According to The Wichita Eagle, last Saturday:
“When it comes to politics and elections, places of worship -- as with any other tax-exempt organization -- walk a fine line.
While their leaders can speak out on issues or promote specific values as much as they want, they are prohibited from participating in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
While the law is unambiguous, local pastors and other religious leaders walk the line in different ways.
Some choose to be vocal about their political preferences. Others provide guidance about a campaign, without promoting candidates. And still others stick to issues and avoid the political thicket altogether.
Mark Holick of Spirit One Christian Center in south Wichita takes an in-your-face approach.
For the past several weeks, his church's marquee has addressed the abortion issue and made reference to two candidates, Kansas Attorney General candidate Paul Morrison and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
On one side, the sign reads: "Morrison accepts blood money from abortionist Tiller. How many babies??" The other side reads: "Abortionist Tiller has given $300,000 to Sebelius. Price of 1,000 babies!"
Holick sees no conflict with posting or making such statements and doesn't think they're violating laws about political endorsements.
"Obviously, we can't endorse anyone," he said. "But we can identify the positions of those running for political office on the issues."
"As Christians, we have a responsibility to elect godly and righteous men and women."
Let’s face facts. These people are endorsing candidates, so to deny it is a lie. They focus on one emotional issue and that issue only. They claim to want “righteous men and women” and yet There choices are often unqualified people who abuse the office for their own personal wealth. That’s righteous?
Many of the churches the Eagle talked to don’t go that far, but they do provide “voters guiedes” which are often inaccurate and clearly aimed at certain candidates. Perhaps the worst example is the Catholic Church. Again the Eagle said:
“To educate its 406,000 members, the three Catholic dioceses and one archdiocese in Kansas have gone a step further to help Catholic voters across the state.
In August, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, Bishop Ronald Gilmore of the Dodge City Diocese, Bishop Paul Coakley of the Salina Diocese, and Bishop Michael Jackels of the Wichita Diocese issued a set of guidelines titled "Moral Principles for Catholic Voters." It's available online at the Wichita Diocese's Web site, www.cdowk.org.
It was sent by the Kansas Catholic Conference to all priests, who were asked to provide copies to their parishioners.
"We are not telling people what candidates to vote for," said Mike Farmer, executive director of the conference.
But "the church, I think, not only has a right, but an obligation" to provide voters assistance on what it believes, he said.
The guidelines address a variety of issues and connect specific Catholic moral teaching with the act of voting.
Under the heading, "Judgments concerning moral evils," the guidelines state: "A correct conscience recognizes that there are some choices that always involve doing evil and which can never be done even as a means to a good end.
"These choices include elective abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, the destruction of embryonic human beings in stem cell research, human cloning, and same-sex 'marriage.' "
In closing, the guidelines remind Catholics that "Voting is a moral act."
"As Bishops, we are not telling Catholics which candidate they should vote for. Rather, we simply want to teach how we should form our consciences and consider the issues in light of these fundamental moral principles."
Once again, the church is telling its voters how to vote. By making certain issues a “moral certainty” they are, in effect, choosing who their followers can and can’t vote for. Once again, a handful of issues override whether the candidate has credentials for the job or whether the person is honest and will work for the people rather than just take large contributions from corporations. These offices easily corrupted even the most dedicated person, because the perks and the huge contributions of money are way of the scale. Few people can turn down so much luxury no matter what they believe.
These examples show that our politics and some religions are intertwined. They can’t be separated. We can’t just look at politics, we have to look at religions that are set on creating a theocracy, which they will control.
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