Religious Diversion

I am a Baptist boy from way back. But it's been all I can do lately to endure: Senator Bill Frist's tacit endorsement of an evangelical group that considers any votes against any Bush policies as action against "people of faith"; the overt political overtones parochial vainglory in yesterday's "National Day of Prayer"; and now, a Baptist pastor who "disfellowshipped" (a.k.a., kicked out) church members who did not vote for Bush in the last election, because they did not vote for Bush in the last election.

Land o' Goshen and sakes alive. Should I stay a Baptist, or should I go?

Note to Jim Wallis if he be reading this: you cannot get to Nashville soon enough. You've got to remind me of the value of faith, because the meaning of it gets cheaper and cheaper the more prevailing political winds prevail. See you at the Belcourt.

And somebody please take that NC church's tax-exempt status away from them.

05/07/2005, 7:00 p.m. Update -- The pastor who tries to force people to vote his presidential preferences seems to have gone into hiding in order to avoid facing the inevitable scrutiny that had to result from his behavior.

Why doesn't he just rename his congregation, "The First Baptist Church of George W. Bush"? There's already a "Church of John Coltrane." It might work.