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Bush campaign attempting to recruit churches
"The Bush-Cheney '04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1,600 'Friendly Congregations' in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis," a senior Bush election official in Pennsylvania wrote to clergy members and others on Tuesday.

That message, and debate over whether the plan would put participating churches in tax jeopardy, is on the front page of today's New York Times and the subject of an Associated Press story.

Luke Bernstein, coalitions coordinator for the Bush campaign in Pennsylvania, said in his e-mail message that in each "place of worship … we'd like to identify a volunteer who can help distribute general information to other supporters. … We plan to undertake activities such as distributing general information/updates or voter registration materials in a place accessible to the congregation."

If congregations take the Bush campaign up on the request, they could lose their tax-exempt status, say some critics.

"If the church is doing it, it is a legal problem for the church," Former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter, told the Times. "In the past, the I.R.S. has sought to revoke and has succeeded in revoking the tax-exempt status of churches for political activity."

But not very often, it should be noted. In the 27 years that IRS regulations have banned churches from engaging in electoral politics, only two churches and five religious organizations have lost their tax-exempt status for such a violation. And to date, no church has actually had trouble with "distributing general information" about campaigns or registering voters "in a place accessible to the congregation."

Even less troubling, says Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt, is what Bernstein's message asked for—the names of individuals in various churches who might be interested in volunteering. The campaign isn't asking for endorsements from the pulpit, he said.

"The e-mail is targeted to individuals, asking individuals to become involved in the campaign and to share information about the campaign with other people in their faith community," Schmidt explained. "Yesterday, a liberal judge from San Francisco overturned a partial-birth abortion ban which banned that abhorrent procedure. That is an example of an issue that people of faith from across the United States care about."

Pastors should still be wary about being that individual, said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "If I were a pastor, I would not be comfortable doing that," he told the Times. "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."

Still, Bush critics are in a tizzy. The Kerry campaign said the e-mail "shows nothing but disrespect for the religious community. 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."

Unless, of course, the churches are predominantly black.

In a press release, Americans United's Barry Lynn called it "the most shocking example of politicizing churches I've ever seen." At least until next week's press release.

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48