(CNSNews.com) - A religious watchdog group is urging Christian clergy to reject a voter guide being distributed by the Christian Coalition, the largest and most active conservative grassroots political group in the nation.
The Coalition, founded by Pat Robertson, is calling on churches to help distribute millions of voter guides, an effort Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sees as a way to sway the outcome of this year's presidential election.
"The Coalition's driving mission is to elect favored politicians to public office," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. "Churches should throw the Coalition's voter guides in the trash.
"Churches are tax-exempt and may not intervene in partisan politics," said Lynn. "Churches that hand out partisan literature are asking for trouble from the IRS."
Americans United sent out over 80,000 informational letters to educate religious leaders about the requirements of federal tax law, which includes a ban on church endorsements of candidates for public office. As a result, many churches are refusing to disseminate the Coalition's guides, the religious watchdog said.
The group noted that Christian Coalition President Roberta Combs expressed concern about Americans United's success at the Coalition's 2004 "Road to Victory" conference in late September.
Combs told attendees that because of AU's work, many churches in 2000 refused to pass out the guides, forcing the Coalition to hand them out at "Wal-Marts and service stations," AU claimed.
At the same conference, Christian Coalition field director Bill Thomson "candidly admitted" that the purpose of the guides was "to affect the outcome of elections," Americans United claimed. The groups said Thomson "boasted that the guides can 'change an election between 5 and 7 percentage points,' calling them the group's 'B-2 bomber.'"
Americans United said the Coalition's guides are "intentionally designed to appear objective, but in fact distort the candidates' records and positions."
For example, in the presidential race 15 issues are listed with topics "chosen to reflect a conservative agenda, and they are worded from a right-wing perspective such as 'unrestricted abortion on demand,' 'educational choice for parents (vouchers),' 'adoption of children by homosexuals,' 'affirmative action programs that provide preferential treatment' and 'permanent elimination of the marriage penalty tax.'"
According to the Associated Press, President Bush answered a Christian Coalition questionnaire for the guides, while Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's campaign did not. Even still, responses for Kerry are listed for 10 of the guide's line items, while "no response" is listed for the other five.
"Thus a casual reader is given the impression that Kerry actually responded to a Coalition questionnaire and opposes 'permanent elimination of the death tax' and 'permanent elimination of the marriage penalty tax,' but has 'no response' to 'placing US troops under UN control' or 'adoption of children by homosexuals,'" AU said.
"Bush is listed as supporting elimination of the 'death tax' and the 'marriage penalty tax' and opposed to 'placing US troops under UN control' and 'adoption of children by homosexuals,'" AU noted.
But, the group said, "In at least one case, the answer is flatly untrue." Bush is listed as supporting "federal funding for faith-based charitable organizations." Kerry, on the other hand, is listed as having "no response" even though Kerry "announced weeks ago that he supports faith-based funding as long as constitutional safeguards are observed."
"These guides are clearly partisan propaganda. Any church that distributes the Christian Coalition's literature is advancing a political agenda and endangering its tax exemption. It is also participating in political dirty tricks, something no house of worship should be involved with," Lynn said.
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