'Talk to Action' Speaks with Forked Tongue
If there were some kind of major award for hypocrisy as an art form, the boys at Talk To Action, our favorite Religious Left website, would win it every time.
In their latest venture into calling the kettle black, TTA complains about "tax abuse" by the "Religious Right," whom they accuse of seeking "to build a church-based electoral movement, bending and breaking the rules" (see "Issue of Tax Abuse by the Religious Right, [sic] Heats Up" by Frederick Clarkson). I wonder why this seems to be so in synch with the comment Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean made last week to the Christian Science Monitor: "The religious community has to decide whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics".
Is the Left trying to intimidate churches from playing any role in this year's national elections?
The North Congregational United Church of Christ (that's the gay-affirming, goddess-friendly UCC) has lodged a complaint against two Columbus, Ohio, churches for allegedly going over the top in their support for Republican candidates. The lawyer representing the UCC, Marcus Owens, accused the churches of "flagrant intervention."
Whoa! The last time we heard from Mr. Owens, he was representing a liberal church in Pasadena, California, that had come up against a warning from the Internal Revenue Service, after comments made from the pulpit by a guest pastor a few days before the 2004 election. He was singing a different tune then, whose lyrics included lines about "First Amendment principles of religious freedom and freedom of speech," and "core values which the congregation of the church holds dear."
Politicking from the pulpit is nothing new for the Religious Left. In his 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore spoke at one black church after another, warning the congregations that if a Republican president were elected, it'd be back to Jim Crow and the slave cabins.
In the 2004 elections, Democratic candidate John Kerry campaigned from several pulpits, while former president and impeachment survivor Bill Clinton stood in front of the congregation at the Riverside Church in New York City and denounced President George W. Bush by name. The Clinton speech (we can't bring ourselves to call it a sermon) was part of the church's "Mobilization 2004" campaign to get out the vote for liberal candidates (see "Leftists Putting a Scare into Pastors?").
It doesn't bother Talk To Action, or anyone else on the Religious Left, when churches are used to support "an electoral movement" on their side. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is hypocrisy.
In their latest venture into calling the kettle black, TTA complains about "tax abuse" by the "Religious Right," whom they accuse of seeking "to build a church-based electoral movement, bending and breaking the rules" (see "Issue of Tax Abuse by the Religious Right, [sic] Heats Up" by Frederick Clarkson). I wonder why this seems to be so in synch with the comment Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean made last week to the Christian Science Monitor: "The religious community has to decide whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics".
Is the Left trying to intimidate churches from playing any role in this year's national elections?
The North Congregational United Church of Christ (that's the gay-affirming, goddess-friendly UCC) has lodged a complaint against two Columbus, Ohio, churches for allegedly going over the top in their support for Republican candidates. The lawyer representing the UCC, Marcus Owens, accused the churches of "flagrant intervention."
Whoa! The last time we heard from Mr. Owens, he was representing a liberal church in Pasadena, California, that had come up against a warning from the Internal Revenue Service, after comments made from the pulpit by a guest pastor a few days before the 2004 election. He was singing a different tune then, whose lyrics included lines about "First Amendment principles of religious freedom and freedom of speech," and "core values which the congregation of the church holds dear."
Politicking from the pulpit is nothing new for the Religious Left. In his 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore spoke at one black church after another, warning the congregations that if a Republican president were elected, it'd be back to Jim Crow and the slave cabins.
In the 2004 elections, Democratic candidate John Kerry campaigned from several pulpits, while former president and impeachment survivor Bill Clinton stood in front of the congregation at the Riverside Church in New York City and denounced President George W. Bush by name. The Clinton speech (we can't bring ourselves to call it a sermon) was part of the church's "Mobilization 2004" campaign to get out the vote for liberal candidates (see "Leftists Putting a Scare into Pastors?").
It doesn't bother Talk To Action, or anyone else on the Religious Left, when churches are used to support "an electoral movement" on their side. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is hypocrisy.
