-----Original Message-----
From: John Purugganan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 11:29 AM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: Bush Campaign Seeks Help From Church Congregations
As far as I can remember, Al Gore was shown on TV "In a church" signing with
the choir, when he was running for president. Get over it.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry C. Lyons [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 11:15 AM
To: CF-Community
Subject: Bush Campaign Seeks Help From Church Congregations
Anyone notice that the Bush campaign is trying to get church
membership lists and encouraging them to vote for the Shrub. According
to a report today on the Dianne Reame show on NPR, apparently the
reelection campaign has also contacted the Vatican to enlist them to
pressure catholics to vote for Shrub.
Isn't this illegal, and doesn't it jeopardize the tax exempt status of
any participating church.
larry
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/03/politics/campaign/03CHUR.html?ex=108891360
0&en=ef9d99d91cad0cc7&ei=5070
June 3, 2004
Bush Campaign Seeks Help From Congregations
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Correction Appended
The Bush campaign is seeking to enlist thousands of religious
congregations around the country in distributing campaign information
and registering voters, according to an e-mail message sent to many
members of the clergy and others in Pennsylvania.
Liberal groups charged that the effort invited violations of the
separation of church and state and jeopardized the tax-exempt status
of churches that cooperated. Some socially conservative church leaders
also said they would advise pastors against participating in such a
partisan effort.
But Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush administration, said
"people of faith have as much right to participate in the political
process as any other community" and that the e-mail message was about
"building the most sophisticated grass-roots presidential campaign in
the country's history."
In the message, dated early Tuesday afternoon, Luke Bernstein,
coalitions coordinator for the Bush campaign in Pennsylvania, wrote:
"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."
In each targeted "place of worship," Mr. Bernstein continued, without
mentioning a specific religion or denomination, "we'd like to identify
a volunteer who can help distribute general information to other
supporters." He explained: "We plan to undertake activities such as
distributing general information/updates or voter registration
materials in a place accessible to the congregation."
The e-mail message was provided to The New York Times by a group
critical of President Bush.
The campaign's effort is the latest indication of its heavy bet on
churchgoers in its bid for re-election. Mr. Bush's top political
adviser, Karl Rove, and officials of Mr. Bush's campaign have often
said that people who attended church regularly voted for him
disproportionately in the last election, and the campaign has made
turning out that group a top priority this year. But advisers to Mr.
Bush also acknowledge privately that appearing to court socially
conservative Christian voters too aggressively risks turning off more
moderate voters.
What was striking about the Pennsylvania e-mail message was its
directness. Both political parties rely on church leaders âEUR"
African-American pastors for the Democrats, for example, and white
evangelical Protestants for the Republicans âEUR" to urge congregants to
go the polls. And in the 1990's, the Christian Coalition developed a
reputation as a political powerhouse by distributing voters guides in
churches that alerted conservative believers to candidates' position
on social issues like abortion and school prayer. But the Christian
Coalition was organized as a nonpartisan, issue-oriented lobbying and
voter-education organization, and in 1999 it ran afoul of federal tax
laws for too much Republican partisanship.
The Bush campaign, in contrast, appeared to be reaching out directly
to churches and church members, seeking to distribute campaign
information as well as ostensibly nonpartisan material, like issue
guides and registration forms.
Trevor Potter, a Washington lawyer and former chairman of the Federal
Election Commission, said the campaign's solicitation raised delicate
legal issues for congregations.
"If the church is doing it, it is a legal problem the church," Mr.
Potter said. "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."
If a member of the congregation is disseminating the information,
however, the issue is more complicated. If the congregation had a
table where anyone could make available any information whatsoever
without any institutional responsibility or oversight, then a member
might be able to distribute campaign literature without violating tax
laws. But very few churches have such open forums, Mr. Potter said.
"The I.R.S. would ask, did the church encourage this? Did the church
permit this but not other literature? Did the church in any way
support this?"
Mr. Bernstein, the e-mail message's author, declined to comment. Mr.
Schmidt, the campaign spokesman, said the e-mail message only sought
individual volunteers from among the "friendly congregations," not the
endorsements of the any religious organizations or groups.
"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," Mr. Schmidt said.
"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."
He said that the Pennsylvania e-mail message was part of a larger
national effort. The number of congregations mentioned - 1,600 in just
one state - suggests an operation on a vast scale.
But 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."
Correction: June 4, 2004, Friday
A front-page article yesterday about efforts by the Bush campaign to
enlist help from religious congregations referred incorrectly to Steve
Schmidt, who defended the effort. He is a spokesman for the campaign,
not for the Bush administration.
_____
_____
[Todays Threads] [This Message] [Subscription] [Fast Unsubscribe] [User Settings] [Donations and Support]
