Southern Baptist Church, and Democrats Options

[Jaq]

A Southern Baptist church in East Waynesville, North Carolina has expelled all of its Democrats

Well, actually 9 of them have been expelled and another additional 40 left as protest.

From another message board:

She (posters mother) said WLOS tv just broke in to report that the East Waynesville Baptist church has officially excommunicated all its democratic members.

She said that before the election, the preacher told the congregation from the pulpit that if they didn't vote for * they had to come to the altar to confess their sins and repent. they could'nt be members. (My Mom doesn't attend that church--she's United Methodist, but I know of lots who do attend).

From Mom's email: "One of the local women who got excommunicated said on TV that it was like a cult. Another man who got excommunicated said that the rest of the congregation stood up and applauded as the Democrats were told to leave."

This seems to signal to me another step towards not just the gradual blurring of the boundary between church and state, but a full blown theocracy.

Ten Commandments in public places, debating homosexual marriage in the context of religion (when it's a secular government policy and wouldn't have any impact on churches as they wouldn't be required to perform homosexual marriage ceremonies), prayer in schools... the list goes on..


What think you? The States heading towards a theocracy, or am I just blowing things out of proportion? Would a theocracy be such a bad thing? Why? Why not? Please submit your essays by 5:00 p.m. 500 words or less.

[Mata]

The impression that I got from that guy was that all people are universally sinful and that this was their nature. I start from the opposite perspective, assuming that people naturally want to do the right things but give themselves excuses to avoid doing them because sometimes it's easier to give in and be weak.

The guy in the email gave me the distinct impression that he could happily go through six days being weak because on the seventh he would repent. More than this, his attitude suggested that he treats his weakness as proof of the Bible! Like I say, that's the kind of thing that scares me: original sin gives people the biggest scapegoat ever. 'I was made to be sinful', so rather than feeling normal when they're good they feel proud.

Normality should always be common decency. Arguing that normality is sin just develops a very dangerous precedent, it gives the anticipation that people will be evil which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. People might say 'I beat my wife, but now I feel bad for giving in to my sinful nature', instead of 'I went outside of normal decent behaviour and beat my wife, so it's my fault'. It doesn't sound like a big difference, but it just makes the individual responsible rather than deferring blame onto a distant ancestor that even a lot of Christians are quite doubtful ever really existed. Call me crazy, but I think a religion should encourage personal responsibility rather than deferrence.