The idea of converting America’s churches into a giant GOP political machine is not a new idea. In fact, it’s been the centerpiece of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s agenda for years.
In 1997, Robertson admitted as much in a closed-door session with Christian Coalition leaders, comparing his religious right group to the notorious political machines of American history.
“If we have that basic core and we have identified people, this was the power of every machine that has ever been in politics. You know, the Tammany Halls and Hague and the Chicago machine and the Byrd machine in Virginia and all the rest of them.”
We now know, of course, that Robertson’s plan crumbled as the Coalition fell apart under the strain of competition and mismanagement. But, unfortunately, the concept of using tax-exempt houses of worship as a partisan machine is alive and well — thanks to the Bush White House.
The Bush campaign is seeking to enlist thousands of religious congregations around the country in distributing campaign information and registering voters, according to an e-mail message sent to many members of the clergy and others in Pennsylvania.
The AP obtained an email from Bush’s Pennsylvania office that urges churchgoers to help organize “Friendly Congregations” where supporters can meet regularly to sign up voters and spread the word for Bush.
“I’d like to ask if you would like to serve as a coordinator in your place of worship,” says the e-mail, adorned with the Bush-Cheney logo, from Luke Bernstein, who runs the state campaign’s coalitions operation and is a former staffer to Sen. Rick Santorum, the president’s Pennsylvania chairman.
“We plan to undertake activities such as distributing general information/updates or voter registration materials in a place accessible to the congregation,” the e-mail says.
When asked for an explanation, Bernstein “refused comment.” Considering the circumstances, that was probably a good idea.
The campaign’s defense was unusually ridiculous.
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush administration, said “people of faith have as much right to participate in the political process as any other community.”
That’s so far from the point, it’s absurd. No one is suggesting that religious people can’t get involved in politics; the issue here is whether a presidential campaign can rope churches into an illegal scheme.
Naturally, the first concern that comes to mind is that of church-state separation. Exploiting and manipulating houses of worship to get elected strikes at the very heart of our system.
But what may be even worse about the Bush campaign’s plan in Pennsylvania is its inconsistency with federal tax and election law.
The FEC prohibits campaigns from coordinating campaign activities with tax-exempt entities, which would obviously include these churches in Pennsylvania. The email solicitation doesn’t even try to hide this; it’s the obvious point of the project.
Federal tax law, meanwhile, strictly prohibits houses of worship from intervening in political campaigns, either for or against a candidate. Organizing “Friendly Congregations” to help Bush would obviously put those churches’ tax-exemption at risk.
And that’s probably what is most offensive about the Bush campaign’s plan — it shifts responsibility and culpability away from the campaign and onto congregations. The funny thing about tax law is that it’s the churches that are on the line. Ministries accept tax-exempt status and, with it, the condition that they will not intervene in partisan political campaigns.
As such, if churches agreed to cooperate with Bush’s scheme, it’s the congregations which will ultimately get punished, not the campaign. In other words, the Bush campaign gets to enjoy the benefit (organizing conservative voters in a key swing state), but they’ll be long gone when it’s time to accept the consequences (when the IRS knocks on the church’s door looking for an explanation).
In fact, the email that set off this controversy invites participation, but doesn’t mention the potential legal cost and financial penalties.
The director of a nonpartisan watchdog group called the campaign’s church appeal “a breathtakingly sad example of mixing religion and politics.”
“I have never in my life seen such a direct campaign to politicize American churches – from any political party or from any candidate for public office,” said Rev. Barry W. Lynn of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “By enrolling churches in an election scheme like this, I think the Bush-Cheney campaign is actually endangering those churches’ tax exemptions without even the courtesy of telling them that they run a risk.”
It’s typical Bush politics — shift the burden, shun accountability, and let someone else take the blame when things go wrong. So much for the “era of responsibility.”