Usually the threat of losing its tax-exempt status is enough to stifle even the most civilly-minded churches. The Catholic Church certainly keeps its nose out of partisan politics. Indeed, the fear of losing Uncle Sam’s donations to Catholic Charities has caused many a chancery to fall mute every election year in recent memory.
Some Protestant churches, and certain Vice Presidents, have no such scruples. “I am asking you in your sermons to do the work of the Lord here on earth,” the Vice President told a group of black ministers this past weekend according to the New York Times. “I ask you to help in getting that message out urgently tomorrow.”
The implied “message” was to support the Gore/Lieberman ticket, though officially the veep was merely urging the preachers to “get out the vote.” With a low voter turnout expected on November 7th, Gore needs to do all he can to get the largely Democratic black voter base to turn up at the polls.
His comments demand some scrutiny. Since when does doing the “work of the Lord here on earth” entail rallying congregants to vote for a political candidate? Maybe I missed that Gospel episode, but I don’t recall the Lord urging his apostles to “feed my sheep — and if you can’t do that, make sure they vote Democrat.” Maybe, I’m reading an incomplete translation. The work of the Lord is the salvation of mankind, not the pushing of political agendas. Satan provided Christ ample opportunity to go down that path, but He chose a more divine route. But that these ministers would follow His lead.
The second part of the vice presidential quote is almost as stunning as the first. Here is a man tarnished by illicit fundraising urging these black churches to essentially flout the law and “get that message out.” Now what could that message be? I’d love to see coverage of some of these sermons. I’d wager money that the rafters of many an AME Church were resonating with impassioned pleas to cast a vote on November 7th — so long as it’s a vote for Mr. Gore.
If a conservative congregation tried something like this, the IRS would be in the sanctuary before the final hymn was over. But Democratically aligned churches have been getting away with this type of thing for years. Imagine an evangelical pastor — or, God forbid, a Catholic priest — telling his congregation from the pulpit that it must, in order to remain a member in good standing, vote for Governor Bush. Not would such an explicit endorsement divide the church membership along political lines and thus be self-defeating, but it would also create a distance between shepherd and flock over something not intrinsic to the faith.
Mr. Gore’s friends seem to be oblivious to such concerns. The Reverend Ronald Williams of Portland even offered a prayer for Gore imploring God to strengthen him “against those who would attempt to weaken him” and prayed for “success and victory on Election Day.” Note that the pastor was not praying for a cause or a particular issue, but for a candidate. Hello? Is the IRS listening to this?
Probably not, because they’ve heard it all before. For decades protestant churches of various denominations have shilled for candidates, many times inviting the man himself to the pulpit. Isn’t this politicking? Doesn’t this violate the tax status of these churches? Months ago in the primaries, the vice president thundered from a Baptist pulpit doing his best Jesse Jackson impression (which came off more like a repressed Benny Hill), and nobody batted an eye. Nobody even questioned the legality of such a bold-faced political display in a house of God. The carefully crafted wall between Church and State vanished for an afternoon, and the selectively indignant ACLU didn’t seem to mind at all. One can’t mutter a prayer at a public school, but a partisan candidate can campaign in a Church. Go figure.
The supreme tragedy of this episode is the arrogance it reveals, principally the presumption on the part of the Democratic candidate that an entire population of people, by virtue of their skin color alone, will necessarily vote Democrat. The votes of a people should not come so easily. There’s as much political diversity in the black community as there is in the white, but you’d never know that. So long as the unholy alliance between black spiritual leaders and the Democratic Party continues, the black community will never be truly represented. At present they’re written off as a “base.” “Where else are they going to go,” the party smugly asks. If these ministers really wanted to improve the political might of their people, they would shop around a bit, and make both parties work for their vote.
But this is all academic. The bottom line is that churches should expound a strong moral message and allow their people to make up their own minds in the ballot box. That is the way religious leaders could most directly and profoundly influence politics. Considering the woeful moral state in America, spiritual leaders have enough to keep themselves busy. Once they accomplish their primary task, then perhaps they can look for other work. But until that time they should do the real “work of the Lord on earth,” and leave the partisanship to others.
