The Top Ten Abuses of Religion in Politics – Social Concervatives At Work

John Dean’s Conservatives Without Conscience documents historical activities of the social conservatives or the right-wing authoritarians (RWA). Here are a few more recent activities of the RWAs as documented by The Interfaith Alliance:

1. KANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL USES PASTORS TO FUNDRAISE

Attorney General Phill Kline often talks about his Christian faith. But a leaked memo shows how Kline has mixed religion and money as part of an aggressive strategy to raise campaign funds and win re-election. “Get the pastor to invite 5 ‘money people,’ whom he knows can help,” Kline told his campaign staff in a detailed, four-page memo titled “church efforts.” The anonymously leaked e-mail memo provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at political fundraising and the methods the incumbent Republican is using as he faces Democratic challenger Paul Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney….”The Goal and Objective – numbers,” Kline wrote to campaign workers Bill Roche and Sylvia Chapman in the Aug. 8 e-mail. “Please try to get me in front of the largest crowds as we move through the remainder of the campaign schedule.”
• Lawrence World Journal, 09-11-06

2. KATHERINE HARRIS CALLS THE FIRST AMENDMENT “A LIE”

Rep. Katherine Harris, a Florida Republican who is seeking a U.S. Senate seat, said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a “nation of secular laws.” “If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin,” she said, citing abortion and gay marriage as two examples of that sin. Harris also said the separation of church and state is a “lie we have been told” to keep religious people out of politics. In reality, she said, “we have to have the faithful in government” because that is God’s will.
• Orlando Sentinel, 8-26-06

3. HAROLD FORD: FILMS CAMPAIGN AD IN CHURCH AND USES 10 COMMANDMENTS

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr.’s television advertisement, filmed inside Mt. Moriah East Baptist Church in Orange Mound, is being praised as innovative and revealing — but also condemned as pandering.     In the ad, Ford walks between the pews of the church with stained glass windows in the background, saying, “I started church the old-fashioned way — I was forced to. And I’m better for it.”
• Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9-23-06

Chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos asked Ford what message he means to convey by handing out business cards with the Ten Commandments on the back. “Elect me, I know the difference between right and wrong,” Ford said. “I don’t always live my life perfect, but I try my hardest to follow somebody that does, and I just don’t believe that, from looking at this politically, that Democrats ought to cede any ground to any Republican when it comes to morality and faith.”
• ABC News, 10-15-06

4. CA HOUSES OF WORSHIP DONATE TO CANDIDATES

Dozens of houses of worship in Los Angeles and throughout California have jeopardized their nonprofit status by giving money from their collection plates to political candidates, the Daily News has learned. In Los Angeles alone, 39 churches, synagogues and Buddhist temples were identified by political candidates as contributing more than $15,000 to their election campaigns since 1998, according to city Ethics Commission records…..”Charities and churches may speak to the issues of the day and engage in nonbiased voter education activities,” the IRS statement said. “But charities and churches do not have a right to ask Americans to subsidize their political actions with charitable contributions.”
• Los Angeles Daily News, 9-26-06

5. PATRIOT PASTORS URGED TO MOBILIZE VALUES VOTERS

Pastor Russell Johnson paces across the broad stage as he decries the “secular jihadists” who have “hijacked” America, accuses the public schools of neglecting to teach that Hitler was “an avid evolutionist” and links abortion to children who murder their parents.  Johnson leads the Ohio Restoration Project, an emergent network of nearly 1,000 “Patriot Pastors” from conservative churches across the state. Each has pledged to register 300 “values voters,” adding hundreds of thousands of like-minded citizens to the electorate who “would be salt and light for America.”  The Ohio effort isn’t unique. Johnson’s project has helped spawn the Texas Restoration Project in Bush’s home state. The fledging Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network has signed up 81 conservative clergy so far. Similar efforts are beginning to percolate elsewhere.
• USA Today, 8-3-05

6. MINNESOTA PASTOR ENDORSES FROM THE PULPIT

An event last night at Living Word Christian Center, a large suburban church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, featuring Republican Congressional Candidate Michele Bachmann could cost the church its nonprofit tax status as the event appeared to endorse Bachmann for office. A personal endorsement from the pastor of the church, as well as Bachmann’s own statements in her speech, appear to have violated regulations pertaining to partisan politicking by churches. Bachmann is in a tight race with Patty Wetterling, a race that’s at the top of most election analysts lists in terms of importance and competitiveness.
• Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 10-21-06

7. VOTER GUIDE SOLICITS FAVORITE BIBLE VERSE

Rival voter guides distributed by two Christian groups may leave some people confused about whether God is a Democrat or a Republican.  Conservative Republican voters probably will put more faith in a guide distributed by Christian Action Alabama, formerly the Christian Coalition of Alabama.  Democrat voters may favor a new guide from Redeem the Vote, a Montgomery-based group.  Redeem the Vote is asking candidates discussion questions about where they go to church, their favorite Bible verse, how they will publicly acknowledge their faith, and what role their faith will play in formulating public policy.
• Decatur Daily, 10-2-06

8. DC MINISTERS GO PARTISAN IN MAYOR’S RACE

The president of the Missionary Baptist Ministers Conference of Washington decided this summer for the first time in the century-old group’s history to take a partisan political stand, announcing his endorsement of mayoral candidate Linda Cropp. The city’s largest interfaith group says it has more volunteers registering people to vote than it has had in 15 years. In June, religious leaders held a conference to pull together a common agenda for the city’s future. Such preelection organizing has been ratcheted up in the city’s religious community in an effort to regain something it once had in abundance: political clout.
• Washington Post, 8-30-06

9. PASTOR CALLS FOR “A HOLY GHOST INVASION”

Pastor Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church underscored the role of religion in the governor’s campaign last Oct. 14, when he held a rally attended by hundreds on the steps of the Statehouse. “Sound an alarm. A Holy Ghost invasion is taking place. Man your battle stations, ready your weapons, lock and load,” Parsley said to enthusiastic applause…. In January, pastors on the left filed a complaint with the IRS accusing Parsley and a second conservative pastor, Russell Johnson, of violating federal election law. The complaint alleged that the pastors improperly used their pulpits for partisan politics by supporting Ken Blackwell, the Republican nominee for governor.
• Associated Press, 10-18-06
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10. PELOSI URGES DEMOCRATS TO SPEAK IN BIBLICAL TERMS

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi–a self-described “conservative Catholic” has lately been encouraging members of her party to couch their political arguments in Biblical terms so as to appeal to the God-fearing. In a St. Patrick’s Day speech on the genocide in Darfur, a topic that unites religious conservatives and liberals, Pelosi said, “The gospel of Matthew is something that drives many of us in our public service.  This language is an outgrowth of the “Faith Working Group,” an effort to coordinate discourse between House Democrats and churchgoers that Pelosi initiated just over a year ago, when the “values voters” of 2004 were still the subjects of liberal nightmares. She chose as the group’s chairman Rep. Jim Clyburn, an African Methodist Episcopalian from South Carolina’s 6th district, whom she has subsequently selected to serve as chairman of the House Democratic caucus as well. That promotion suggests the importance Pelosi places upon political fellowship with the faithful.
• Weekly Standard, 4-17-06