A purple church

In an era where political affiliation closely matches which church one attends, White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, NC is one that tries to be a purple church, bringing together both red and blue. Tom Gjelten of NPR visited the church.

Senior pastor Christopher Edmonston says they have to be purple to be open and welcome to any person who wants to come. That means, however, the pastor tends not to speak out on political issues. Alas, that included when the state passed a “bathroom bill” restricting which restroom a transgender person could use. But if he speaks out he feels members will find another church with a pastor that agrees with them.

This effort to be non-political was a big problem when in 22015 the Presbyterian denomination told each congregation it needed to make its own decision on same-sex weddings. They had to deal with it.

The hosted speakers on both sides of the issue. They invited members to express their views. Some tried to convince the rest. Others talked about the gay grandson or nephew. Still others wanted to be heard. The board eventually voted and approved same-sex weddings and the margin of victory was intentionally not reported. Edmonston said:

If you would have reported that it was 54 to 2 for marriage inclusion, the people who didn't want it to happen would have gotten the message "We really are out of step here." And if we would have reported that the vote was 30 to 26, the people who were really for it may have thought, "This place isn't as open-minded as I thought it was."

When reporting the new policy to the congregation Edmonston pleaded with them to stay united. Some – maybe 1% – did leave. And many of those came back. They missed the sense of community they had at White Memorial.