The Alliance Defense Fund, a legal action group whose purpose appears to be to promote an American Theocracy, has instituted The Pulpit Initiative. In brief, it calls for ministers, priests and pastors to openly stump for particular candidates on September 28, 2008 (“Pulpit Freedom Sunday”) and beyond. No more pussyfooting around those silly IRS rules or the First Amendment. Push for “right thinking” candidates from every pulpit.
Naturally, the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have responded with Project Fair Play to try to bring awareness of this action to the people, and the clergy, of what the repercussions of this movement might be.
But then we have this apparently left-field selection for GOP-VP, pert and perky fundamentalist Sarah Palin. Does it seem to you as if she were tailor made for the Pulpit Initiative? What other qualification does she have?
As part of this initiative, fundamentalist groups are challenging the IRS’ right to restrict the direct political action of not-for-profits. They claim that tax-free organizations should not be restricted from direct political action. Basically, they want representation without taxation, claiming it as an inalienable right. My guess is that they are hoping to take it to the Supreme Court, before Obama gets to pick a judge.
Keep up with the latest news on it here.
One of the things that George W. learned from working on his father's presidential campaign is that evangelical Christians can be mobilized in large numbers to vote for a conservative candidate. Such large numbers that a potential candidate might be able to win the presidential election merely by pandering to this group alone, without concern for who else might be alienated in the process. Thus, George W. openly pandered to this group without really caring whether or not it would drive away moderate voters. Obviously, this strategy worked well…so well that John McCain has employed it, too. Only in McCain's case he was not himself an evangelical, so he hired one. Palin is his way of openly pandering to this group — people who put their religious beliefs WAY ahead of the country, the economy, the environment, healthcare, education, innocent Iraqis or any other issue.
After reading the full letter of intent on the ADF website, I have to admit that I agree with them on principle. I believe churches should be allowed to preach truth according to the scripture, whatever it is. However, I am not convinced that this would have been an important issue for Jesus to fight out if he were here today. I actually doubt if Jesus would have endorsed the Republican agenda. Among many other things, he might have had a problem with all of the eye-rolling and smack talk that goes on when conservatives talk about environmentalism. You would think that a political party which claims to endorse Christian values would take some of God's first instructions to humans more seriously. We are to care for the earth as we rule over it, not trash it and leave it as an empty skeleton.
Pulpit Initiative tomorrow. Let's see how many churches will risk their not-for-profit status by promoting Palin to the pews.
IRS begins investigations into pulpit electioneering. AP: Protesting pastors back candidates from the pulpit