The diary "I just walked out of holy mass" is a perfect example of why the Republican Party is seriously screwed. The reason they are screwed is because more and more Republicans are brawling within what is the heart of GOP organizing in this country -- the local church. Unfortunately, the wingnut who presided over the joke of a service in the diary is hardly alone -- there are now whole blogs springing up in which disgruntled church members are attacking what they see is massive Bush-style corruption within church leadership.
There have been a lot of stories about the ugly hatred of certain Republicans on the right along with their tea parties. But the catch is that if these people are willing to spew their hate towards us, then they are just as likely to turn on each other, with graphic consequences, as we are about to document. I would point out something -- these preachers that I am going to bring up are a very tiny minority -- as in 1-5% of all preachers. By contrast, and by way of personal experience, I deal with several area preachers in the course of my work, and I can say that despite our political differences, I respect the spiritual integrity of all of them. In fact, wading through this mess has helped me to appreciate them more because of their willingness to provide for the spiritual needs of the community for low pay.
But the damage that these 1-5% wreak on people is well out of proportion to their tiny numbers. The first such church I would profile is the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville. The blogger, FBC Jax Watchdog, has profiled what he sees as a rampant culture of corruption within the church which is very much similar to the rampant culture of corruption that we saw within the Bush administration and the Republican Party in general. He alleged that the church engaged in dictatorial behavior by suppressing dissent, made land purchases worth hundreds of thousands of dollars using church funds, bought their pastor lavish offices, allowed nepotism, and did all their business in secret. The cumulation was that the pastor, in conjunction with the police, outed this blogger's identity as well as another blogger who was not even involved in this mess, and the story spilled over into the front page of the local paper. Now, this may have surprised him. But does this surprise anyone who has followed the Republican culture of corruption over the past several years?
In the same community, the Jacksonville paper reports that another church concealed sexual abuse by their pastor:
A Jacksonville church hid past accusations of sexual misconduct involving its former pastor from its insurance company, potentially voiding parts of the policy and limiting pending claims, the insurer said in court.
The prior allegations against the Rev. Darrell Gilyard include a previously undisclosed 1996 settlement by Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church. Gilyard came to the West Beaver Street church in 1993 after resigning a Texas pastorate amid reports of affairs with church members.
Gilyard, 47, was arrested last year after the mother of a teenage parishioner told Jacksonville police she found obscene text messages from the pastor on her daughter's cell phone. He is scheduled for trial May 26 on three felony counts of lewd and lascivious behavior involving a teenager.
Gilyard and the parish are targets of a massive lawsuit over this, and Safeco has gotten involved, trying to get out of paying liability for this mess. Safeco is suing this church, saying that the board ripped them off by not telling them of Gilyard's legal mess. Gilyard is also facing charges from the prosecutor's office over his alleged misconduct.
The Bellevue (KY) Baptist Church is another such church in which the congregants are brawling. The same thing is happening there -- arrogant preaching, lack of respect for the members of the congregation, threats to run off members if they dare to speak up. A second blogger from this congregation discusses this interaction with his daughter over this mess:
A lot of sermons (not just by Steve) have rubbed me the wrong way, but last Sunday's was the first time in my life I felt like getting up and walking out on one. The "lesson" began with images of Bernie Madoff on the imag screen, and a quick summary of his corruptions. A direct correlation was drawn between this corrupt financier and Christians who do not recognize tithing as a mandate for Christians (apparently, even those who give more than 10%). As I was wondering if the pastor truly meant that Christians who don't tithe deserved to spend their lives in jail, Steve quickly added that it was illegal to drive a stolen car, and many of the cars on the Bellevue lot were stolen since they had been bought with money that was stolen from God if their owners did not tithe.
My own views of tithing notwithstanding, is this really a proper way to treat the members of Bellevue? We've put up with an awful lot of unnecessary adversity over the last few years, so don't we deserve something better than to be equated with Bernie Madoff? Isn't the "per capita" giving higher than it's ever been? Aren't we supporting the ministries of the church like never before? Why in the world should we be subjected to a beatdown like that?
