Mr Dean told the Christian Science Monitor that the “religious community” would have to decide “whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics”.
Hmmm, guess Jesse Jagmo and Sharpie Sharpton are shakin in their boots!!
Bwwaaaahhahahaha I kinda doubt it.
The good folks who make up the religious right may not love the Republican party, but they know a threat when they see one. The modern Democratic party is hostile to their very existence. An embarrassment for the Deanified Democrats in the November mid-term elections would be a victory not for theocracy, but for enlightened self-interest.
Ping!
Anyone with a normal faith threshold in my view would never vote democrat--the party of death.
Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman, is famous for his loose lips and exuberant vocal chords, which may help explain the muted reaction to his recent warning about religious participation in public life. A few months ago, Mr Dean told the Christian Science Monitor that the “religious community” would have to decide “whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics”.
It was not the most intelligent thing he could have said, given the current state of church-state relations in the US. Mr Dean tried to contain the damage by explaining that he was not pushing for challenges to the tax exemption of conservative churches. He was simply warning against giving congregation lists to political parties and other forms of prohibited political action by bodies of worship.
I'm going against the grain here by saying "Church is nowhere to be preaching Politics".
Democrats theaten to doom democrats.
Secular humanism is a "religion" or worldview. EVERYBODY has a worldview - even Dr. Dean. There is NO SUCH THING as an objective, neutral human being.
Is he saying that any group of people united around a common worldview - which might, by the way, just MIGHT affect their politics and political involvement levels - cannot be tax exempt....?
Most people who consider themselves to be nonpartisan but are engaged enough to vote don't like being told that it's all over and, in this case, that the Democrats have a lock on the mid-term elections. That's why many politicians with big poll leads pre-election always down-play their probable success. First, to ward off apathy from their natural constituency and also to keep voters from voting against them because they seem a bit too confident. That attitude appears arrogant and clearly insults voters because it assumes that the candidate is going to get your vote, no matter what. This does not apply to African-American voters, obviously. They seem to vote Democrat 'no matter what' - but even that sad reality could be changing or changing just enough to sway the mid-term elections and possibly the 2008 presidential election, which may be a free-for-all.
As the MSNBC piece notes, religious people, especially evangelical Christians, see the Democrat party for the threat it is to their beliefs (the Democrats seem to oppose most of what Evangelical Christians stand for) as well as their religious freedoms. While they may not all love George W. Bush and may be even tiring of the Iraq war, they are not about to put one more Democrat in congress if they can help it. Religious folks are angry at being told that simply opposing same-sex 'marriage' or seeking to maintain the tradition of having a 'religious' display on the village Green at Christmastime (a 'religious' holiday, no less) makes them akin to Muslim fanatics.
Comments like that of Screamin' Howard Dean with none-too-subtle threats about yanking church tax exemptions, while hardly credible, harden many 'religious' folks attitudes against Democrats. What can they expect? They insult and work against what many religious people hold dear, such as the sancity of unborn life, then make threats about reconsidering tax exemptions for 'politically active' churches (like many Black churches, Mr. Dean?) - and wonder why they lose the vast majority of the 'religious' vote, which is huge. Idiots.
I wouldn't take all those 'It's the Democrat's year' announcements from the pundits too seriously, especially as long as Howard Dean can still speak for the DNC. His big mouth and small brain are the Republicans best 'weapon'.
If I were a honcho in the GOP I would be reminding probable Republican voters (who may be suffering from apathy this election year) that a Democrat congressional victory in November will mean, not only a rapid (and dangerous) pullout from Iraq and a diminished focus on terrorism at a time when that is akin to national suicide, but that President Bush will likely be forced to fight endless attempts at impeachment from Democrats for the remainder of his term if they hold the congressional majority. That helps no one - including Democrats - but the hard left wing of the Democrat party and it's fanatical Bush-hatred will make it a reality if they think they have the votes to pull it off.
While Democrats will be beating the bushes (and the illegal immigrant hangouts) for Democrat voters, the Republicans will also be out in force and the recent words of Howard Dean regarding churches and tax exemptions, his hasty 'clarification' aside (who will believe him?) will be one of many motivating factors getting them to the polls on election day to vote for Republicans, reservations forgotten, and against Democrats. I'm sure of it. I think a few Republicans may lose here and there as will a few Democrats, but I do not believe that Democrats will gain a congressional majority in November and I'll be here to admit I was wrong, if I am, and to say I was correct, if I am. I sincerely hope that it is the latter.
Every citizen has a right to be involved in poltics. The gov't can't ban people from politics just because they hold to religious values.
Let's hope so, but remember: The Democrat Party is the Party of Sociopaths and Morons (S&M), and there are lots of morons out there.
Ping to read later
Yeah, and the Democrats wonder why they are losing the Catholic votes and already lost the evangelical vote.
Listen up Howie.
I don't threaten easily.
Christians don't threatn easily.
After all, compared to true evil like the folks that cut off heads and even the head himself (Lucifer) you are a pathetic joke.
Oh, your ideas are dangerous. Except There is an entire assembly line of indisguishable jokesters who say the same thing. You are far from unique and as such cowering before the likes of you isn't in the cards.