Personally, if my pastor was too conservative, I'd have left beforehand

And I have.

And personally, I think it's time for Liberal Christians to evaluate the Church that they are attending to ensure that the direction the Church is taking is not one of politics. If your Church leaders are trying to shove their ideologies down your throat then why should you be spending time there and making donations?

I'm a lifelong Methodist and looking back on my years of Sunday School & Church, I recognized that I was fortunate to belong to a very progressive congregation. Mind you, back in the 70s-80s we weren't going to anti-nuke & anti-war protests. But our Pastor stayed out of the hot topics and focused on real Christian values such as reaching out and helping others - stuff that Jesus did when he was here. The Youth Sunday School teacher for the HS group encouraged us to debated the topics found in the bible in order to learn and grow from them. Yes, I was one of the lucky Christian kids.

Even after I moved out of the area, I made it a point to go back home about once a month so I could attend services at my church. (I lived about 90minutes away). It was a great church.

But then the Pastor retired and they found a new guy that wasn't so progressive thinking. He was shocked that we were out there fighting for the "unborn babies" and working to get more Christians running the school board. He moved our church to a hard right and it only took me 2 services to realize that this is not the Church I know and nor did I want to take the time to get to know it.

Now we have a Church that booted out members in their congregation that didn't vote for Bush unless those members repented their sins. I hate to say it, this is just the tip of the iceberg and I'm fearful it's going to get worse before it gets better.

So now is the time for those of us who are both liberal and Christian to re-evaluate the churches we're attending both on a local and national aspect. Faith is something very important to many of us but also very personal, but if our chosen church is forcing the congregation as a whole to move in an opposite direction, then we need to fight back. And the best way to fight back is to take you and your donations someplace else.

There are plenty of congregations out there that are either openly progressive (aka Quakers & Unitarians) or at least try to stay out of politics. I think we need to make it a point that we support these churches instead of those involved too heavily into Fristian Fundamentalist religion.

If Jesus were alive today and witnessed what happened in Indiana he would have chased that pastor out like he did with the Money-changers.

kicked out of a Church. My only worry is that in the next twenty years the Christian right will have an Atheist hunt and burn us all at the stake.

And I'm hoping that those who do reply aren't doing so to demean those of us who find faith important.

have far reaching implications to those of us who are not Christian.

along to the right a la frog in boiling water. Some members are also of an age where they just cannot conceive of another church home;some of them have been going to the same church for decades. It's very sad to see the 'salt of the earth' become confused and disenchanted with their religious home. I think in some areas there have been many that have just stopped going to church or have split off to form a new church.

But I also agree with the OP. Personally, I can't understand how someone would stay with a chruch that is so outwardly right wing.

But I can appreciate that to some people, the church is their community and their home.

That is really what outrages me the most about these churches that are doing this. They are exploiting the position of abolsute power and control that their congregations give them, and are using it to promote GOP candidates. They are brainwashing people into voting for Republicans.

It needs to stop.

But what can be done?

That says they welcome anyone, I thought that churches would now align themselves to political parties. Time has come. If you're a liberal in a conservative church, find a liberal one. UCC, UUA, and liberal Quakers are a good start. If none of those are in your area, chech the Church of the Larger Fellowship http://www.uua.org/clf/ and they can help you in worship and even check out religious materials. There are true conservatives (pre-fundie right) that are in UUA and others but they do see fundies as a threat generally.

get tough and and withhold all financial contributions/tithes, what have you, from these churches with extremists preaching hate from the pulpits. A national Sunday morning walk-out would definitely get their attention, too.

STARVE THE BEAST - sound familiar? Turn their neocon strategies around on them and give them a taste of their own medicine. If this strategy can gut our federal social programs, it will surely be felt in the offering plate! A sudden cashflow problem will impact the bottom line of these churches pretty damn quickly, and my guess is if faced with financial ruin, the more intelligent, preservation-minded of their clergy will soften their message in a hurry. Real Christians (Beatitudes Christians) need to start a well organized financial boybott of all fundamentalist churches and show them in no uncertain terms that religious and political extremism will not be tolerated. It's the only way to derail these crazy bastards - hit 'em in the pocketbook!

The church can only do what the people in it will put up with. It's time the people spoke up and said NO MORE in His name.