Okay, that’s about as alarmist as I’m willing to get, especially on short notice.
Still, this article caught my attention:
A minister said she was shaken by a call from a state Republican Party staffer who challenged her church’s planned discussion of Social Security.
The Rev. Lisa Doege said the caller told her that holding the program could even endanger First Unitarian Church’s tax-exempt status.
More below.
Okay, so Doege says it wasn’t a threat:
“I would not use the word ‘threat,’ ” Doege said. “It shook me a little.”
No threat was intended, said state Rep. Luke Messer, executive director of the Indiana Republican Party.
…
The purpose of the state party’s call was to offer a speaker who could represent the Republican viewpoint on Social Security and point out that a tax-exempt church should not be involved in partisan activities, Messer said.
Messer, a legislator from Shelbyville, said no threat to the church was intended and no effort was made to prevent Ghilarducci from speaking.
Damn these tantalizing news feeders!
Oh well. Speculate anyway.
is just wrong… that lying is bound to be what the piratization Republican representative will bring to the table.
Shorter Messer: We’re sending the church a sinner!
“No threat was intended.”
Sort of like, “I didn’t mean to kill him.”
“Oh yeah? Tell it to the judge, buddy.”
Nah, no threat. Just throwing around a little weight, that’s all…
The repug’s, it seems, are coming unwound. Perhaps beginning to feel the heat from the “christians” who would rather they STFU and keep religion out of govt?
Hope springs eternal.
Okay, I can’t stop laughing… come on guys who do you take us for? The Repub base? The GOP uses Churches all across the South and Midwest as stumping grounds during the election, Ratzinger sends a memo directly inferring that Catholics can’t vote for Kerry, etc. etc. and yet a discussion on SS is gonna bring the heat on tax exempt status?
Yeah, no pressure/ threats there.
Witness Rev. Chan Chandler of the East Waynesville Baptist Church in North Carolina, who kicked out nine members from his own congregation because they voted as Democrats and did not support George W. Bush for president. During last year’s presidential campaign, Chandler told his congregation that those who would vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should repent or leave his church, according to one member who was forced out.
Witness the Baptist deacon of a California congregation who told the Lakota family of Muriel Waukazoo, who wanted a drum group to accompany their mother’s funeral, that the traditional Indian songs could not be tolerated because ”drumming brings the demons.”
Witness Bush getting the nod from the Catholic Church hierarchy, which essentially endorsed him when it allowed then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to urge bishops to consider the denial of Holy Communion to Catholic politicians (i.e. John Kerry) who endorsed a pro-choice position on abortion rights for women.
Witness the even more troubling case of an American Jesuit who respectfully and intelligently criticized the positions of the Catholic Church and is now ordered to resign as editor of the Catholic journal, America – forced out by no less an authority than the office of doctrinal enforcement, called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on an edict issued by – again – then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now pope. link
(bold mine)
On the opposite side of the aisle, my accountant attended a Knights of Columbus meeting last fall when the president of the organization (or King, or Grand Poobah or whatever the leader’s title) turned it into a GOP rally. My CPA (staunch Kerry supporter that he was) felt compelled to stand up and point out that the Catholic Church could lose their tax exempt status if KOC continued their rally for the Republican party.
Yup. I’m sure the GOP would’ve stepped right in and taken care of that little overstepping of bounds. Yup. Woulda pulled their tax-exempt status right out from under them. I’m sure of it. (snark)
So, according to this article having a speaker give an address in a church, if that speaker has donated money or been active in a political party, is grounds for revoking the tax exempt status of the church? Would that effectively ban Dobson and his minions? Force Frist to forgo further taped messages? Please?
But then, I like the loophole, if you have someone on the other side speak too, it’s okay. So the next time Dobson speaks can we force him to have Starhawk provide balance? I like it….has possibilities.
And yet the Repugs apparently had no problem at all when that pastor in NC expelled Kerry voters.
It sounds like a political protection racket to me:
“That’s a nice little policy discussion you’re having there; be a shame if anything happened to it….”