Posted on 09/01/2012 11:36:52 AM PDT by presidio9
Washington state regulators have warned a Roman Catholic bishop that his diocese risks running afoul of state campaign finance laws if he follows through with a planned fund-raising effort opposing same-sex marriage on the November ballot.
State law prohibits organizations, including churches, from raising money from individuals to give to political campaigns, said Lori Anderson, a spokeswoman for the state's Public Disclosure Commission.
"It's not because it's a church. It's because it's not a stand-alone individual," Anderson said on Thursday.
The commission was calling into question a recent letter from Bishop Joseph Tyson to Yakima-area pastors urging them to distribute donation envelopes to parishioners during the weekend of September 8-9.
The money would go to Preserve Marriage Washington, the campaign to defeat legalization of same-sex marriage on the state's November ballot.
The Democratic-controlled Washington Legislature voted this year to legalize same-sex marriage, and Governor Chris Gregoire, a Democrat and a Catholic, signed the measure into law during in February.
But the law was blocked from taking effect as scheduled in June when opponents submitted a petition for a repeal referendum on the November ballot. Referendum 74, subsequently certified as having collected enough signatures to qualify, asks voters to approve or reject the gay marriage bill enacted in February.
Tyson's letter instructs parish priests not to open the envelopes once they are turned back in, but to place them into a pre-addressed security envelope to be mailed directly to Preserve Marriage, according to local media reports.
"It's not our envelope," Tyson told local television station KIMA-TV. "We're not collecting the money, and we're not taking the money. Preserve Marriage Washington is doing that. We're going to follow the state law."
But Anderson said she was not swayed.
"That can't happen under our state law,"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The government has a right to tell you what you can say in the pulpit, right?
If this is about using Church for political purposes, they better get ready to go after every Black Baptist church in the entire state, starting now.
I remember handing out literature outside a church years ago for a pro-life repub running for office here in NJ; we made sure we stayed on the public sidewalk as Masses let out.
Was a little surprised by the venom of some “Catholics” (I was much younger then).
Ping
Exactly my thought. Politicians like Hillary Clinton campaign directly from the pulpit of black churches with nary a word said about it. Same old leftist double standards.
As a private citizen, the Bishop can and should do whatever he wants!
Hopefully those venom catholics are out of the Catholic Church today.
Catholicism is a decision, not an ethnicity.
I'm curious to see how this plays out for them.
People are going to lose their individual freedom this way I guess. The Bishop is still an individual isn’t he?
Churches should never have started registering with the IRS for any kind of official status. It was the beginning of the end of religious freedom.
notice the leftist churches always get a pass
I'm curious to see how they use Cardinal Dolan at arm's length, and whether the netorks put his appearance on the air. What am I talking about? Of COURSE they'll put him on the air, even if the DNC closes with a blessing from Rev. Al, or an Imam, or a Wiccan high priestess, the msm will be sure to document that Catholicism is just as important to Obama as it is to the Republicans.
Sounds like a violation two violations of the First Amendment.
ist amendment, speech and religion is in there ,maybe these dopes need to read it at their convention .
They have crapped all over Catholics but now election time they are worried the truth of what they have done will get out and hurt them .
I’m sure the media wil cover for them again in places like PA, NJ, DE,MD,NH,CO,FL
“Hopefully those venom catholics are out of the Catholic Church today.”
Just as likely they’re “Eucharistic ministers”, “permanent deacons”, or lectors playing priest/priestess; these are people who bothered going to Mass.
“notice the leftist churches always get a pass”
Including the Catholic Church when it embraces leftist causes (see: Rev. Pfleger).
Re: Hopefully those venom catholics are out of the Catholic Church today.
I doubt if they were really ever in the Catholic Church
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