I’m not assuming everyone who reads this blog belongs to any organization of worship, but the following should be cause for concern, regardless of your affiliation.

Via Crooks and Liars – from the Contra Costa Times:

FAIRFIELD (Calif.) — A Fairfield woman whose car was adorned with celebratory signs for President-elect Barack Obama is furious that a priest singled her out during Sunday morning Mass and ordered her to leave.

Elizabeth Caster admits her Toyota Sequoia was parked in a loading zone outside of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Fairfield, but said it was common practice by parishioners during services and that two other vehicles parked on either side of her vehicle were not addressed.

Caster said the Rev. Sebastian Meyer humiliated her in front of the congregation, saying from the pulpit, “We cannot have a car with Obama signs written on it on these premises. And I don’t care who Obama is.”

And the article points out that there were several witnesses to the event.  I don’t know about you, but any pastor doing this to me would have gotten cussed out and resignation of my membership from that church.  Not to mention doing everything I could to report his ass to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and have his ass removed from that parish.

This is one of the reasons I still advocate for the Separation of Church and State;  if a Church is going to become an endorser of political-candidates-conduit, their tax-exempt status needs to be reviewed and maybe stripped.  Members should be free to express their opinions, vote for whomever the hell they want, and not sit under the threat of being singled out like this from Church leadership.  How many times has this happened, especially during election season?   How many more people might have voted for Obama if they weren’t afraid of being singled out in their congregations by power-mad, wanna-be religious kingmaker-Pastors? And how many times has Church leaders, under the aegis of “in the name of Jesus” have commandeered their pulpits not to teach about the love and goodness of Jesus, but to advance personal political agendas?

Keep it up, Church leaders – you might begin to face what they’re facing at Focus on The Family (Mullah James Dobson’s outfit).  That organization’s laying people off work:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Focus on the Family is planning more layoffs.

In October, Focus on the Family announced it would lay off or reassign 46 employees next year due to the restructuring of its distribution arm.Now Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger has told the Colorado Springs Gazette the company will be announcing specifics on more layoffs in the next few days.

Perhaps if they actually Focused on Families and not tried to be ReThug Kingmakers….ahhh, I won’t finish that thought.  Maybe Mullah Dobson’s congregation is trying to send him a MESSAGE by withholding donations – “do something else with our contributions in Jesus’ Name or ELSE.”  Y’all know if that organization was collecting big cheddar, there would be no need for laying people off work this close to the Holidays.

It is the same reason why I get upset when I see anything that is pro-discrimination and pro-bigot.  It starts a slippery path where one group gets targeted, then, depending on successful targeting, another group gets singled out.  Even on political views.

Your thoughts, JJP readers?

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