Is There Still A Constitution in the USA?

First there was Guantanamo Bay. Lock 'em up with no due process, no trial, no real prison facilities.

Now there's this pastor in North Carolina who is kicking out members of his congregation if they voted for John Kerry in the last presidential election, according to ABC News.

WAYNESVILLE, N.C., May 9, 2005 — For many residents of this hamlet nestled in the Smoky Mountains, nothing is as important as church. That's why nine longtime members of East Waynesville Baptist Church are so devastated after being kicked out of the congregation for, they say, supporting Democrat John Kerry's presidential bid.

They say Pastor Chan Chandler led a charge to boot them from the church because they supported the Massachusetts senator's 2004 campaign.

Edith Nichols, who was ousted from the congregation along with her husband, said the pastor's instructions were clear: "Those that did not support Bush needed to leave, that they were sinners that believed in abortion and all the wrong things."

Lewis Inman, a deacon for 20 years, said being thrown out of his church was worse than when he was laid off from his job of 30 years.

"I'm very, very sad. This has been our church home, our church family," Inman said, his voice trembling. "It's the only church I've ever been in."

Chandler would not speak on the record to ABC News. But in an audiotape of a sermon from last October, he said God had urged him to endorse President Bush as the only truly Christian candidate.

"Now, friend, you know and I know abortion is wrong, there's no way around it. But the question then comes in, 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," Chandler said on the tape, obtained from the church library by ABC affiliate WLOS in Asheville.

"You have been holding back God's church way too long," he said on the tape. "And I know I may get in trouble for saying that, but just pour it on."

Indeed, though some media reports have repeated Chandler's claim that this was all just a "misunderstanding," the full content of that sermon seems very clear.

"We have a society of preachers who are afraid to get up in the pulpit and speak the truth," Chandler said in the taped sermon. "There are people in the congregations, leaders — deacons, teachers, Sunday school teachers — people who pay their tithe and let the pastor know it very loudly, that tell the pastor he cannot say anything political. He can say that it's all right for you to support someone that does not support abortion. But you can't name names."

"'You start naming names,'" Chandler said he was told, "'we're gonna ask you to leave.' " But that's a cop-out, "hiding behind the pulpit," Chandler claimed.

"We've been catering to Satan, catering to the enemy, we've not been making the stand that God wants us to make," he said. Then he said Kerry voters need to repent or resign.

He said in the sermon that he doesn't care if he offends anyone: "I want to make the Who's Who list in heaven, not yours." Later in the sermon he said, "If you're going to be offended today, take it up with the most high. I am merely the spokesperson. Don't kill the messenger."

Directing his comments to Kerry supporters seated in the pews, Chandler asked: "Why do you support an unbeliever over a man who says, 'This is the day when I saved and now my life changed'? Why do you support an unbeliever over a believer? Let me see, do I support a Christian or a non-Christian? Do I support someone who kills babies or I support someone who says, 'Let's let 'em live.' Do I support someone who says, 'Let's marry the gays,' or someone who says, 'Let's uphold God's law and not'?"

What happened to the ideas of free speech and freedom of religion? What's more, what happened to democracy and the secret ballot? This sounds more like a third world banana republic election where you can be penalised for not voting for the "acceptable" candidate than the United States of America!

Yes, I wasn't able to vote in the recent UK elections, so I can't say much about what happened there (though I'm pleased to report that the MP returned from the constituency I live in is Labour rather than Conservative), but I'm still a US citizen and therefore I can say plenty about so-called men of the cloth who are so hypocritical. It was un-Christian to vote for Kerry? Isn't it un-Christian to pronounce judgement on others and refuse them access to worship?

I don't know if I'm more appalled at the pastor kicking them out or the other members of the congregation actually letting him!

Churches have been a part of political campaigning for as far back as I've been able to discover, at least during my lifetime. But contrast the Republican pastor with one who supported Kerry during the election:

In Philadelphia, right after a pro-Kerry appearance by fellow Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Rev. Ernest C. Morris Sr. told about 1,500 worshippers, "I can't tell you who to vote for, but I can tell you what my mama told me last week: 'Stay out of the bushes.' "

And in Cincinnati, Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church Pastor Donald H. Jordan Sr. said of Kerry's running mate, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., "I'm not worried about the law. I'm asking you to support him."

No ultimatums. I'm sure that if any of the members of those churches voted for Bush, they're still members of their respective churches. There was, however, a Catholic bishop who refused to give Communion to Kerry supporters during the election.

If America is slowly ridding itself of the constitution, I'm going to speed up my application to become a British citizen.