The byplay was as inevitable as chickens being provided to the barrios of Mexico just before the eleccion. President Bush first opens the spigot of public money to churches and other faith-based groups to the tune of over a billion dollars last year, then he knocks on the faith community's door for a political favor, por favor.
The Bush-Cheney re-election campaign is not a bit embarrassed at being caught trying to organize a brigade of (mostly) Christian soldiers in houses of worship throughout Pennsylvania who would act as point people for the campaign. After reports emerged that the Bush campaign's national headquarters asked the Pennsylvania contingent to identify "1,600 "Friendly Congregations' in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis," Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush administration, told the New York Times: "People of faith have as much right to participate in the political process as any other community."
Of course they do, Steve, but that misses the point.
Electioneering is not supposed to occur in houses of worship for two very good reasons. One: As organizations enjoying tax-exempt status, churches, synagogues and mosques have agreed to divorce themselves from partisan politics. That is part of the deal for collecting tax-deductible contributions and getting a free ride on most taxes.
And two: Mixing religion and politics compromises the integrity of faith. The Rev. Brian Flory, president of the Southeast Pennsylvania Interfaith Alliance, described it this way: "At best, the blatant introduction of politics into a congregation makes it nothing more than a political action committee. At worst, it frays the fabric of a congregation's integrity and mission."
May religious leaders speak out on controversial social issues? Sure. But support for an ideology that may be aligned with a particular political party should not cross the line into outright endorsements of candidates or telling parishioners how to vote.
Examples of going too far? Well, one is Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, who announced that communion should be denied to people who vote for candidates that support abortion rights, gay marriage and stem cell research. (No word, however, on candidates who mistreat the poor by rejecting minimum wage increases or cutting public housing dollars.)
Another is the recent endorsement of Democrat John Kerry's bid to be president by the Rev. Gregory Groover of the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston. I'm not just picking on Bush here. There have been plenty of African-American churches that have crossed this line and the IRS should be more vigilant than it has been in policing the abuses. But what Bush's campaign is doing is entirely unprecedented in breadth, scope and form.
The re-election campaign is essentially trying to organize a church-based political apparatus, where congregations are a new kind of Chicago-style ward. Houses of worship are irresistible targets for Bush organizers since the churchgoing habits of Americans now predict voting behavior better than almost any other demographic, even more so than gender. In the 2000 election, those who attend religious services regularly chose Bush over rival Al Gore by 20 points and it is likely to be even greater this year since, as president, Bush has so identified with evangelicals.
The strategy also trades on the prodigious favors Bush has been doing for the religious community. There are now 10 separate federal agencies with offices devoted to directing tax money to faith-based groups. In a report released in March, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives boasted that in five of those agencies alone, $1.17-billion was awarded to religiously affiliated groups in fiscal year 2003.
Even religious leaders should know there's no free lunch. Government money comes with all sorts of strings, some apparent, some subtle. Their congregations are now needed to answer a different calling.
As churches are being recruited, Republicans in Congress are doing their part to wave off the IRS. A bill that would allow religious denominations to support political candidates has been slipped into a larger jobs measure in the House. The Safe Harbor for Churches provision would reduce tax penalties for a set number of political endorsements from the pulpit and eliminate them if the endorsement was "unintentional."
Bush is not just engaged in a religious crusade in Iraq. He is also dividing America along religious fault lines. In his view, the separation of church and state is something to either ignore or dismantle, and those flocks that agree are being enlisted as his troops for the holy war that will be Election 2004. Gracias.