"No," I told my little girl. "Just because the pastor is in a slump we aren't going to abandon Bellevue. The church is bigger than one man, even the pastor. Even if he abandons the Bible from now on and lectures and derides us about giving money to Bellevue each and every week of the year instead of preaching the gospel, unless the Lord leads us elsewhere we will still attend this church. Sunday mornings aren't about us, and if it is our lot to share God's word with those who are also discouraged by hearing week after week about money instead of Jesus, then we should accept this role joyfully."
And these stories of emotional and sexual abuse could go on and on. The Catholic priests have been in the news lately, but there is now a whole website now just dedicated to Southern Baptist Church preachers who commit sexual abuse against congregants. And in the face of mounting criticism and bad press, the Southern Baptist Convention leadership refuses to act to protect churches from sexually abusing priests, claiming that it is up to the local churches to sift through the mess. And this sort of refusal to discipline preachers or protect churches allows people like Mac Brunson, the same person who outed the blogger, to run up multimillion dollar deficits at one church as reported by the Dallas Morning News and then go across the country and do it again somewhere else.
And the Wall Street Journal reports that the practice of public shaming and humiliation is growing among right-wing churches around the country:
--In Southwestern Michigan, a pastor called the cops right in the middle of a service to escort a 71-year old woman who had been a member for 50 years, regularly tithed, and had been a good member of the congregation:
The charge was trespassing, but Mrs. Caskey's real offense, in her pastor's view, was spiritual. Several months earlier, when she had questioned his authority, he'd charged her with spreading "a spirit of cancer and discord" and expelled her from the congregation. "I've been shunned," she says.
Her story reflects a growing movement among some conservative Protestant pastors to bring back church discipline, an ancient practice in which suspected sinners are privately confronted and then publicly castigated and excommunicated if they refuse to repent. While many Christians find such practices outdated, pastors in large and small churches across the country are expelling members for offenses ranging from adultery and theft to gossiping, skipping service and criticizing church leaders.
The Journal article reports other such instances:
--In Nashville, a church threatened to expel 74 members for gossip and disharmony; the congregants had sued the church seeking access to the financial records;
--In Alabama, a church regularly expels 5-7 people a year for sinful practices; over 400 people have left that congregation;
--In another church in Auburn, when the congregation voted to expel a member for adultery, one woman thought they were voting to send him to hell.
And here are the graphic details of the Holy Shit flying around in Michigan:
The conflict had been brewing for months. Shortly after the church hired Mr. Burrick in 2005 to help revive the congregation, which had dwindled to 12 members, Mrs. Caskey asked him to appoint a board of deacons to help govern the church, a tradition outlined in the church's charter. Mr. Burrick said the congregation was too small to warrant deacons. Mrs. Caskey pressed the issue at the church's quarterly business meetings and began complaining that Mr. Burrick was not following the church's bylaws. "She's one of the nicest, kindest people I know," says friend and neighbor Robert Johnston, 69, a retired cabinet maker. "But she won't be pushed around."
In April 2006, Mrs. Caskey received a stern letter from Mr. Burrick. "This church will not tolerate this spirit of cancer and discord that you would like to spread," it said. Mrs. Caskey, along with Mr. and Mrs. Church, continued to insist that the pastor follow the church's constitution. In August, she received a letter from Mr. Burrick that said her failure to repent had led to her removal. It also said he would not write her a transfer letter enabling her to join another church, a requirement in many Baptist congregations, until she had "made things right here at Allen Baptist."
This is strong evidence that the Republican Party is seriously screwed. The same kind of vitrol, smears, and hate speech that we see on FOX News and Rush Limbaugh is being directed by pastors at congregants and vice versa, meaning major trouble right in the heart of the Republican Party.