The Waynesville Nine: When Churches Get Illegally Political

Hey...did you hear the one about the Democrats who got expelled from a Baptist church because they were...well, Democrats?

Seriously. It's not a joke. It happened for real last week in red-state North Carolina. Nine Democrats...middle-agers and senior citizens ...got voted out by their small-town church because they refused to repent of their liberal ways and support George Bush.

The Waynesville Nine are not rabid activists, sign-toting picketers or disruptive rabble-rousers. They're deacons and a church bookkeeper, parents and grandparents. Some were lifelong members of the East Waynesville Baptist Church.

The pastor-led cleansing of the church ranks was likely illegal, and may cost the church its IRS tax-exempt status. Sadly, this discriminatory situation is not isolated. Here are steps to take if your church illegally participates in electioneering and political activities.

But doesn't it shock you that the ultra-right religious still haven't grasped that God transcends the politics of men, and is neither a Republican nor Democrat?