Disingenuously Right
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
You have to love this... From USA Today:
A group of ministers filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service to stop a conservative organization from encouraging pastors to endorse or oppose political candidates.The group of 55 religious leaders from Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and other states said Monday the actions by the Alliance Defense Fund jeopardize the constitutional separation of church and state."The rightful place of religious leaders and communities of faith in American life is not in electoral politics," said the Rev. Eric Williams, a minister with the liberal United Church of Christ.
Williams is right but he is completely disingenuous.
Williams didn't voice this level of concern when our denomination hosted presidential candidate Barak Obama last year at our General Synod. While a complaint was filed with the IRS and the UCC was cleared, the Obama campaign leveraged the speech for political purposes and the UCC knew the event would be used for political purposes.
That said, he's still right and according to a USA Today poll he's not alone: "Fifty percent of conservatives think churches and other places of worship should stay out of social and political matters."
