Bush Rewards & Persecutes Churches Based On Fealty to His Agenda

Bush Rewards & Persecutes Churches Based On Fealty to His Agenda

David Sirota
http://www.davidsirota.com/2006/01/bush-rewards-persecutes-churches-based.html

Two months ago, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon." The attempt to quiet any religious-based criticism of the war was shrouded in a supposed desire to uphold laws preventing religious and political activities from mixing. But now, two months later, the New York Times reports that this Sunday, the Rev. Herbert H. Lusk II - "a maverick black minister who took to his pulpit in Philadelphia in 2000 and pledged his support for a Bush presidency" - has "offered his church in Philadelphia as the site for a major political rally intended to whip up support for the president's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr."

So let's get this straight - a religious institution is at risk of losing its tax exempt status if its leader advocates ending wars. But if its leader comes out and overtly endorses George W. Bush for president and then uses church facilities to advocate confirming Bush's Supreme Court nominees, there's no tax issue. In fact, as the New York Times notes, the latter gets rewarded with "a $1 million grant through the president's new religion-based initiative."

Can anyone say, hypocrisy?

can you say facist dictatorship?