The Spirit of the Law
Just came across this disturbing but hardly surprising article about a religious effort to politicize evangelical pastors:
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - Hundreds of conservative pastors in Iowa received the enticing invitation. Signed by Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential contender, it invited the pastors and their spouses to an expenses-paid, two-day Pastors’ Policy Briefing at a Sheraton hotel.
Nearly 400 Iowa ministers and many of their spouses accepted, filling a ballroom here on March 24 and 25. Through an evening banquet and long sessions, they heard speakers deplore a secular assault on evangelical Christian verities like the sanctity of male-female marriage, the humanity of the unborn and the divine right to limited government.
That last sentence, of course, is rife with irony, perhaps even an irony intended by the reporter. How can the "limited government" to which we seem to have a right enforce both sanctity on marriage standards and unborn humanity? Wouldn't such a limited government avoid such personal life meddling?
What got me, though, was not the standard tropes trotted out by the un-Christian right (as judged by comparing their message to the actual teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament). No, I found a little detail buried near the end far more disturbing:
The audience heard how to push their flocks to register and vote along “biblical principles” without running afoul of tax laws against endorsing candidates from the pulpit.
(I testified boldly.)
This, folks, is how Dubya got to be president for two terms. (The probable election shenanigans and the Supreme Court didn't help, I know.) I remember flipping through the channels and seeing mega-church pastors imploring their flock to avoid the sins of the homos and the baby killers by electing the "right" candidates. Not a word about giving your money to the poor. No mention of the Good Samaritan or how to treat the least amongst you.
And since these seminars are all-expense paid, this single example points out the danger of letting money coagulate in high places where it can be used as it is here, to perpetuate the further future coagulation of wealth far from where Jesus himself would recommended it should go.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - Hundreds of conservative pastors in Iowa received the enticing invitation. Signed by Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential contender, it invited the pastors and their spouses to an expenses-paid, two-day Pastors’ Policy Briefing at a Sheraton hotel.
Nearly 400 Iowa ministers and many of their spouses accepted, filling a ballroom here on March 24 and 25. Through an evening banquet and long sessions, they heard speakers deplore a secular assault on evangelical Christian verities like the sanctity of male-female marriage, the humanity of the unborn and the divine right to limited government.
That last sentence, of course, is rife with irony, perhaps even an irony intended by the reporter. How can the "limited government" to which we seem to have a right enforce both sanctity on marriage standards and unborn humanity? Wouldn't such a limited government avoid such personal life meddling?
What got me, though, was not the standard tropes trotted out by the un-Christian right (as judged by comparing their message to the actual teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament). No, I found a little detail buried near the end far more disturbing:
The audience heard how to push their flocks to register and vote along “biblical principles” without running afoul of tax laws against endorsing candidates from the pulpit.
(I testified boldly.)
This, folks, is how Dubya got to be president for two terms. (The probable election shenanigans and the Supreme Court didn't help, I know.) I remember flipping through the channels and seeing mega-church pastors imploring their flock to avoid the sins of the homos and the baby killers by electing the "right" candidates. Not a word about giving your money to the poor. No mention of the Good Samaritan or how to treat the least amongst you.
And since these seminars are all-expense paid, this single example points out the danger of letting money coagulate in high places where it can be used as it is here, to perpetuate the further future coagulation of wealth far from where Jesus himself would recommended it should go.