Posted on 07/02/2004 8:36:00 PM PDT by Kerberos
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush, seeking to mobilize religious conservatives for his reelection campaign, has asked church-going volunteers to turn over church membership directories, campaign officials said on Thursday.
In a move sharply criticized both by religious leaders and civil libertarians, the Bush-Cheney campaign has issued a guide listing about two-dozen "duties" and a series of deadlines for organizing support among conservative church congregations.
A copy of the guide obtained by Reuters directs religious volunteers to send church directories to state campaign committees, identify new churches that can be organized by the Bush campaign and talk to clergy members about holding voter registration drives.
The document, distributed to campaign coordinators across the country earlier this year, also recommends that volunteers distribute voter guides in church and use Sunday service programs for get-out-the-vote drives.
"We expect this election to be potentially as close as 2000, so every vote counts and it's important to reach out to every single supporter of President Bush," campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
But the Rev. Richard Land, who deals with ethics and religious liberty issues for the Southern Baptist Convention, a key Bush constituency, said he was "appalled."
"First of all, I would not want my church directories being used that way," he told Reuters in an interview, predicting failure for the Bush plan.
The conservative Protestant denomination, whose 16 million members strongly backed Bush in 2000, held regular drives that encouraged church-goers to "vote their values," said Land.
"But it's one thing for us to do that. It's a totally different thing for a partisan campaign to come in and try to organize a church. A lot of pastors are going to say: 'Wait a minute, bub'," he added.
The guide surfaced as a spate of opinion polls showed Bush's reelection campaign facing a tough battle. (Poll: Sending troops to Iraq a mistake; Interactive: Poll questions and responses)
A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showed Bush running neck-and-neck with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry among registered voters, 47 percent of whom said they now believed the president had misled Americans about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
The Bush campaign has also been spending heavily on television ads, only to see the president's approval ratings slump to new lows.
Stanzel said the campaign ended the month of June with $64 million on hand.
He had no figures on how much Bush has raised in June.
At the end of May, Bush had raised $213.4 million and spent all but $63 million.
The latest effort to marshal religious support also drew fire from civil liberties activists concerned about the constitutional separation of church and state.
"Any coordination between the Bush campaign and church leaders would clearly be illegal," said a statement from the activist group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
This deserves attention and an agreement or compromise. There are several items of interest:
1) This is a southern organization? If so, the campaign need not squeeze so hard because the South is already won.
2) I think a good compromise would be for the campaign to agree not to use rosters for fund raising, but perhaps it is okay to call folks to get them to vote or maybe volunteer for the campaign. Fundraising: offlimits. GOTV: Okay.
3) I heartily agree that those 4-6 million evangelicals Rove has spoken of should be sought, but in the battlegrounds more than the south.
CNN
Consider the source.
The democrats have been publicly using church lists for the last 20 years as part of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition. Where were your desperate cries of "theocracy" then? The specifics of campaign regulations are set by case law, and the precedent was set long ago by the other side. Quit your whining.
Yup. Very true. And that goes on all the time. It will heat up if Kerry wins...for sure.
Basically, the hard-core liberal secular humanists - the wacky, wild-eyed, Jesuphobic, anti-Christian kooks who agitate from the gloomy eyrie of the DNC - do not want ANY public discussion of Christianity or any visible displays of Christian symbols. They adhere to this bizarre and deranged fantasy that there is a constitutional mandate to have a totally secular culture. No such animal. They have invented this myth out of their own fears and imaginations. Keep in mind, the Founding Fathers did not come from the secular humanist/socil engineering type of statist public education that was invented by JohnDewey zanies at Columbia Teachers College in the 20th century, under the influence of some very wacky pseudo-philosophy.
America is a construct of Christian people governed within parameters of a secular Constitution. The best of all worlds.
The only thing the lefty swills have remaining in their quiver is a gaggle of corrupt Jurists. They cannot implement their agenda politically. Americans reject Liberals in the sanctity of the voting booth.
Judicial abuse will hit a critical mass with the populace, and their last bastion will be beaten down.
The wackier social engineering/secular humanist-style liberals make the mistake of reading their own totalitarian fantasies back into the U.S. Constitution. They get confused and start to think of the entire public sphere as "the state." It was a terrible mistake to make the sphere of education "the state" ( a government facility). This is part of the problem.
How come the Dems get to preach politics in churches all the time? Ever wonder?
