Pastor risks church for his principles

[rug]

June 10th, 2012
04:00 AM ET
By David Mattingly, CNN

St. Paul, Minnesota (CNN)–Before Sunday morning services, the Rev. Oliver White looked at the rows of empty pews in his tiny St. Paul, Minnesota, church without regret.

"If this was a mistake," White said, "then I will make the mistake all over again."

In 2005, White made a costly decision.

At the United Church of Christ's annual synod in Atlanta, White was among delegates voting in favor of a resolution supporting same-sex marriage.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/10/pastor-risks-church-for-his-principles/

[JNelson6563]

1. White's former congregation: We want bigotry!

Good on him, shame, shame on them.

Julie

[skepticscott]

2. Unfortunately, the bigots and haters

in this supposedly "progressive" church apparently outnumber the decent people by a considerable margin. Seems religious motivation isn't quite all it's cracked up to be.

[cbayer]

3. What a brave man.

He has endured a lot of blowback so far, including death threats.

Perhaps this article will lead to the support he so desperately needs.

I hope so.

[Laochtine]

4. Death threats from Cristians?

Its almost hard to believe

[cbayer]

5. Why is that?

[dimbear]

6. Judging by the democratic principle of majority rule, it appears Pastor Hagee

is providing Christians what they prefer.

Of course I'm just assuming that 20 million is more than a handful.

[dmallind]

7. I'm torn here

The man deserves kudos certainly. This place is not too far from my old home and is in one of the few heavily black-populated parts of town. Religiously active blacks are one of the demographics with the lowest support levels for gay rights. so his principled stance was never without risk and I'm sure he knew it.

But just like the much higher profile minister Carlton Pearson lost almost all his congregation for preaching universal salvation (the only salvific theory that posits anything other than a genocidal sadist god) and just like Rob Bell did the same in a largely white church (the racial divide is there sadly, but it's the theological divide that yawns much wider when it comes to equality), he's found out that preaching love and equality to most Christians is a loser's game, and that the majority only value such things for themselves, not others.

He's got three choices.

1) he can knuckle down to preach triumphal hateful exclusionism as expected and get his flock back
2) he can keep to principle and try to reform his church and even his faith to a more enlightened morality even if it will likely stay smaller
3) he can appreciate the strong link between religiosity and retrograde social norms and either accept or avoid both

2 is the hero's option. Great good luck to him if he tries it.