Freedom To Pander To The Religious
What separation between church and state? The Bush campaign is making a bid for the votes of churchgoers, getting churches to distribute campaign materials and enlist voters:
...Even some officials of some conservative religious groups said they were troubled by the notion that a parishioner might distribute campaign information within a church or at a church service."If I were a pastor, I would not be comfortable doing that," said Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. "I would say to my church members, we are going to talk about the issues and we are going to take information from the platforms of the two parties about where they stand on the issues. I would tell them to vote and to vote their conscience, and the Lord alone is the Lord of the conscience."
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the liberal Americans United for Separation of Church and State, argued that any form of distributing campaign literature through a church would compromise its tax-exempt status. He called the effort "an absolutely breathtakingly large undertaking," saying, "I never thought anyone could so attempt to meld a political party with a network of religious organizations."
In a statement, Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, a liberal group, called the effort "an astonishing abuse of religion" and "the rawest form of manipulation of religion for partisan gain." He urged the president to repudiate the effort.
In a statement, Mara Vanderslice, director of religious outreach for the Kerry campaign, said the effort "shows nothing but disrespect for the religious community." Ms. Vanderslice continued: "Although the Kerry campaign actively welcomes the participation of religious voices in our campaign, we will never court religious voters in a way that would jeopardize the sanctity of their very houses of worship."
How many congregations or worshippers will choose to cooperate remains to be seen. In an interview yesterday, the Rev. Ronald Fowlkes, pastor of the Victoria Baptist Church in Springfield, Pa., said he had not seen the e-mail message but did not think much of the idea.
"We encourage people to get out and vote," Mr. Fowlkes said, but as far as distributing information through church, "If it were focused on one party or person, that would be too much."
Yes, it would.
Amy, what if political beliefs conflict with religious ones? It seems that in such a case you wouldn't want to have to persuade, you'd just ask the faithful to surresnder their deepest beliefs without argument.
Time to admit it: You do not believe in the free expression of religion.
Crid at June 3, 2004 2:17 PM
All I want is a nice big wall between government and superstitious, irrational people practicing religion.
Amy Alkon at June 3, 2004 2:45 PM
"Mara Vanderslice"?
What a great name. Sounds like a Billy Wilder character.
LYT at June 4, 2004 11:32 AM
I feel like such a piker. All I want is a big old wall between the government and me.
allan at June 7, 2004 9:38 PM