“If you vote for John Kerry this year, you need to repent or resign. You have been holding back God’s church way too long. And I know I may get in trouble for saying that, but just pour it on.”

That was Pastor Chan Chandler of East Waynesville (NC) Baptist Church, speaking on an audiotape in October of last year, as reported by Associated Baptist Press.

On Friday we wrote about Chandler, who had apparently evicted nine members of his church for refusing to repent for voting for John Kerry.

Yesterday, Chandler resigned himself, saying, “For me to remain now would only cause more hurt for me and my family.”

Waylon Owens, a former seminary instructor of Chandler, claims this is all the doing of media bias:

But what is the real story? The media has refused to do the work necessary to find out the truth. Dogging Chan, who understandably has refused to talk so far, the media has ignored all of the members of the church who actually did the voting. Why have we only heard from those voted out or from their supporters? Why are there no quotes from the members who said, “enough is enough?”

Many facts have gone unreported or obscured in the media’s efforts to scandalize a young minister who has taken a stand for biblical morality and the life of a baby resting in her mother’s womb.

(See also Agape Press.) Meanwhile, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (quite a title), tried to clear things up:

“If a person is living in a homosexual lifestyle, then they are going against the clear teachings of Scripture and they should be disciplined in order to keep the witness of the church pure and hopefully to help them understand the gravity of their situation with the Lord,” he said. “But there’s a massive difference between living a lifestyle – either in homosexuality or adultery or the drug culture – that is clearly contradictory to Scripture and exercising a voting decision that may be erroneous or poor judgment. But erroneous and poor judgment should never lead to being removed from church membership.”

And there’s much more – you can try to decipher what went on from Chandler’s interview with Baptist Press (if such a tape does reveal he made an overt political endorsement, then such a tape “would have been doctored” or the endorsement was “completely unintentional”), or the more illuminating coverage from the Biblical Recorder, an NC Baptist newsletter:

Church member Bill Rash, who has been attending the church for about 29 years, said he stayed through the meeting, but has since resigned from his positions and decided to leave the church. He said another church member initially asked if all church members could come to the altar, pray together, forgive each other and get on with the Lord’s business.

Chandler responded by saying if those who disagreed with him would repent, then they could get on with the Lord’s work, Rash said. The pastor said if they weren’t going to repent they should leave, Rash said.

That’s when [ousted deacon Frank] Lowe and the others left.

After they left, the remaining members voted to take their names off the roll, Rash said everyone voted for the measure except he and his wife, who didn’t vote.

The remaining members agreed that if another church wrote for the letters of those who left, East Waynesville would reply saying they had left in bad standing.

During the last presidential election, the pastor said that anyone who was supporting John Kerry should repent or resign from the church, Rash and Lowe said. The pastor offered to hold the door for them to leave, Lowe said.

(With a touch of class, Lowe added: “[Chandler] says my political views support abortion and homosexuality, therefore that would be enough to turn me out of the church. I am not - positively not - for either one.") See also the Recorder account of Chandler’s final appearance (a tale of longtime members versus Chandler’s dozens of politicized converts), and the town newspaper’s coverage: church and state, faith and politics, members voted out, and the tax question.

From the latter article, here’s the IRS: “religious organizations, must abide by certain rules … they must not devote a substantial part of their activities to attempting to influence legislation…. they must not participate in, or intervene in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office ..”

Which brings us to a curious coincidence. Congressman Walter Jones, with the help of the religious right, has been pushing a bill called “Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act,” which would eliminate those pesky tax laws.

Direct, explicit pulpit politicking – way beyond “Justice Sunday” – would become the norm, and believers would be told, as they practically were in North Carolina, to vote for one candidate or burn in hell.

Welcome to the Party of God.