A friend directed my attention to a front page article in today’s Wall Street Journal: “Bush’s Big Priority: Energize Conservative Christian Base” ($$). The point of the article is to talk about the Bush campaign strategy which is to spend less energy on the swing voter, as is usually done, and more on “maximizing voter turnout among conservative constituencies already disposed to back the president.” Personally, I really don’t care who is king of Babylon next year or their campaign strategies. What I do care about though is the spiritual mission of Christian churches becoming confused with partisan politics, (see my article The Return of the Religious Right). Some worrying signs from the WSJ article:
“…the nondenominational Grace Chapel [in Warren County, Ohio]… has a voter-registration table every Sunday. ‘It’s not sponsored by the Republican Party… but we make sure it’s there.'”
“‘In every major church we’ve got coordinators identified.’ A campaign document earlier this year spelled out coordinators’ duties. Among them: By July 31, send church directories to campaign headquarters; by Aug. 15, ‘talk to your Church’s seniors or 20-30 something group about Bush/Cheney ’04;’ by Sept. 26, ‘All non-registered church members must be registered to vote;’ and, by the Sunday before Election Day, ‘Distribute voter guides in the church.'”
Remember that bit where Jesus drove the money-changers out of “His Father’s house” with a whip? It’s that time again.
6:36 pm on August 30, 2004
