[UPDATE - The pastor in the article below has resigned]

So a Baptist Church in North Carolina has officially declared that Democrats cannot be members. (See the extensive discussion thread on DailyKOS excerpted below).

I suspect that religious conservatives around the nation will not be offended by this news.

I do not expect Limbaugh-Hannity-Coulter to criticize this development.

In fact, I can certainly minimize its importance if I want to. I report on it here, though, because of the implications in the context of the theocratic movement in the USA.

As we have seen in the Middle East, when you ignite religious passions, you can motivate people to extreme behavior. Part of the movement toward theocracy in the USA is a movement to ignite the faithful into taking individual action in society (ex: pharmacists not filling “immoral” prescriptions”).

As a freedom issue, I have no problem with churches choosing their members. But when the churches decide based on politics, churches violate their promise of non-partisanship. You see, if a church wants to be free of paying taxes on its income, the church must abide by IRS guidelines regarding non-partisanship.

And so, from now on, the church at issue must pay taxes on the collections it receives.

Oops. In order for the church to have to pay taxes, the Bush IRS would have to issue a finding that the church has lost its tax exempt status. How likely is the theocratic Bush adminstration to allow the IRS to come ofter a fundamentalist Republican church? Not very likely.

If the Bush IRS leave this church alone, then we have moved further toward fascism and theocracy, where those who are “party members” can get away with almost anything. And those who are not “party members” are to be denied the benefits of full citizenship.

Local WLOS TV station reports on the excommunication of Democrats - VIDEO HERE.

It Begins: Dems “Excommunicated” From Church? [updated w/ VIDEO] - From DailyKOS

by georgia10
Thu May 5th, 2005 at 18:12:18 PDT

For those that thought that there has not been a full scale war lanched against liberals; for those who didn’t take the radical right’s promise to “eradicate liberals” seriously, I present to you, Exhibit A: East Waynesville Baptist Church has just kicked out all its Democratic members.

Yes. You read that right. If you didn’t vote for Bush, you had to “repent your sin”. And finally, they figured why deal with the liberal sinners at all..

From libnnc over at DU:

“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.”

The news report has been confirmed by others on that thread. The broadcast @ 11 pm on WLOS will run the story again.

. . .

This isn’t a “culture” war, people. This isn’t some sort of political game. This action merely foreshadows what is to come: the radical religious right seeking to impose a theocracy upon this nation. Purge the liberals from society.

Welcome to the Blue Scare. Welcome to Grade-A, government-sanctioned McCarthyism against liberals and against anyone who doesn’t embrace their distorted worldview. Here is the face of the American jihad.

Update [2005-5-5 21:18:55 by georgia10]:: Here is the contact info for the local TV station, for those who want further confirmation:
WLOS, NC Phone Numbers: 828-684-1340
800-288-8813
News Hotline: 800-288-2413
News Email: news@wlos.com

. . .

Synposis: The minister said if you supported John Kerry or the Democratic Party, you are against the Church. 9 members said the minister led the charge to excommunicate them because of issues of abortion and homosexuality.

He said they had to repent and agree to vote Republican. 40 other members resigned in protest.