Truth - Al Franken [48]
It is actually illegal for tax-exempt religious organizations to engage in partisan political activity. But that didn’t stop the Bush-Cheney campaign from encouraging clergy in battleground states to do their civic duty. In Pennsylvania, for example, ministers received this e-mail from a Bush-Cheney staffer.
Subject: Lead Your Congregation for President Bush
Dear ---- :
The Bush-Cheney ’04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1600 “Friendly Congregations” in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis. In each of these friendly congregations, we would like to identify a volunteer coordinator who can help distribute general information to other supporters. If you are interested, please email Luke Bernstein at LBernstein@GeorgeWBush.com your name, address, phone number and place of worship.
Thanks, Luke
Paid for by Bush-Cheney ’04, Inc.
Jesus Christ! And this from a Bernstein?!
Look. Churches are always going to be involved in social justice issues, on one side or the other. Just ask Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (for) or Dr. Jerry Falwell (against). And some congregations certainly have a political bent, such as Our Lady of Gun Control in Bayside, Queens. But this was ridiculous. Even the campaign’s allies thought the White House had gone too far, considering the state of the law at the time.
There was only one solution. Change the law.
In early June, 2004, Republicans in the House Ways and Means Committee added an amendment to H.R. 4520, the American Job Creation Act of 2004 (which cut corporate taxes, thereby creating jobs for people who gild bathroom fixtures), that would allow churches to commit three (count ’em, three) “unintentional violations” of legal restrictions on political activities each year without losing their tax-exempt status. I call that the “four strikes and you’re out” law. Even more exciting, clergy would now be allowed to endorse candidates, as long as they made clear they were acting as individuals and not on behalf of their religious organizations.
Thankfully, when even the Southern Baptist Convention said the Republicans were getting a little too cute, the “Safe Harbor for Churches” amendment died a quiet death.
It seems that not every pastor got the word about section 692 of H.R. 4520. In the foothills of North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains, the Reverend Chan Chandler decreed in October ’04 that any East Waynesville Baptist Church congregant planning to vote for John Kerry should either leave the church or repent. After the election, the good reverend made good on his threat and kicked nine Democratic sheep out of his flock. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for lovers of religious freedom everywhere, about forty other flock members turned out not to be sheep at all, but rather stubborn goats, who resigned in protest. Ultimately, Reverend Chandler himself was forced to resign, and now manages a Republicans-only Tastee-Freez in nearby Hazelwood.
Kerry, of course, was not a Baptist. So he couldn’t have been thrown out of the East Waynesville Baptist Church for supporting himself. But the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, knew the next best thing. He forbade Kerry from taking communion in his diocese.
What had Kerry done to deserve such punishment? Had he molested hundreds of children? Had he covered up the crimes of other child-molesting senators and reassigned them to other states where they could continue preying on the