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Nevermind the truism that "you tax that which you want to inhibit".

So many times on this forum we are amazed at what the primary denominations do and are involved in. We are appalled at the Democratic party's abuse of the altar when they blatantly campaign in black churches. We complain bitterly about the "bribes" aka "walking around money" that Democrats hand out to black churches EVERY election. We complain loudly about the ordination of gay clergy and establishment of gay churches. We complained about the UMC getting involved with the Cubans trying to ship Elian back. We complain about the World Council of Churches. We complain about the preachers getting arrested at Vieques attempting to stop our navy from gunnery practice. We complain about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton's pseudo-religious organizations. We complain about organized religions taking anti-American stances during the run up to the war and their blindness in regard to liberation. We complain about denominations adopting "gender-neutral" language referencing God.

Yet when this comes up we naively mentally picture religion as and old country church being stifled by the mean old government.

Excerpts:
A one-page advertisement in The Christian Century magazine, signed by more than 100 United Methodists, has called on U.S. President George Bush to "repent" of certain domestic and foreign policies, including the use of violence in dealing with Iraq.

The ad, titled, "A Prophetic Epistle from United Methodists Calling Our Brother George W. Bush to Repent," appeared in the magazine’s April 5 issue.

More than half the people who signed the ad, which was clearly labeled "paid advertisement" in the magazine, were clergy. The seven bishops were Melvin H. Wheatley Jr., Judith Craig, Melvin G. Talbert, Joseph H. Yeakel, James S. Thomas, Jesse R. DeWitt and C. Joseph Sprague.

Methodist leaders are applauding the withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

The United Methodist General Conference, the church’s top legislative body, has been on record as opposing the Navy’s use of the island for bombing practice since 1980. Opposition also has been voiced by the denomination’s Board of Global Ministries, Board of Church and Society and Council of Bishops, as well as the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico.

People who are gay or lesbian must be welcomed by the church without reservation, say two former bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The denomination should make every effort to find a way to do so without causing division among its members, they added.

With comprehensive hate crimes bills just a few days away from appearing on the Senate's agenda, more than 130 Episcopal clergy have signed a letter calling on Congress to pass legislation to fight hate crimes in the United States.

Full of post-modern irony and a touch of Madison Avenue sass, the "What would Jesus drive?" campaign launched in November by the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) has already captured the attention of the media--and a broad coalition of religious leaders hopes they can capture the attention of the U.S. auto industry at the same time.

From the Head of the Episcopal Church. I implore the United Nations, supported fully by the United States, to send a peacekeeping force into occupied Palestinian areas for the purpose of ensuring an immediate ceasefire. The United States must impress upon both sides the absolute necessity of this action.

A 13-member delegation of church leaders returned from a four-day humanitarian visit to Iraq at the end of 2002 with a warning that a war would make the United States less secure and result in widespread suffering and death for many innocent people.

More and more and more. Many denominations these days are just essentially leftist front organizations. The average church-goer has not changed, but those who have risen to leadership positions don't seem to reflect those members.

They should decide if they want to be political organizations or churches. Nothing is stopping them from going out and joining or establishing a leftist political organization or communist party. I would prefer that they do that rather than abuse the moral imprimatur that comes with a religious organization to support leftist causes.

This is not your local preacher, this is a huge religio-political machine. The local preachers are not at the controls.