Who would God endorse?

By Libby

You have to give the fundies some credit here. The timing of this civil disobedience is diabolically clever.

The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, a little more than a month before the general election, in a year when religious concerns and preachers have been a regular part of the political debate.

It also comes as the IRS has increased its investigations of churches accused of engaging in politics. Sen. Barack Obama's denomination, the United Church of Christ, has said it was under investigation after it allowed the Democratic presidential candidate to address 10,000 church members last year. Last summer, the tax agency said it was reviewing complaints against 44 churches for activities in the 2006 election cycle. Churches found to be in violation can be fined or lose their tax exemptions.

Funny thing about these investigations. They all seem to be targeted at churches with liberal minded congregations. There was a big brouhaha around these parts in 04 where a little fundie church out on the sticks basically kicked out any congregant that refused to pledge to vote for Bush. It made the national news. Nothing happened to the church. A few months later the IRS was just horrified that some Unitarian Church in CA had allowed a guest sermon that called for peace instead of war. They were forced to fight to keep their tax exempt status.

I'm not sure what the resolution of that case was and that's the point on the timing of the 'protest action.' Doing it September is brilliant. By the time the IRS gets around to deciding if its against the law, or decides to penalize them for it, they have already accomplished their mission of influencing the election from the pulpit.

They're couching their protest under the premise that the law is an infringement of their First Amendment rights. What a load of transparent crap. The deal is you get the tax exempt status because you're a non-profit organization. The clergy are free to pontificate anywhere on their own time and any place except from their tax exempt pulpits. They're supposed to be offering spiritual guidance, not political advice.

Of course, they've already been doing this without penalty for some time so I wonder about their motives on making a legal issue out of it. It's looks to me like this is back door attempt to erase the separation of church and state altogether. At moments like these, I wish I believed in the rapture because it would be really satisfying to watch God reject these hypocrites and philistines while the DFHs were passing through the pearly gates.