As Hindrocket at PowerLine states, It's time to level the playing field, and either abandon the principle that churches can't endorse candidates, or apply the current rules equally to both sides.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Faith-based Elections...
While I would be the first to admit that the majority of the members in our church congregation are conservative in their political persuasion, our pastors have never used the pulpit to campaign for a particular candidate for political office. What the congregation is told is to get out... and vote. Simple as that.
Now, certainly, much of the motivation for such a tactic has to do with IRS regulations regarding non-profit organizations. So it is quite interesting to read Kerry Campaigns in Church over at PowerLine. Here are some images of a recent stop, by John "But..." Kerry, at a Baptist Church in Miami.
As Hindrocket at PowerLine states,
As Hindrocket at PowerLine states, 
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4 comments:
Ok. I am not sure what is called for in pointing up the discrepancy. I notice that this is a black church... as in being peopled by Afro-Americans. The reality of the cultural difference is that churches are firmly woven into the fabric of the black community and have been the foundation from which many civil rights, ( read political), opinions and movements spring from and are nurtured in.
I don't know if people criticising this want parity in something that is a basically skewed view of separation of Church and State desire or whether they want more allowance and reversal of the strict stance against the place of the churches in the Community affairs ( including voicing political opinion).
Which is it? Because I doubt if you will get compliance in many of the black churches which are not giving it now. And how would anyone, not already innurred to the glaring facts of our time, advocate that somehow religious morals and political stances are isolated from one another?
So I am with you all on the one side of the equation,"abandon the principle that churches can't endorse candidates".
I think freedom of speech should be extended to churches as they are to meeting halls in any context.
That Americans may freely speak which candidate they advocate and why. No matter what the venue.
Ilona,
I can only speak for myself, but I find these pictures rather sickening for several reasons: a) the people in the first photo are not expressing love and worship of our Savior God, they're supplicating the idea of Kerry/Edwards as savior. b) Seeing Kerry in a pulpit is just, well, sacrilegious. *shudder* I'd be glad to go into detail. c) churches should not be "meeting halls in any context." In Isaiah 56:7, our God states: "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Here His people will come to worship Him and be given joy in Him alone. He's a jealous God, you know.
Also, there's a difference between a church voicing political opinion and endorsing a particular candidate.
Ilona,
I think the major headache here is that while the separation of church and state fanatics come down hard on a conservative church that hints at political endorsement, they turn a blind eye to liberal churches that openly endorse a political candidate. Let's either allow it, or consistently prohibit it.
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