President George Bushs re-election campaign is drawing criticism for
an initiative that includes seeking possession of church directories.
President George Bushs re-election campaign is drawing criticism for
an initiative that includes seeking possession of church directories.
Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Richard
Land said he is “appalled” by the move.
Similar criticism was voiced by leaders of groups as diverse as Americans United
for the Separation of Church and State.
A spokesperson for that group called the effort a “shameless attempt to
misuse and abuse churches for partisan political ends.”
In the initiative, Bush-Cheney 04 has provided coalition coordinators
with a sheet asking them to give their church membership directories to the
campaign, to talk to church groups about the re-election effort and to distribute
“Voter Guides” in the churches. The instructions cite 22 responsibilities
and deadlines for completion.
“Im appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude on a local
congregation in this way,” Land said. “Its one thing for the
church to have a voter registration drive, to seek to inform church members
on public policy issues, to encourage church members to fulfill their Christian
duty and vote and to encourage them to vote their values, beliefs and convictions.
“Its another thing entirely for a partisan campaign to ask church
members to bring in church directories for use as contact lists by the campaign
and to seek to come into the church and do a voter registration drive and distribute
campaign literature.”
A National Association of Evangelicals leader agreed the effort was inappropriate.
“When party officials … do that, its simply the obligation of
church members to determine what is appropriate, ethical and legal and to say,
No,” said Richard Cizik, vice president of governmental affairs.
The Bush campaign defended the effort.
“By no means are we calling on people to conduct political activity at
their places of worship,” spokesperson Sharon Castillo said. “Our
approach is peer-to-peer contact.
“We believe that people of faith have the right do engage in the political
process.”
It is the campaigns job to identify religious adherents who support Bush
but did not vote in 2000 and turn them out for the upcoming election, Castillo
said.
“We are just trying to engage more of our fellow citizens in the political
process.”
The instruction sheet includes the following directives:
Send ones church directory to the state Bush-Cheney 04
headquarters or give it to a campaign field representative.
Identify another conservative church that one can organize for
Bush.
Talk to the pastor about holding a Citizenship Sunday and voter
registration drive.
Begin to organize a voter registration drive at ones church.
Talk to the churchs senior adults or 20-30 something group
about Bush/Cheney.
Finish calling all pro-Bush members of the church and encourage
them to vote.
The sheet asks coordinators to host two “Party for the President”
events with church members and to distribute voter guides on the two Sundays
before the election.
The request for church directories to be given to the campaign disturbed Land
the most, he said. If he were a pastor, Land said he would tell members from
the pulpit that for them to give their directories to a campaign is a “violation
of the trust of your fellow church members and of the body collectively, just
as it would be inappropriate to share it with a marketing group.”
Land said he supports church involvement in voter registration and education.
“When a church does it, its nonpartisan and appropriate,” he
said. “When a campaign does it, its partisan and inappropriate.
“I suspect that (the Bush effort) will rub a lot of pastors fur
the wrong way. Many pastors may consider this a totally inappropriate intrusion
by a partisan campaign into the nonpartisan voter education and voter registration
ministries of local churches. I am fearful that it may provoke a backlash in
which pastors will tell their churches that … the church is not going to do
any voter registration or voter education.”
Land said it is one thing for a church member to decide to work for a campaign.
“Its another, and a totally inappropriate, thing, for the Bush campaign
or the Kerry campaign to use such workers who may be church members to go in
and seek church member information through the use of directories to solicit
partisan support,” he said.
This is not the first Bush re-election initiative to draw fire. Earlier, the
campaign was criticized for targeting churches in Pennsylvania.
Cizik said his advice is for “everyone, especially pastors and church
leaders … to determine where the bright line of the law is and take one step
back.
“That way no one can accuse the church of engaging in partisan politics,”
he said.
Meanwhile, a former Internal Revenue Service administrator said the campaigns
instructions contain nothing “that, on its face, clearly would violate”
the law.
“But these activities, if conducted in concert with the church or church
leadership, certainly could be construed by the IRS as the church engaging in
partisan electioneering,” tax specialist Milton Cerny said. “The devil
is in the details.” (BP)