Bush campaign wants church lists.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Bush campaign wants church lists.
4
Sat, 07-03-2004 - 12:20am

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/02/bush.churches.reut/index.html


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.


A copy of the guide obtained by Reuters directs religious volunteers to send church directories to state campaign committees, identify new churches that can be organized by the Bush campaign and talk to clergy members about holding voter registration drives.


The document, distributed to campaign coordinators across the country earlier this year, also recommends that volunteers distribute voter guides in church and use Sunday service programs for get-out-the-vote drives.


"We expect this election to be potentially as close as 2000, so every vote counts and it's important to reach out to every single supporter of President Bush," campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said.


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 strongly backed 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. (Poll: Sending troops to Iraq a mistake; Interactive: Poll questions and responses)


A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showed Bush running neck-and-neck with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry among registered voters, 47 percent 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 civil liberties 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.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-17-2004
Sat, 07-03-2004 - 12:49am
I highly doubt it would be considered illegal. . .however, as a member of a church, i resent the idea that I should vote one way or another simply based upon that. I have a real problem with organized religion (yes, I realize what I said is apparently contradictory.) and people who blinding follow whatever their church tells them to think. although i belong to a church, I actually don't believe everything I am told by that church. Perhaps I shouldn't belong. But, I don't think people should just vote the way they are told to vote, or support things just because a church leader tells them to do so.

The problem with organized religion is people forget to understand why they believe what they believe in the spiritual realm. As in everything else in life, i choose to believe what i think is right.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2003
Sat, 07-03-2004 - 7:41am

I, personally, do not think this

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 07-03-2004 - 9:08am

Same article says (I can't believe people are only just realizing this).........


"Fifty-four percent of those polled said it was a mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq, compared with 41 percent who expressed that sentiment in early June.


Most respondents to the poll, 55 percent, also said they don't believe the war has made the United States safer from terrorism -- rejecting an argument that President Bush has repeatedly advanced in his rationale for the war."


Quote from.........


http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/24/poll.iraq/index.html

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 07-03-2004 - 9:28am

>"The problem with organized religion is people forget to understand why they believe what they believe in the spiritual realm."<


I agree.


I find it most offencive that politicians would ask for list of a church's members. If the priest/paster/vicar in my church gave my name & address to a political party I'd never attend there again.

What are they going to do with these lists? Send out begging letters for more $$$, whilst appealing to

 


Photobucket&nbs