Pastors Issue Directive(critical of Bush membership dir)Reelection Tactic

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9533-2004Aug17.html

Pastors Issue Directive (critical of Bush membership directories)...Reelection Tactic


By Alan Cooperman

Wednesday, August 18, 2004; Page A04


Ten teachers of Christian ethics at leading seminaries and universities have written a letter to President Bush criticizing his campaign's outreach to churches, particularly its effort to gather church membership directories.

The Aug. 12 letter asked Bush to "repudiate the actions of your re-election campaign, which violated a fundamental principle of our democracy." It also urged both presidential candidates to "respect the integrity of all houses of worship."

The letter's signers included evangelical Christians who teach at generally conservative institutions, such as the Rev. George G. Hunter III of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky and Richard V. Pierard of Gordon College in Massachusetts. Other signers included the Revs. Paul Raushenbush of Princeton University, Walter B. Shurden of Mercer University in Georgia, James M. Dunn of Wake Forest Divinity School in North Carolina and Ronald B. Flowers of Texas Christian University.

"When certain church leaders acceded to the request of the Bush/Cheney campaign to hand over the names and addresses of their congregants, they crossed a line," the letter said. "It is proper for church leaders to address social issues, but it is improper, and even illegal, for them to get their churches to endorse candidates or align their churches with a specific political party."<snip>

[lil-petunia]

1. about time

I guess that not everyone religious has lost their minds, after all.

This should be breaking news on all cable stations. Somehow, I doubt that.

[madaboutharry]

2. Unlike George Bush, there are

people out there who have principles and know the difference between right and wrong.

[AirAmFan]

3. How UNGRATEFUL! Will those candy-assed pastors now start refusing

to accept school vouchers, "faith-based" funding, and other Republican payoffs with taxpayer money? Don't they know you have have to pay to play? (NOTE: This entire post was meant to be sarcastic)

[Julien Sorel]

4. It sure seems like there's some backlash against the grubby,

desperate nature of some of the tactics the Bush people are using. This, the beating the Swift Boat idiots are taking, people speaking out about using New York as a convention site to highlight 9/11 -- just a lot of stuff that, when you add it up, makes the Bush campaign seem a little bit seedy and low class.