more on Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jonathan Goldstein <JGoldstein () urbantechgroup com>
Date: July 3, 2004 5:10:11 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists





Dave,

I'm a very active Republican living in Center City Philadelphia.  Every
year on Election Day, I work in the field organizing thousands of 
voters.

What you've described is not something new, shocking or limited to
Republicans.  In Philadelphia, we've been watching in silence as 
Democrats
have politicized churches for years.  The Black Clergy of Philadelphia, 
an
organized group of black Philadelphia ministers, has for years been
arranging for Democratic politicians to leave their materials in the
churches, speak on Sundays at various churches and mingle with 
congregants
at church social functions.  I would not consider it surprising at all 
if
the Black Clergy of Philadelphia had extensively shared church member 
lists
with politicians or with political consultants to facilitate get out the
vote drives, registration drives or direct mail or telephone 
communication
with voters.

The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an article about the phenomenon last 
month:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/8833024.htm

In said in pertinent part:

On the campaign trail, visiting a house of worship has become as 
routine as
the county fair. Political activity has been a part of church life for
years, particularly in African American and predominantly Democratic 
urban
congregations.
...

None of about a dozen area pastors contacted yesterday said they had 
seen
the Bush appeal. Many of them did say, however, that political activity 
has
been freewheeling in area churches for years.

The Rev. Wilson Goode, a former Philadelphia mayor, said he had 
developed a
network of several hundred coordinators in churches during his 1983 and
1987 campaigns. He described a role akin to the Bush-Cheney coordinator.

"They were not the pastors, but were members who talked to other church
members for me," Goode, a Democrat, said.

Mayor Street received a similar boost last year with the strong backing 
of
the 450-church Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, a group 
without
tax-exempt status that has endorsed candidates.

The Rev. Marguerite Handy, the group's general secretary and the
religious-outreach coordinator for Street's reelection campaign, asked
church leaders to host evening prayer vigils. About 40 were held in 
church
sanctuaries, featuring preaching, prayer and "the mayor speaking from 
his
heart."

--
Jonathan Goldstein
c: 215-266-5948



             dave () farber net
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Dave Farber  +1 412 726 9889



...... Forwarded Message .......
From: Kurt Albershardt <kurt () nv net>
To: dave () farber net
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 10:01:16 -0700
Subj: Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists

I thought for sure this one was a hoax, but it appears not...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/02/bush.churches.reut/>


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush, 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.
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 among registered voters, 47
percent of whom said they now believed the president had misled 
Americans
about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

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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