Consider the source. (Reuters!!!)�
If Christians banding together is illegal, then the Democratic Party
should stop telling their constituents to vote Democrat from the pulpits and busing
from their churches to the voting poles.�
Do you EVER look at both sides of the issue?
The conservative Protestant denomination, whose 16 million members
strongly backed Bush in 2000, held regular drives that encouraged church-goers
to "vote their values," said Land. Wow: how awful,
to tell folks to “vote their values”.� (We
can only hope the Liberals don’t.) ��Really,
Jonathan, what can you fault about that?
Izzy
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hughes Jonathan
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004
10:38 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [TruthTalk] Interesting
Article
Bush Seeks to
Mobilize Religious Conservatives
Thu Jul 1, 8:04 PM ET
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites), seeking to mobilize
religious conservatives for his reelection campaign, has asked church-going
volunteers to turn over church membership directories, campaign officials said
on Thursday.
In a move sharply criticized both by religious leaders and civil libertarians,
the Bush-Cheney campaign has issued a guide listing about two-dozen
"duties" and a series of deadlines for organizing support among
conservative church congregations.
A copy of the guide obtained by Reuters directs religious volunteers to send
church directories to state campaign committees, identify new churches that can
be organized by the Bush campaign and talk to clergy about holding voter
registration drives.
The document, distributed to campaign coordinators across the country earlier
this year, also recommends that volunteers distribute voter guides in church
and use Sunday service programs for get-out-the-vote drives.
"We expect this election to be potentially as close as 2000, so every vote
counts and it's important to reach out to every single supporter of President
Bush," campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
But the Rev. Richard Land, who deals with ethics and religious liberty issues
for the Southern Baptist Convention, a key Bush constituency, said he was
"appalled."
"First of all, I would not want my church directories being used that
way," he told Reuters in an interview, predicting failure for the Bush
plan.
The conservative Protestant denomination, whose 16 million members strongly
backed Bush in 2000, held regular drives that encouraged church-goers to
"vote their values," said Land.
"But it's one thing for us to do that. It's a totally different thing for
a partisan campaign to come in and try to organize a church. A lot of pastors
are going to say: 'Wait a minute, bub'," he added.
The guide surfaced as a spate of opinion polls showed Bush's reelection
campaign facing a tough battle.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showed Bush running neck-and-neck with
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) among
registered voters, 47 percent of whom said they now believed the president had
misled Americans about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s
Iraq (news - web sites).
The Bush campaign has also been spending heavily on television ads, only to see
the president's approval ratings slump to new lows.
Stanzel said the campaign ended the month of June with $64 million on hand. He
had no figures on how much Bush has raised in June. At the end of May, Bush had
raised $213.4 million and spent all but $63 million.
The latest effort to marshal religious support also drew fire from civil
liberties activists concerned about the constitutional separation of church and
state.
"Any coordination between the Bush campaign and church leaders would
clearly be illegal," said a statement from the activist group Americans
United for Separation of Church and State.
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