloning: McCain Against, Obama For
[I have searched everywhere possible, and correct me if I am wrong, but it seems like they have the same position on this]
Opposes Judicial Activism: McCain Opposes, Obama Supports
[Hmm, two questions ago they were talking about changing the constitution, now it is a bad thing?]
Supports Curriculum that Promotes Homosexuality: McCain Against, Obama For
[This one gave me the biggest laugh - Obama promotes homosexuality? First of all, I would love to see this education, since he and I both believe you are born that way, how can you promote someone to become homosexual?]
Opposes Laws Forcing Business to Favor Homosexuality: McCain For, Obama Against
[Favor Homosexuality? Hmmm... This could be reworded to equal rights, but that would be the truth, wouldn't it?]
Supports Protecting the Lives of Children Born Alive: McCain For, Obama Against
[Of course believing this myth, which completely misrepresents what really happened and makes Obama seem like a baby killer]
Prohibit Sex Education for Kindergarten Children: McCain For, Obama Against
[Perpetuating another false rumor]
And many of the others are just as bad... This pamphlet was put out by the Pennsylvania Family Institute, who claims to be "non-partisan" and "impartial". Much of the other info in this extensive guide is misleading, twisted, and outright lies.
I was quite disturbed to say the least. However, after talking to my wife, my friends that attend the church, my parents, and praying quite extensively, I decided that perhaps the pastors did not know about the misinformation and just agreed to let it be there because the group said they were impartial. I couldn't have been more wrong! The next week (yesterday) was much, much worse.
I walked into the church and received a weekly bulletin. Right in the bulletin was a pamphlet entitled "Vote Pro-Life" and a subheading "Take this Flyer into the Voting Booth on Tues. Nov 4". The flyer continues:
Abortion is an Intrinsic Evil - Support for an intrinsic evil disqualifies a candidate for public office.
McCain and Palin: has a pro-life voting record, would appoint judges... who respect sanctity of human life, safeguard tax dollars from abortion spending, want Roe v Wade to be overturned, etc.
Of course, they then list their opponents as opposed to all of those things. Then, it goes district by district explaining who you should vote for. On the top of the pamphlet is a picture of a baby at 9 weeks and one at 9 months. This pamphlet was put out by a group called LifePac.
At this point, I told my wife I might want to walk out - this was morally reprehensible and I thought even illegal. I did not want to be a part of this church anymore. As we whispered to each other, she said either we should leave now or stay for the whole service. Even though I was very unhappy, I decided I still need my worship time each week, so I would stay and perhaps it would make me feel a little better. Once again, how wrong I was!
The first ten minutes of the service was spent talking about the voters guides, how abortion was an intrinsic evil, and that if you do not vote against abortion it disqualifies you for office. The pit in my stomach began to grow as the sermon began. The Pastor chose an odd topic to talk about for todays message: Property Rights. For the first few minutes I was completely lost as to where he was going with this as he talked about an environmentalist who keyed a hummer because he was against the environmental damage that the hummer caused. Then about an animal rights activist who threw dead fish at a house of a person that had a fur coat (that one sounded a bit fishy to me.. Okay, sorry, had to be said)...
At that point, my wife scribbled to me: "Is this sermon going to be against socialism?" I laughed, but the pit in my stomach began to think maybe so. The sermon continued about how property rights are one of the most important things in the Bible and that when they are taken away, the freedom of religion is taken away. The pastor railed on some homeless men that sued a public library that would not allow them to be in there and how they won their lawsuit. Then he began talking about how if everything becomes nationalized, we will lose our freedom to worship and how this was already occurring with churches losing their tax exemption if they speak out on politics. Let's just say it was one of the worst sermons I have ever heard and the only thing keeping me from either walking out or making a complete spectacle of myself (I day dreamed about Christ turning over the tax collectors tables, and that he would be proud of me if I stood up and spoke out about how wrong this sermon was), but thank God I have a wife to protect me from completely making myself an idiot!
