How Would Jesus Vote?
Land: House 'Safe Harbor' proposal infringes on free speech - (BP)

"[Richard] Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission [of the Southern Baptist Convention], thanked Hastert for his attempt to protect the rights of churches but said the ERLC “must oppose” a provision titled Safe Harbor for Churches."

This is one area where someone in a position of influence in the mainline denominations might actually have it "right". By allowing the government to have any fingers at all in the work of the ministry of the church is a bad precedent. At the same time, in my own subversive thinking, allowing pulpits to tell folks to vote for this candidate or another is equally wrong.

While I don't understand the uproar over handing out voting record reports (the same cards that would paint some candidate in a bad light in one arena would also lift that candidate up in another arena, so it's as fair as we have room for), I have the same problem Dr. Land mentions above. Partisan politics has no place in the church, beyond the teaching of a church and its leaders to train people to make their own decisions intelligently and with integrity. If both parties (or all parties) can be heard, maybe that would be a good thing. While I need to be able to make decisions based solidly in my faith, I need more the tools to make those decisions well. Having someone else legalistically make those decisions for me isn't an answer.

[inspired by Tony Campolo's interview with Al Franken on The O'Franken Factor, Monday 06/14 - don't know if there will be an archive of the audio available or not]
- posted by Rick @ 08:38