Wrong is Wrong

Recently I have been amazed at how many people believe that the people in the pews agree and support the views of their preachers as expressed in sermons. I have been amazed because I'm a preacher. I'm amazed because I've been a part of a church for longer than I've been a preacher.

I know that people love the members of their congregations and their preachers for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with their sermons, at least not with all of their sermons. No minister believes that everyone listening to them agrees with them all the time. For one thing, they hear from those people. Now, in a small church, the preacher might drive out a dissenter, but in a big congregation, ain't never gonna happen!

Let it be known that I think it was nothing but a smear campaign to link Barack Obama with the most outrageous sayings of his preacher. It was wrong to cull out the most disconcerting and racially divisive sayings and say that Barack believes this without putting them in the context of the body of his messages. Yes it was Wrong!

Today I got an e-mail from MoveOn.Org asking me to sign a petition to say that this was wrong. Well good for them. Except, then they did the exact same thing regarding McCain! Now McCain is going to be responsible for all of the right-wing beliefs of his pastor.

Choosing a church is about much more than making sure that you agree with all of the political expressions of your preacher! For me, it is about being part of the Body Of Christ which comes together to read scripture, be taught, to drink the wine, to eat the bread, and to pray to God and listen to his voice.

If this keeps up, there will be no politicians in church because they will be too worried about what this might mean to them politically.

Wrong is Wrong. It is wrong to hold a parishioner responsible for the utterances of their priest, pastor, preacher, etc. It is wrong to divide the Body of Christ along political lines, or racial lines, or gender lines for political reasons.

There is evil in this debate and it is as much on the lips of the news reporters as it is on the lips of those working overtime to make sure they have the information as it is on the lips of ministers who are misrepresenting God in the world.