Posted on 03/09/2007 1:54:15 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Last weekend the top two celebrities in the Democratic presidential contest, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, ventured south to Selma to pitch their campaigns to voters in black churches. If the visits evoked concern by any liberal commentator anywhere about the separation of church and state, it was not evident on Monday. Or Tuesday. Or… Imagine, however, how many would have found themselves “frightened” and “angry” if a couple of bigwig Republicans had pitched their messages from the pulpit to evangelicals.
It really is time for the media to get to one standard on whether it’s permissible for candidates to take their politics into the pulpit. It can’t be quaint in one instance, excused as “tradition,” and condemned in another.
Without question, people of faith should get involved in politics and ministers should preach on social issues that grow out of their religious beliefs. But that’s considerably different than pitching camp permanently with one party or the other and with using the church as a campaign tent.
A black congregation moved from Atlanta to my Cobb County neighborhood. I attended one Sunday to hear Andrew Young, advertised as the guest preacher. If I remember the sermon correctly, God isn’t happy with Republicans— or at least He doesn’t approve of the way George W. Bush is running the country. A sanctuary ought to be a sanctuary — from politics.
It's OK for Democrats to do this because they're speaking from BLACK pulpits. /s/
Interesting point.
I don't recall campaigning by the Left in predominantly white churches.
I think that it's OK for leftists to campaign in churches because everybody knows, deep down, that the leftists don't really mean what they say, or profess to believe, when it comes to religion. Since they only see a church as a place where "those people" happen to be, anything they say there doesn't really have anything to do with religion or G-d. That's how they can square it with the "wall between church and state."
Mark
I am surprized that some conservative group hasn't sued the two churches for their "tax exempt" status. There has been a lot of pressure on churches to not support a candidate in the last several years or be threatened to lose their tax exempt status. Personally I think we should leave that alone and just watch the phony liberals make a mockery of themselves.
I'm sure they feel it would play into the hands of those who say conservatives are "mean-spirited." The church has long been the gathering place for their community. So as Wooten says it's traditional but that shouldn't allow the left to scream when other churches invite candidates. Truly a double standard.
It amazes me how the democrats get off so easily while republicans are scrutanized to the extreme. Think about William Jefferson and "Scooter" Libby.
As long as 90% or so of all the MSM is in the tank for the RATS, the double standard will remain. The only network or journalist that would bring up this issue would be Fox News or maybe John Stossel.
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