Hundreds leave pioneering Fla. megachurch

[Union Yes]

Source: AP

Hundreds leave pioneering Fla. megachurch
Source: AP

MIAMI – Hundreds of congregants have left a pioneering megachurch in Florida to form their own congregation because they were unhappy with leadership at the church that's seen as a bedrock of the religious right.

The action by the unhappy members at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church was the culmination of a feud between loyalists to an evangelical luminary, the Rev. D. James Kennedy, and his replacement as pastor, the Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, a grandson of the Rev. Billy Graham.

The new congregation met for its first service last Sunday, and organizers said more than 450 people attended. The people who formed the new congregation had lost a Sept. 20 vote to fire Tchividjian. Organizers of the still unnamed church said nearly all of their attendees had been among Coral Ridge's roughly 2,000 members.
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Under the leadership of Kennedy, who died in 2007, the church was a forerunner to modern evangelical megachurches, a fiercely conservative voice on social issues including homosexuality and abortion, and a powerful political voice.

Tchividjian, 37, took over earlier this year. While he has shown no sign of theological differences with Kennedy, he has rejected politics as the most important force for change, and his sermons have not focused on divisive issues. Meantime, he cuts a far different image, forgoing the type of choir robe Kennedy wore during services, and sporting spiky hair, tan skin, and sometimes a scruffy beard.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091001/ap_on_re/us_rel_evangelical_feud

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Even though it sounds like this new Rev isn't preaching politics from his pulpit, this story highlights the reason why it's time for the IRS to do it's fucking job and investigate ANY church accused of using it's pulpit to advocate political stances and for political candidates and ideologies.


To the leaders at the IRS..

TAX THEM!

or step the fuck aside and let someone with a spine do the job that you are failing to do.

It's called upholding the law.

[pleah]

1. K&R for the hell of it, pun intended.

:evilgrin:

[Union Yes]

4. You and your devilish puns!

:evilgrin: :hi:

[msongs]

2. it's the....rapture nt

[No Elephants]

12. Sounds more like the rupture. ntt

:7

[liberalmuse]

3. Jesus would totally bomb in that crowd.

I find this really sad.

[DeSwiss]

5. TAX THEM!

YES!!!

K&R

[Union Yes]

8. +1

:hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

6. I agree. I think ALL religious properties should be taxed. I do not understand why they

should be exempt...any of them

[Union Yes]

7. +1000

:patriot:

[2QT2BSTR8]

9. I could not agree more! The wealth that I saw in Vatican city was sickening!

Just 1/9 of the Vatican city collection to private collectors could do a serious blow in world hunger. But no, it just sits there and gathers dust. Makes me want to puke.

[melm00se]

16. and then folks would bitch about the private collectors

[countmyvote4real]

10. It's the first, second, third... X church of X syndrome.

In more recent times, off-shoot congregations have preferred a moniker that doesn't reflect their local chronology as much as its mythology (Mount Olive, Good Shepherd) or boundaries (subdivision X church). 17th whatever church of where-ever is not exactly like winning the bronze medal.

Anyway, as I read the post, I wondered which group would (more like could) compel me to take their side. And then it became clear that the division really had nothing to do with political activism. For the splinters, it's about the new pastor losing the choir robe and not always shaving.

That's not to say that either church should not be audited. EVERY organization/corporation claiming tax exemption should be audited.

I'm just saying that the split seems to more about fashion than faith.

[Hubert Flottz]

14. "(Mount Olive,"

Always reminds me of PopEye!

[w4rma]

11. That new church needs to be audited, as they are breaking away specifically to preach politics from

the pulpit.

[No Elephants]

13. Kennedy was a former Arthur Murray dance teacher who found his way to fortune

via preaching. Either way, it was the business of show, IMO. (Hence giving the sermon in the costume of a choir robe instead of a "preacher's Sunday go to meeting" suit.)

Along with Falwell, Kennedy was one of the first church leaders to make the deal with the devil, aka the Atwater types and very cynical and convenient "Christian," Reed: "You give us the votes and we make the country a jingoistic theocracy, in which your word is law--literally."

I used to listen to Kennedy's "sermons" on TV and would want to scream or vomit, or both. For the last couple of decades of his life, they were little more than a conflation of bastardized civics and bastardized Bible, all spun to "teach" that both God and the Founders intended this country to be a "Christian" theocracy. He did not care how much he had to spin history, the Constitution or the Bible to reach that lying conclusion.

He was a truly insincere and vile man, IMO.

[immoderate]

21. Uh-huh. He was a disciple of Barnum.

--imm

[OnionPatch]

15. My dad was a member of that church.

He took me in there once to show me the organ, which has (or had at the time) pipes made of gold and is worth, according to him, about a million bucks or so. I asked him how many poor people those would feed and he looked at me like I was nuts. Caring for the poor and unfortunate had absolutely nothing to do with Christianity according to him and his church friends. Going to that church was some sort of status symbol. Period.

[Stumbler]

17. Tax Faith Now

Especially when it involves itself with politics.

[Ikonoklast]

18. So, they admit it's a cult of personality, and not religion that they are going there.

Kill All Schismatics For Christ!

[DeSwiss]

19. So they break off and form another church?

:shrug: - I see no up-side here.....

[Critters2]

20. The new guy pissed off the organist.

That's always a recipe for trouble.

[JerseygirlCT]

22. Political stances are allowed

endorsing particular candidates is not.