By Scott Fitzgerald

Staff Writer

A banner head on the cover of a recent Newsweek Magazine read, “God and the Founding Fathers.”

Religion and its intermingling with societies and politics have become news stories within themselves.

Three local pastors were asked to comment recently on religious issues national and local in scope. They also mentioned particular activities their churches engage in to address societal problems or issues.

“With all the religion issues in the news today, I don’t think it unifies us. It divides us more as people,” said Pastor Rose Marie LeRoy of Bethany United Methodist Church.

She winces at national news stories that include religious angles in the subtext.

“We seem to be caught up in faith versus politics. It’s the religious denominations and politics getting mixed with one another. It can become power control. Christ had to deal with that with the Pharisees,” LeRoy said.

LeRoy said she has trouble with politicians who make a point of pulling religion into their agendas.

“Politicians say I need to align myself with a certain religion. I question what does this have to do with faith and what would Christ have done with that. He (Christ) rocked the boat. He wasn’t mainline or political,” LeRoy said.

Pastor Jerry Galbreath, of University Place Christian Church, prefers a more encompassing term rather than hardball politics per se.

He leads his congregation and others in the religious community on a road of exploration to widen knowledge and find the message of God revealed in different ways.

“We try to understand rather than throw darts at it,” Galbreath said.

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks and this country’s declaration of war against al-Qaida in 2001, University Place Christian Church invited Middle East scholars and natives from throughout the state to come speak about the Islamic faith.

Galbreath said he has trouble studying historical accounts in which armies bear arms to attack or retaliate in the name of God.

“While it’s nice to have democracy in Iraq, is it worth the thousands of lives being lost?” Galbreath asked.

Pastor Cornelius Pitts, of Zoe Bible Church, doesn’t want religion to go near the political arena. Nor does he want to intermingle any kind of pop culture with religion.

“I do a lot of Bible teaching from the word rather than traditions. There’s always going to be a fad. We need to stick with the word,” Pitts said.

Enjoying the church’s new confines at the former Christ the King church on East Maine, Pitts has noticed something he feels the ecumenical community needs to address as a whole.

“We are seeing members float from congregation to congregation. Folks are not too prone to make a commitment. We need to urge promotion and faithfulness. We as a community need to address this as a whole. God promotes faithfulness,” Pitts said.

All three pastors have found different ways to spread the message rather than just lecturing their congregations.

Pitts said Zoe Bible is raising money and making plans to open a Christian bookstore in their church for people throughout northwest Oklahoma.

Galbreath teaches a “World Religions” class at Northern Oklahoma College and would like to expand its offering to lay people.

The University Place Christian Church congregation extends invitations to different ethnic groups and cultures to join in worship.

A group of Native Americans joined in a holiday celebration at University Place Christian Church a few years earlier and shared customs and traditions with the congregation, Galbreath said.

At Bethany United Methodist Church, LeRoy said, a small congregation of 60 members that represents a 28 percent growth from a few years earlier, continues to be the “hands and feet of Christ.”

The congregation works to maintain Oklahoma’s third largest food pantry, prepare a kit of essentials for children who are going into foster homes and make health kits for victims of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

“We’re into the basics of trying to help and care for all neighbors,” LeRoy said.