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It was extremely touching that my friend felt such a responsibility for the actions of the pastors today, but he obviously feels the same way that I do and him and his wife were only half the reason for us coming there. We really liked the main focus of the church (Missions and Reaching Nations Less Fortunate). But what happened today was just completely out of bounds, and in my mind, not something I want to be a part of.
I tore up our check for our tithe because the Lord says to give with a generous heart and that was not possible yesterday. As we left the Church, my wife said to me, "well I guess that is all for that church, huh?" I said yeah and felt pretty dejected. By the time we got home though and had a little more time to think, I came to a few conclusions:
- There is still a lot to do on the Obama front. Churches like this that have stepped over the line have made our jobs twice as hard, so we need to reach a little deeper. Who knows how many minds they have changed on the last Sunday before the election? So I am going out to volunteer today and tomorrow to get us over the finish line.
- Churches need to be apolitical. While it is probably impossible overall, they need to focus on the word of God and not from either political perspective. I would not want to go to a Pro-Obama Church either. I am convinced that politics distorts religion and religion distorts politics. This is why the separation is very important.
- If I notice a consistent political leaning at the next Church, i am not going to ignore it. I will talk to the pastor about it immediately and if it is something that is a part of that church, it is not the place for us.
- I am going to make it one of my main life goals to try at least a little to speak out against the politicization of Churches and the damage it does both to government and the Church. Not to mention distracts from the true message of God.
- From now until Tues we will focus on getting Obama elected. From Tuesday on, we will try again to find a Church that can remain focused most of the time on the message of Christ. While no Church is perfect, I am not willing to accept this level of politicization and am convinced that, at the very least, there is some place that is at least somewhat more focused.
- The abortion message is strong in churches, but what they fail to realize is that their position is political, not religious. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the way to stop something like abortion is to protest and try to outlaw it. The message of Christ is to help stop these things through compassion, taking care of the least of these, and many other messages than outlawing it. I will spend much of the next four years spreading this message so that it is less of an issue in the next election. For more on this see my past diaries: Help Turn the Tide on Abortion: Pro-Life, Pro-Obama and McShame's Voting Record has Increased Abortions and How to Reach Pro-Lifers
- From this experience, I have learned that God is even greater than i thought! He welled up such emotion in me to do what is right that it is helping push me in a good direction and perhaps to find a Church that is much closer to his teachings. I have more faith now then ever, even though i am very disappointed in many of these Churches.
- I am going to write a letter to the pastor to let him know why we left. It will be polite, but I think it is important for him to know that politicization pushes people away from the Church. Many people would just leave and he would have no idea why, but if enough people tell him why, maybe God will work to change his heart.
Basically, I wanted to share this message because I think it is important to know what is going on in these churches and that for people of faith, it is important that we stand up and do what is right even when it is hard. We need to follow where God leads us, even when it is away from a Church that we love and trust that he will guide us to something better.
For people that are not of faith, do not let this give you a negative view of Christianity. While there are churches like this that are misguided, there are many that are closer to Christ's teachings and there are millions of Christians like me that are willing to fight for the real message and try to prevent it from being distorted. Thank you for reading this long post.
Update: I just wanted to add a couple things that i forgot in the original post.
- First, when the whole sermon was based in it being intrinsically evil to support the candidate that I support, I immediately felt like a pariah. After all, many people in the church had see the bumper stickers and sign on my car and as my wife and i walked out, though i felt proud to walk to my car, I also felt as if I had just been cast out. That the pastor had basically called me evil and my car as a symbol of that evil.
- Also, many people have commented that the pastor is evil or the people in the Church are participating in evil. I really prefer to just say misguided. I truly believe they have good hearts that mean well, just have fallen prey to a twisting of the gospel.
- I apologize for leaving out some obvious religions / denominations, I was in a hurry when i wrote this and cannot adjust the poll. Sorry to leave anyone out!
- Finally, thanks for all the Church recommendations, I cannot tell you how much this support and help means to us! We are going to read up on many of the Churches recommended and I'll update when we have good news!
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