Limits of pulpit politics tested in N.C.

When Pastor Chan Chandler proclaimed a few weeks before last November's election that East Waynesville Baptist Church would become a political church, parishioner Ann Stokley says her "jaw dropped to the floor."

That the young pastor would call John Kerry supporters out as unfit Christians may not have been that surprising during a heated election in this county of some 60 Southern Baptist steeples nestled in the Appalachians.

But Tuesday night, six months after the election - and a week after nine members claim they were kicked out of the church for refusing to vote Republican - Mr. Chandler, a Haywood County native, resigned Tuesday night under pressure from both outside and inside the chapel. A number of his supporters left with him.

"We're there to learn and worship, not worship Bush," says Ms. Stokley, a registered Democrat. "I just couldn't believe what I was hearing coming from the Lord's podium."

If the rupture of this congregation was an extreme event for a church, it is also part of a simmering debate nationwide about how politicized the pulpit should be. Even in an era of intense partisan divides, the reaction of parishioners here suggests that even in the heart of "red-state" America, many want to see some boundary drawn between the demands of their faith and their ballot-box choices.

"This case actually illustrates that Christians are not ignorant citizens being led around by the nose," says Matthew Staver, an attorney with the Liberty Counsel in Florida, which promotes free speech for clergy. "The people in the pew are thinking for themselves."

Up until his calls for Democrats to depart, Ms. Stokley gave Pastor Chandler the benefit of the doubt. Still, his words troubled her deeply enough that she avoided him outside the sanctuary. "The pastor stands on the front step after the service, but you can always go out the side door," she says.

The case reverberated far outside the wooden doors of the East Waynesville church, rankling even staunch Southern Baptists. Traditionalists in the Southern Baptist Convention point out that Baptists, as far back as the Constitutional Convention, lobbied hard for the separation of church and state.

"What Republicans are learning is that nobody is a total lock," says Paul Froese, a sociology of religion professor at Baylor University. "It's not like they've just captured conservative Christians and are walking away with them. If they start to look too self-righteous, that can turn off a lot of Christians in the long run."

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention with close ties to the White House, said this week that churches should not endorse candidates from the pew.

"For somebody to say they're going to 'disfellowship' someone because they disagree on doctrine is extreme and not fundamental to Christian faith," says Mr. Staver of the Liberty Counsel. "But there is a rise in conservatism and a rise in the ability and desire of pastors to speak out on social issues, which I think is very healthy and good."

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