Related articles and links |  1 of 12

Campaign organizers for President Bush have sent a document to churches, asking for supporters to complete specific "duties" on behalf of the campaign. It isn't the campaign's first appeal to churchgoers, but this time, even evangelicals are questioning the tactics.

According to The Washington Post, supporters' duties include:

By July 31, for example, volunteers are to "send your Church Directory to your State Bush-Cheney '04 Headquarters or give [it] to a BC04 Field Rep" and "Talk to your Pastor about holding a Citizenship Sunday and Voter Registration Drive."

By Aug. 15, they are to "talk to your Church's seniors or 20-30 something group about Bush/Cheney '04" and "recruit 5 more people in your church to volunteer for the Bush Cheney campaign."

By Sept. 17, they are to host at least two campaign-related potluck dinners with church members, and in October they are to "finish calling all Pro-Bush members of your church," "finish distributing Voter Guides in your church" and place notices on church bulletin boards or in Sunday programs "about all Christian citizens needing to vote."

The potential alliance is drawing the ire of groups advocating the separation of church and state. According to Reuters, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said, "Any coordination between the Bush campaign and church leaders would clearly be illegal." The Washington Post, who actually contacted the IRS to see if the activities would cause a church to lose its tax-exempt status, wrote that the IRS warned, "a preference for or against a certain candidate or party … becomes a prohibited activity."

This story has been ongoing for some time now. Last month, Oregon pastors asked churchgoers to sign a petition asking for an amendment banning same-sex marriage. "The campaign … has raised questions about how far churches can go to promote ballot measures without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status, which carries some limits on political activity," wrote The Oregonian. Also last month, the Bush campaign sent out a letter seeking to identify 1,600 "friendly congregations" in Pennsylvania.

In both instances, and in others, the cries of the Bush opposition camps warning about the separation of church and state and tax-exemption were loud. This time, however, even Bush-friendly evangelicals are resisting the campaign's outreach. According to Reuters, Richard Land said he was "appalled."

"First of all, I would not want my church directories being used that way,'' he told Reuters in an interview, predicting failure for the Bush plan.

The conservative [Southern Baptist] Protestant denomination, whose 16 million members strongly backed Bush in 2000, held regular drives that encouraged church-goers to "vote their values,'' said Land.

"But it's one thing for us to do that. It's a totally different thing for a partisan campaign to come in and try to organize a church. A lot of pastors are going to say: 'Wait a minute, bub','' he added.

New York Times 's David D. Kirkpatrick, writes:

Richard J. Mouw, president of the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., one of the largest evangelical Protestant seminaries, said: "Theologically speaking, churches are really in a position to speak truth to power. But this smacks of too close an alliance of church and Caesar."

Mr. Mouw added that the Bush campaign should not take evangelical votes for granted.

"I find," he said, "that a lot of church people, including a lot of evangelicals, are increasingly nervous about the credibility of the Bush administration on issues that a year or two ago people were ready to trust them on, like foreign policy.

next page... |  1 of 12

June (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48