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more on Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 16:45:47 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Dana Blankenhorn <danablankenhorn () mindspring com> Date: July 5, 2004 3:40:39 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] more on Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists Reply-To: Dana Blankenhorn <dana () a-clue com> Dave: There is a huge difference between the process Jonathan describes inPhiladelphia and what is happening with the Bush campaign, which is why even leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention like Richard Land have objected
to it. And it's very, very important that we understand this difference.In Philadelphia the movement is led by the churches. The pastors contact the party. The pastors control their membership list. The pastors control the process. Churches are free to participate in politics in this way, and many
conservative churches have done just this over the years.In this case, however, it is the campaign that is seeking the church lists,
not necessarily from pastors, but from church members. Let's look at the lede to that Reuters story again: "President Bush, seeking to mobilize religious conservatives for his reelection campaign, has asked church-goingvolunteers to turn over church membership directories, campaign officials
said on Thursday." See the difference? This is being directed by the campaign, targettingsupporters with access to lists which belong to their pastors. The campaign is telling these people to, in essence, steal these lists on the campaign's
behalf.This is a big, bright red line. This is a very big deal. It is one thing for
churches to be involved in politics. It is another thing entirely forpoliticians to be directing churches, or (worse) to tell church members they
should take church property and turn it over to politicians.But that's what happens when churches seek secular power, secular authority,
and the money that comes with it. Power corrupts. Dana Blankenhorn danablankenhorn () mindspring com The Blankenhorn Effect http://www.trafford.com/robots/02-1082.html Moores Lore Blog http://www.corante.com/mooreslore A-Clue.Com Newsletter http://www.a-clue.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net> To: "Ip" <ip () v2 listbox com> Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 6:11 PM Subject: [IP] more on Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists
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 listswith politicians or with political consultants to facilitate get out thevote 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 and1987 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 Sent by: owner-ip@v2.listb To ox.com ip () v2 listbox com cc 07/03/2004 01:20 Subject PM [IP] Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists Please respond to dave () farber net ___ 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 stronglybacked 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 withDemocratic presidential candidate John Kerry among registered voters, 47percent 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 civilliberties 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. -- ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as jonathan () pobox com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as danablankenhorn () mindspring com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at:
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