GOP pastor loses part of his flock to Obama

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Preacher and GOP official Keith Butler tried to turn his congregation against both presidential candidates in Sunday’s sermon — then dozens flocked to an Obama event

While some local churches are taking part in voter registration drives that could benefit Democrats, others are taking steps that could benefit Republicans, including a recent spate of pro-McCain sermons.

One Michigan pastor, who is also a national Republican party official, recently tried to turn his nearly all-black congregation against both presidential candidates — but after his sermon, many of the churchgoers went to an Obama rally.

This past Sunday, the conservative organization Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), based in Arizona, sponsored a protest of the federal tax code that prohibits preachers from endorsing a political candidate from the pulpit.

The initiative, called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” called on preachers around the country to violate the law and make endorsements during their sermons. The 54-year-old tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, like churches, from engaging in partisan politics. If they do, they could lose their tax-free status. According to ADF, about 30 churches participated in the protest nationwide, and almost all of their pastors endorsed Sen. John McCain.

While no Michigan churches participated in the ADF ploy, Southfield’s popular conservative pastor Keith Butler did get involved in the election, when he pointed out to his congregation what he called the worthlessness of both candidates.

Butler, of Word of Faith International Christian Center, is a former Detroit city council member. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate and didn’t make it past the primary in 2006. He is currently a member of the Republican National Committee.

In his sermon last Sunday, Butler did not endorse either candidate. In fact, he suggested that both of them subscribed to the Babylonian system, a system governed by men and not God, rooted in evil, and greed. “The Babylon system operates by man’s spirit. God’s system is led by God’s spirit,” he explained in his sermon, which basically condemned the U.S. government and those involved in it.

He said neither candidate for president (he didn’t name names) had the answers to the current financial crisis. People want to know who can fix the financial mess on Wall Street, he told his cheering congregation. “Neither of them,” he concluded. “We have a way outside of the Babylon system, but we are going to make a decision that anything that isn’t God’s way is not our way. You’re gonna eventually have to get out of the world system.”

He mocked the panicking Wall Street specialists and the presidential candidates, who were pushing for the bailout plan to pass. “When Wall Street is six feet under, God just gets six feet higher,” he told the congregation.

But after the church service ended at 1:30 p.m., many people left the pews of Word of Faith for an “evil” destination: to see Obama speak in front of The Detroit Institute of Arts.

Dozens of people from the church service were seen cheering for Obama in the thick, diverse crowd. Obama and Biden spoke to a crowd of more than 30,000 from the middle of Woodward Avenue with a focus on the economic crisis. Obama defended his position on the bailout plan at the rally, explaining that he wanted to revise the bailout plan before he could vote for it. He said the original version was a “welfare program for the rich.”

So, if members of his congregation vote, chances are they are going to vote for Obama, though perhaps with some exceptions.