This describes the problem of mixing church & state... great article... Churches mixing in politics make Faustian bargain...
(please excuse if this is a dupe)
Churches mixing in politics make Faustian bargain
Charles C. Haynes
Gannett News Service
Monday November 22, 2004<snip...>
“My pastor kept asking us to pray for George Bush to win,” a Georgia woman told me last week, “and most folks seemed to go along with it. So I just kept quiet and secretly prayed for the other side.”
She’s not alone. A majority of frequent churchgoers may have voted for President Bush (if surveys are right), but a large minority voted for Sen. John Kerry. Not all Christians — not even all evangelicals — are born-again Republicans.
But the word “Christian” (not unlike the word “moral”) is increasingly tied in the news media to the word “Republican,” thanks to the successful alliance between Karl Rove and leaders of the religious right. (In one pre-election news account, a minister described comforting a parishioner who anxiously asked if he could remain a Christian and vote for Kerry.)
Growing numbers of Christians are alarmed by the hijacking of their faith. In a recent editorial, Robert Parham of the moderate Baptist Center for Ethics vowed to “take on the religious right more forcefully — critiquing its false religion and anointment of the GOP as God’s Only Party.”
Meanwhile, emboldened by the perception that evangelicals decided the election, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and other evangelical leaders close to the White House are already lining up to claim the spoils. They expect to have the power to shape the Republican agenda on everything from constitutional amendments to Supreme Court appointments.
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http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking-news-story.asp?submitdate=20041122151925My comment... we need to get these Christians on the bandwagon with us... take note of pastors names and members who are objecting and make contact to help with our cause...