N.C. pastor's primary desire is peace & unity for congregation

[The Straight Story]

N.C. pastor's primary desire is peace & unity for congregation embattled over politics
May 10, 2005
By Norm Miller

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (BP)--After several days of avoiding media contact, Chan Chandler granted an exclusive interview to Baptist Press Tuesday afternoon, May 10.

Chandler and the church where he is pastor -- East Waynesville Baptist Church, Waynesville, N.C. -- have drawn considerable media attention in recent days as nine members publicly alleged Chandler had them ousted from church membership based on their choice of political parties and candidates.

"I don't know how these folks voted," Chandler said. "And I never endorsed any candidate." Chandler said he did cite from the church pulpit what he believes are the "unbiblical values" of some political hopefuls. "But those were negative endorsements -- never a positive endorsement" of any candidate, he said, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent.

Chandler admits citing Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's views on abortion and homosexuality in one sermon, "and I also mentioned two Republicans' names" whose views he says are out of step with the Bible. "But that's not getting out," he said.

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=20766

[supernova]

1. Wow! Backpeddle much?

He definitely needs a different line of work. :eyes:

[KamaAina]

2. I thought his "primary" desire was for Bush** to defeat McCain

sorry, couldn't resist. But you know whenever this moran hears "primary", he's thinking "repuke primary".

[emanymton]

3. He's Made A Mistake, Admitted It, Now Move On

It was bad enough. It is over. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

It is now passed.

[The Straight Story]

4. I ain't judging

Just passing along an article I found of interest in fairness to the pastor. He spoke on it all, and this is what he had to say. We heard all the other sides along the way, only fair we post his side too.

[emanymton]

7. Agree With You 100%. This Story Is Over.

This was a side-show. We need to concentrate on what we believe to be correct.

[The Magistrate]

17. In Fairness To The Minister, Sir

He is a whited sepulcre, and a lying hypocrite, the sort of thing a decent man winces to scrape off the sole of his shoe after an unfortunate encounter in the parkway....

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. I call bullshit.

The testimony of a lot more people is clear: the man is not the paragon of virtue and humility that he wants to spin himself to be. He made himself a public figure. He continues to make himself a public figure, rather finding a small flock and tending to it.

He needs to get to working on himself. He is obviously "young in the spirit" and saw an opportunity to expand his influence on the backs of his parish. He deserves the criticism.

[left is right]

11. Not judging

but fruit inspecting--by their fruits you shall know them and this so called pastor produced rotten fruit and not a single "fruit of the Spirit" in sight

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. What a liar. Here is the MUST READ thread from a DUer eyewitness to

the whole dynamics of that church in addition to his Nazi tactics. It is excellent - I hope the poster publishes it somewhere:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1775454
Thread Title; Waynesville, NC pastor resigns: the Tale of the Cuckoo Coup

There are eyewitnesses that he said no one voting for Kerry could stay in his congregation. He is a LIAR LIAR LIAR. There may also be a video of it.

But when the story was stll breaking, the NYT report on it was already giving credence to the minister's lying sob story about it all being a "misunderstanding." The DUer who was THERE was able to report what really happened, and it was completely different. There are a number of threads on this wih the whole history. But if you read ONE thread, read the one I link to in this post. It is superb.

[The Straight Story]

8. Read it when it was posted

And have been seeing more on it from BPnews and posting as I see em coming in.

Might be cool to get a list of all threads relating to read over (might be instructive).

I don't know the truth, I was not there of course. That DU'er was there, but so was pastor. What it comes down to is who do we believe and why?

[NoodleBoy]

9. So, how many Republicans who eat shellfish has he given "negative"

enorsements to?

I mean seriously, the Bible says not to, and if you want to live a life in line with the teachings of The Lord in his holy book, you can't pick and choose.

[enki23]

15. it's clear an attempt was made to expel some from their church

it doesn't take a genius to evaluate the competing claims, and determine which is more likely, given what we *do* know. which is more likely, that this guy never really made any political endorsements, and that nine people were expelled by a congregational vote, and eleven others--including republicans--left in solidarity? or is it more likely that he's not really telling the whole truth?

doesn't take a damned genius. fuck this "either side could be true" imbecilic, fake "objectivity" bullshit. objectivity does not mean one doesn't evaluate the relative likelihood of two different stories. that's a very new, very bullshit fox-new style endorsement of the ideal of journalistic objectivity. (one they don't even follow in practice, as they purport to be "balancing" the entire media spectrum, by being extremely republican leaning. they don't pretend to be objective themselves, they pretend they create objectivity by providing an ideologically driven "alternative".)

[coloradodem2005]

10. Jeez. This ought to kill his credibility.

These assholes. If you are not with them 100%, then you are against them in their minds. 90% is not enough. 95% is not enough. 99% is not enough. Fuck them all. I honestly hope they go to hell. Yes I said that. I am tired of being lectured about forgiveness from people that will not forgive.

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. Chandler is LYING. Here is the proof: Video comments from the ejected

members of the congregation and audio of Chandler saying that anyone voting for Kerry must repent or resign:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/05/10.html#a2862

It's a CBS news video clip in Windows Media format. On my Mac, I had to try several times to get ti to play all the way through, but it's all there and needs to be part of the record of this case.

[dweller]

13. i still think

the tapes of his services should be subpeonaed. There would be found the truth to the matter.

dp

edit: Nothing Without Hope posted what i was wondering about while i was busy looking up my spelling of subpeonaed..:)

[T_i_B]

14. Pastor who sacked his flock for voting Kerry is forced to quit

This story actually makes me quite mad. I for one loathe politics in the pulpit, and I go to a liberal Methodist church where said politics is of a more lefty variety. Indeed during the election I had one sermon where a preacher denounced Conservative leader Michael Howard's immigrant bashing as immoral and anti-Christian. As much as I may agree with those sentiments though, I'm not about to call for all Conservatives to be excommunicated.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=637661

The pastor of a Baptist church in North Carolina who used his pulpit to urge the faithful to support President George Bush has resigned after nine members of his congregation accused him of throwing them out over their political beliefs.

The Rev Chandler's resignation on Tuesday evening came as a surprise to his supporters in the tiny town of East Waynesville, because he had previously sought to deny that he had tried to throw out anyone. However, an audio tape of one of his sermons has him clearly telling his congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Senator Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, needed to "repent or resign".

The nine aggrieved congregants all said they were explicitly told their presence was no longer welcome. One of them, Edith Nichols, said she and her husband had been warned: "Those that did not support Bush needed to leave, that they were sinners that believed in abortion and all the wrong things."

American churches are not allowed to give voting instructions to their congregations, first because of the constitutional separation of church and state and second because of the terms of their charity status under the federal tax code.

[supernova]

16. With a straight face

Chandler actually said that?