Obama and the Church

Saying for the Day:Truth is not determined by majority vote. ~Doug Gwyn

Well Obama has the delegates. That much is over.
I still don’t know who I’ll vote for in November.
I really thought Obama was different until he dropped his Church membership.
Up until then he had done what he thought was right rather than the political thing.
This was his church. The fellowship that had sustained him. But politics said it would play well if he dropped it. In the end politics won. He put aside what he believed to get the nomination and in the long run get elected.
He is after all just another politician.
But you say look at the evil church he belonged to. Then you will ask how could he sit through twenty years of that stuff.
The news media, the conservatives, the liberal opponents all made assumptions that can’t be sustained. Let me list some of them.
1. The Pastor preached the same stuff every Sunday for twenty years.
2. The congregation is the Pastor.
3. People really listen to sermons.
4. Guest preachers represent the congregation.
Pastors are not robots. They are not programmed once and then play the same tape over and over. As time goes on pastors change. The Pastor my congregation in Crystal Falls got when I came there was not the same Pastor who ended his ministry thirty five years later. I changed. I studied. I went to workshops. I got excited. I tried new approaches. There were some things that didn’t change. I was a Lutheran and Lutheran theology prevailed. Most of the pastors I have known over the years have changed.
So it is really doubtful that people in that church got that radical stuff every Sunday for twenty years. His Pastor was United Church of Christ so I am sure there were sermons on Baptism, on salvation, on God’s love. I am sure there were also sermons on how poorly blacks were treated mixed in with the others. What Obama heard was a wide variety of sermons.
2. Obama belonged to a congregation not a Pastor. It was a fellowship. His children were baptized in that fellowship. He took communion in that fellowship. He had friends in that fellowship. The old Pastor had retired but the fellowship, the congregation goes on.
3. I heard a conservative who was attacking say that he always listened to what the Pastor said and took it to heart. Boy I wish that was true of the congregation I served. A lot of church people put up with the sermon but don’t really hear it. If you want to prove this statement go to some church that has coffee after the sermon and have people write down the five main points of the sermon. People hear what they want to hear and take from the sermon what God wants them to get.
4. The straw that broke the camel’s back and caused Obama to leave the congregation was a guest preacher. A Catholic Priest, yet! No congregation can control a guest preacher. I never knew what the person who filled my pulpit was going to say. The Priest is now on suspension by his Bishop.
So I am not happy that Obama decided to be more politician than Church member.
It makes me wonder how he will act when the press and the polls begin to press on him as President. Will he lead us or will he surrender and do the political thing?
#### News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal . People are not happy with the increased charges for Pigeon Days events. The event with the most protests is the pasty eating contest. The complaint is that the fee is too high for the $50 prize. Mayor Trumble pointed out that in addition to the $50 prize you get to eat all those wonderful pasties. Since this is only the possible schedule the Board will review all the costs and events before the final schedule is posted.
The Liars club is complaining because their big liar’s contest is not included on the schedule.
Since Bonnie McGregor is just a month or so away from giving birth Tommy UK decided to review the driblet that may apply. It was driblet 172. He is looking to see if there is anything they should worry about.
Tommy UK and the Tommy Club are still trying to figure out what caused the entire town to disappear. There just are no real clues. It may just become another of the Pigeon Falls mysteries.
Pigeon Falls made the tabloids again. This time the headline reads “ Small Town Disappears” the article said every building and every person in Pigeon Falls vanished for a week. At least it was half right.
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Today's Link-Here in the Hills-Some thoughts on Obama's Nomination
A good day. In the morning I started getting April's blogs ready to print out for my sister. Then I started reading my newest book. I took a nap. Betty and I went to work in the basement and i checked out my ver last G scale engine. Then I visted almost all of my links. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA