Posted on 07/03/2004 7:04:00 AM PDT by truthandlife
The Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative denomination closely aligned with President Bush, said it was offended by the Bush-Cheney campaign's effort to use church rosters for campaign purposes.
"I'm appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude on a local congregation in this way," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"The bottom line is, when a church does it, it's nonpartisan and appropriate. When a campaign does it, it's partisan and inappropriate," he said. "I suspect that this will rub a lot of pastors' fur the wrong way."
The Bush campaign defended a memo in which it sought to mobilize church members by providing church directories to the campaign, arranging for pastors to hold voter-registration drives, and talking to various religious groups about the campaign.
Other religious organizations also criticized the document as inappropriate, suggesting that it could jeopardize churches' tax-exempt status by involving them in partisan politics.
Campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the document, distributed to campaign staff, was well within the law.
"People of faith have a right to take part in the political process, and we're reaching out to every supporter of President Bush to become involved in the campaign," Stanzel said.
One section of the document lists 22 "coalition coordinator" duties and lays out a timeline for various activities targeting religious voters. By July 31, for example, the coordinator is to:
_Send your church directory to your state Bush-Cheney '04 headquarters or give to a BC04 field representative.
_Identify another conservative church in your community who we can organize for Bush.
_Recruit 5 people in your church to help with the voter registration project.
_Talk to your pastor about holding a citizenship Sunday and voter registration drive.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the effort "is a shameless attempt to misuse and abuse churches for partisan political ends." Lynn said his organization would be "watching closely to see how this plays out in the pews."
The Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, a Washington advocacy group that has been critical of the Christian right, said the document was "totally inappropriate."
"We are alarmed that this initiative by the Bush-Cheney campaign could lure religious organizations and religious leaders into dangerous territory where they risk losing their tax-exempt status and could be violating the law," Gaddy said.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said "efforts aimed at transforming houses of worship into political campaign offices stink to high heaven."
None of those groups, however, has been as supportive of the Bush administration as the Nashville-based Southern Baptists.
Bush spoke to the Southern Baptists' recent national convention, by video link, for the third year in a row. Outgoing SBC President Jack Graham called the president "a man of personal faith whose leadership is great for America."
On Friday, Land said: "It's one thing for a church member motivated by exhortations to exercise his Christian citizenship to go out and decide to work on the Bush campaign or the Kerry campaign. It's another and totally inappropriate thing for a political campaign to ask workers who may be church members to provide church member information through the use of directories to solicit partisan support."
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.
AP
Consider the source.
I would view any attempt at political datamining in my chapel to be profane. If this same initiative was coming from the Kerry campaign every single person on this board who is for this would scream, making some of us hypocritical.
I wouldn't want my personal info being given to the dems by an usher in my church...would you?
Wouldn't bother me. I love sending back those postage-paid envelopes - empty! And I have also been known to vent at democrat push-pollers on the phone - very therapeutic!
Interesting take. Using their wieght against them, sort of like Judo.
The big difference here is that AME churches have whored themselves out and welcome this type of exploitation. This complaint is from conservative Bush supporters whose crime is to see the church as a place of worship, not politics. Criminy, that's thier right. As much as I would disgree with them, I would have no issue here if the churchs invited the politicos in. Clearly, this did not happen.
When religion and politics mix too closely it's bad for both in the long run.
Frankly, I don't see what the problem is. Churches can decline to do so. Other churches might put it on their bulletin boards.
Some of the things being done are definitely questionable. I keep getting mailings, emails and faxes from an organization that calls itself the National Republican Congressional Committee's Business Advisory Council, which will make me Business Person of the Year for only $250.
As if.
Democrats have been campaigning from the puplit as long as I've been alive and whats more I could care less.
The other day the NRA wanted to put me on some honor roll or some such, complete with a certificate that looked even better than anything I've seen from Publisher's Clearing House.
I've gotten plenty of spam from the Bush campaign as well, which I really don't mind. Such is life.
This idea of trolling for lists churchgoers from houses of worship however just strikes me as out of line.
More Baptist self-contradicting church/state separation/political activism nonsense...
So God doesn't demand Lordship over every area of our lives, especially the way we choose to be governed? Can a genuine Christian faith be so easy compartmentalized?
"Bad Jesus... Go back to church!"
Why, when you can fill it with metal or rocks?
But that is quite a step below what the adminstration is attempting to do here. If the DNC was surreptitiously collecting names from churches, we would be howling.
I don't mind the voter drives or the open recruitment efforts -- these are both great ideas. But to have the RNC say "Send us a list of your churchgoers," why that's just downright invasive.
Dear Dr. Land,
When Barry Lynn agrees with you, you're wrong.
you would think... but a lot of Christians fell for Slick Willie... they may fall for Kerry, too... (although Kerry does lack the "southerness" that Bill had.)
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.