Let's Tell Dole: Stop The Religious Hate
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| Sun, 11-02-2008 - 9:02pm |
"CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan said she came to talk about issues, but it wasn't long after arriving at an early voting site in Charlotte that a few voters brought up what's become the focal point of the race - the "godless" ad that Sen. Elizabeth Dole is running against her.
"What a nasty campaign this has turned into at the last moment," Doug Gubbins, a retired computer programmer from Charlotte, said to Hagan as she worked the voting line at Marion Diehl Recreation Center.
As Carolina voters make their final decisions about who to vote for, the contest between Dole, the Republican incumbent, and Hagan, a Democratic state senator from Greensboro, brewed both on the airwaves and on the ground.
Dole began airing a second ad featuring a fundraiser for Hagan in Boston. The event, which was hosted by Democratic supporters, was held at the home of a man associated with the Godless Americans PAC, a group opposed to references to God in government.
In Dole's new ad, the announcer asks, "If Godless Americans threw a party in your honor, would you go?"
Hagan declined to talk about the ad war with reporters in Charlotte, except to say she would continue to pursue legal action. On Thursday, she initiated a lawsuit that claimed Dole's ad was false and defamatory.
On Friday, Dole responded by filing a motion to dismiss Hagan's "frivolous" suit. The motion said the lawsuit is "essentially a political press release that attempts to manufacture causes of action where none clearly exist."
The backlash against Dole continued with a church leader sending the senator a sharply-worded letter.
"We are writing to deplore as strongly as possible your recent 30-second television advertisement," wrote the Rev. Sekinah Hamlin, president of the N.C. Council of Churches, a coalition of 15 Christian denominations that work on racial, gender and economic issues. One of the churches that support the council's work is First Presbyterian of Greensboro, where Hagan serves as a Sunday school teacher and elder.
"We cannot remain silent when you challenge the beliefs of faithful fellow Christians and suggest that a leader in one of the state's oldest and largest denominations doesn't believe in God," wrote Hamlin, an ordained Disciples of Christ minister.
Mixing religion with politics didn't sit well with some voters either.
"I'm glad you're out here because I did not appreciate that," Charlotte nurse Barbara Sherman said to Hagan about Dole's ad.
Charlotte homemaker Leslie Hand said she was tuning out campaign ads because she knew the Republican Party shared her pro-life stance and other values.
"It's important to have people who will speak up for the values I believe in," said Hand, a Dole supporter.
Sharon Seward of Charlotte, a children's ministry director, said she doesn't like negative campaigning on either side and the candidates ought to stick to the issues. But she said Dole's ad did raise questions for her about Hagan.
"We need to know where people stand, but I want it always to be the truth," she said. "I would like to know where she stands but I don't know."
For one previously undecided voter, the Dole ad made the difference. Tom Carlin, a registered Republican and stay-at-home dad from Charlotte, said he'd decided to vote for Hagan after seeing it.
"The ad I saw showed a lot of desperation on her (Dole's) part," said Carlin, who has grown disenchanted with the direction that Republicans have brought the country in over the last eight years. "The separation of church and state is important to me. That was sort of a last-ditch effort to bring religion into it to try to galvanize that part of the electorate.""
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/750819.html

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First, your comparison of the KKK to people who don't believe in God is ludicrous.
By asking "what if" and substiting "KKK" for atheist, you were indeed comparing the two.
"What if" Hagan had attended a fundraiser held in the home of a Christian Coalition board member, would you be all over that.
Of course "paling around" with the KKK, and "paling around" with athiest would be treated different. One is a group of terrorist, atheists are simply people who don't believe in God. To ask "what if" and substitute "KKK" for "atheists" is a non-sequitor at best, or a deliberate attempt to paint atheist as a hate group at worst.
Did the words "There is no God" ever come out of Hagan's mouth ?
No they did not (unless she is quoting the LIE Dole told about her)
To do a voice over of those words in over Hagan's picture, after asking the question "and what did Hagan promise in return" is a LIE, and you know it.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Look it up. It's a COMMANDMENT, not a suggestion. If Dole is such a good Christian, she should act like one, not be telling blatant LIES to score cheap political points.
If someone put the words "Hitler had the right idea" in a voice over an flashed McCains picture in the same manner, you would be screaming about it. (and rightfully so)
But because it was a DEMOCRAT, that was lied about, you pretend it is the gospel truth. I guess that pesky little commandment about bearing false witness, has some little exception about it being Ok, if the lie is told against a DEMOCRAT ?
She doesn't like being LIED about.
What part of "Thou shalt not bear false witness" do you not understand.
I believe in gay rights. But I am NOT gay. I wouldn't mind anyone knowing that I support gay rights, but I would NOT want to be lied about, and have it be told that I AM a lesbian.
Is someone flashed a picture of me on a screen with an actor imitating my voice saying "I'm gay, and I'm proud" or some such thing, I would be furious too. Not because I'm ashamed to support gay rights, but because I don't like being LIED about.
It's possible to associate with people who have different religious viewpoints without sharing them.
"It isn't illegal. But if you are a Sunday school teacher it sort disengenuous to take money from those that want to remove God from our country."
Atheist do not want to "remove God" from our country. They want to insure that the governement is neutral in matters concerning religion. They want to remove all the special priveledges that some Christians are demanding.
Darn skippy!
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
Yeah, but you wingnuts think God is still speaking ;-)
Shhhhh -- don't tell anyone but I not only teach Sunday School....I lead worship service sometimes when its the minister's day off.
I DIDNT compare the KKK to the Godless Americans.
No, I am not comparing the two.
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