Saturday, February 18, 2006

In N.C., GOP Requests Church Directories

The North Carolina Republican Party asked its members this week to send their church directories to the party, drawing furious protests from local and national religious leaders.

"Such a request is completely beyond the pale of what is acceptable," said the Rev. Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

During the 2004 presidential race, the Bush-Cheney campaign sent a similar request to Republican activists across the country. It asked churchgoers not only to furnish church directories to the campaign, but also to use their churches as a base for political organizing.

The tactic was roundly condemned by religious leaders across the political spectrum, including conservative evangelical Christians. Ten professors of ethics at major seminaries and universities wrote a letter to President Bush in August 2004 asking him to "repudiate the actions of your re-election campaign," and calling on both parties to "respect the integrity of all houses of worship.

FULL STORY

1 Comments:

At Sunday, February 19, 2006 9:48:00 AM , Blogger Mark Folse said...

Um, this is very standard political practice. Geez, I wonder if all of these people who get upset about how politicis is waged in this country have ever worked on a campaign. I wish they'd save their angst for the decades long campaign by the GOP to surpress the Black vote. Now that's nasty.

 

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