Here's your answer:
Jesse Jackson Jr. Says Church Politicking 'Supersedes the Law'
Here's your answer: Jesse Jackson Jr. Says Church Politicking 'Supersedes the Law'
It may be against federal election law to campaign in church. But for Democrats seeking to get out the vote in minority districts, politicking from the pulpit has become indispensable.In the last days of this year's campaign, Vice President Al Gore, Senate candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband have all made regular appearances at African-American and Hispanic churches.
Even when parishioners objected to Mrs. Clinton campaigning from the altar at a Rochester, N.Y., Catholic church last week, the rules were not enforced. Those who didn't like it were simply ejected by police while the first lady continued her campaign speech.
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., whose namesake is both a reverend and one of the Democratic Party's most vocal boosters, was challenged on the issue Monday during a Tennessee radio interview on WLAC-AM by "Nashville This Morning" hosts Steve Gill and Terry Hopkins.
GILL: Let me ask you about this. It's against IRS regulations for politicians to campaign from the pulpit. Why are these politicians campaigning in black churches?
JACKSON: I'm not totally convinced that's true in the African-American community. Certainly there's a separation of church and state. But in our community there's little distinction between our religion and our politics. ... And so in many African-American churches born out of experience in this country, the role of the churches has evolved into a very, very active political institution which has been very effective for a number of causes in the black community.
HOPKINS: And that supersedes the law?
JACKSON: Absolutely. Oh, absolutely.
"So then I gather you are a supporter of the new theocracy?"
What the hell are you talking about?
Are you a supporter of misusing words as a means of generating a scare tactic? Seems so.
This is the most absurdly dishonest, corrupt and ruthless onslaught against an incumbant Commander in Chief, in a time of War, since perhaps 1864.
The Democrat Party has been hijacked by the hysterical haters. Watch Zell Miller's speech at the GOP convention. That'll be the kiss of death for Kerry, because every union guy in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and farmer in Iowa and Minnesota are going to go ... "Damn, he's right! Who are these freaks in my Party?"
At some juncture, John Kerry and his gang of bipolar certifiables are going to have to come out from behind Dan Rather's and Tom Brokaw's skirts. It's over.
"The difference is that the conjoining of the state and religion historically, in almost all instances, has resulted in oppression of the people. There is thousands of years of history to support this position, long before the Christians came along."
Can you explain how access to a mailing list is state establishment of religion?
These people really are deluded and delusional to bizarre degrees. They think that people are going to accept their weird social engineering agendas as they seek to transform all aspects of the social order - gay marriage, mandator national government daycare centers,slaughter of cloned embryos for parts, artificially inseminated single career women,eco-socialism, etc. It's like something out of a wacky B Science Fiction movie.
Every Freeper, every Conservative and GOP supporter needs to identify and systematically persuade 3-4 shaky Democrat voters in your immediate social circle to vote for Bush.
80% of the Democrat regulars are lost causes. It's like explaining chess to the naked guy in New Guinea excited to shrink the head he just removed.
But, we all know a handful of people who, if they knew what we know about which candidate and party are pursuing their interests, would vote GOP as a logical conclusion.
Hugh Hewitt handles that process beautifully with people he finds redeemable. He asks people to articulate their specific examples of policies or performance that warrant support for Kerry.
Every Democrap fumbles that, and 90% when challenged will retreat into their "Bush is stupid. It's all oil" looney bin. It's that 10% of honest Zell Miller Democrats who will come around with a little awareness.
But, but, but it's OK when his beloved aetheist/socialist/baby-killer Demoncraps do it. They know how to USE religion (shudder) without being tainted by it. Remember how his highness Clintoilet did it so well?
Clinton in the pulpit... warily watching for a lighting ZOT from heaven ;-)
"Can you explain how access to a mailing list is state establishment of religion?"
You obviously don't understand how a slippery slope works. /sarcasm
Afraid of people who are instructed according to Jesus Christ? So afraid that you want to put strictures into the free society and nation of America and prevent their ability to communicate and organize however they choose?
Huh.
First it's collecting church directories... ...then it's forced baptisms!
...pinning people's eyelids open in front of the Bible!
...subliminal Bible verses in all our movies!
...forced recital of prayers of confession before one is allowed to eat!
Afterall, we have a track record of Christian abuses here... remember the Spanish Inquisi- (wait that wasn't in America)... well the Holy Roman Empir- (oh, that wasn't in our Republic, either)... well... you... know...!
"First it's collecting church directories... ...then it's forced baptisms!
...pinning people's eyelids open in front of the Bible!
...subliminal Bible verses in all our movies!
...forced recital of prayers of confession before one is allowed to eat!"
hehehe excellent
This is the same story. With the same quotes and the same individuals quoted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.