http://www.newsmax.com

Quoted Text

IRS Probes Pastors Huckabee Endorsement

Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:05 AM

A Southern Baptist preacher who endorsed GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on church letterhead said Wednesday he was being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for mixing religion with politics.

Rev. Wiley Drake, a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, said he received a 14-page letter from the IRS on Feb. 7.

Under federal tax law, church officials can legally discuss politics, but they cannot endorse candidates or parties without risking their tax-exempt status. Most who do so receive a warning.

On Aug. 11, Drake wrote a press release on letterhead from the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park that announced his personal endorsement of Huckabee and asked all Southern Baptists to get behind the candidate.

"After very serious prayer and consideration, I announce today that I am going to personally endorse Mike Huckabee," the release said. "I ask all of my Southern Baptist brothers and sister to consider getting behind Mike and helping him all you can."

He continued: "I believe God has chosen Mike for such an hour, and I believe of all those running Mike Huckabee will listen to God."

The letter sent to Drake by the IRS also quoted from segments of the pastor's church-based Internet show, "The Wiley Drake Show." In the quotes, Drake endorsed Huckabee again.

"Yes, I endorsed him personally and yes, we use the First Southern Baptist Church. Yes, we broadcast the 'Wiley Drake Show' from the First Southern Baptist Church. Everything we do is under the auspices of the church," Drake said on the show.

IRS spokesman Rafael Tulino said Wednesday that he could not comment.

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the IRS. Drake later lashed out at them in an Aug. 14 press release and urged his supporters to direct "imprecatory prayer" toward two of the group's officials, Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming.

He gave as examples of imprecatory prayer: "Persecute them. ... Let them be put to shame and perish" and "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

Barry Lynn, executive director for Americans United, issued a statement praising the IRS for investigating Drake.

"Americans go to church to grow spiritually, not be lectured on which political candidate to vote for," he said.

Drake defended the release and what he had said on his talk show, saying that he was only offering his personal endorsement of Huckabee — not the church's.

"I think I'm perfectly within my rights and I am upset," he told The Associated Press.

His attorney, Eric Stanley, said Drake and other pastors have a right to free speech, even in politics.

"Our position on this is that ... churches and pastors have First Amendment rights just like anybody else and that includes the right to speak out," said Stanley, who is representing Drake on behalf of the Alliance Defense Fund.

"They can feel free to personally endorse candidates. It was not a church endorsement and he made that very clear."

Drake recently completed a term as the second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, its third-highest post. He is running for president of the denomination.

In September, the IRS closed a lengthy investigation of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena without revoking its tax-exempt status.

In a sermon just days before the 2004 presidential election, All Saints' former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, was critical of the Iraq war and President Bush's tax cuts, although he did not urge parishioners to support Bush or his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry.

From: "the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History"

"Religion was fundamental to the colonists; and though they worshipped the same God, there was plenty of bickering. Indeed, the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, raised the ire of many colonists. The Puritans, who thought  they had purged their worship of the Church of Englands' ritual and "superstition," were still too formalistic for the Quakers. Decades before William Penn settled Pennsylvania in the 1680s, Quakers living in Rhode Island traveled to Massachusetts to rouse its benighted inhabitants from their dogmatic slumber and awaken them to the aridity of their faith. Quakers disrupted Puritan church services, heckled ministers, and even walked naked up and down the church aisles. The Friends were banned repeatedly from Massachusetts.
This mutual antagonism contributed in a peculiar way to the developement of American liberty: Each denomination and colony was vigilant against interference in its internal affairs by others. The differences among the colonies created the presumption that each should mind its own business, and so should any potential central government.

colonial quarrels give birth to religious freedom
The First Amendment to the Constitution reflected this attitude: the federal government was prohibited from meddling in the religious affairs of the states. The First Amendment's declaration that "Congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," was intended, according to historian David Hackett Fischer, to preserve religious freedom in Virginia and Pennsylvania and to guarantee that the religious establishments that existed in Massachusetts and elsewhere would be safe from outside interference.

When federal coursts strike down religious expression in the states, they are willfully perverting the policy of what the Framers of the First Amendment intended: complete federal nonintervention in religious issues.

from: The politically Incorrect Guide to American History

"When modern day liberals justify extremely broad readings of the Constitution on the frounds that we need a "living, breathing Constitution" that "changes with the times," they are actually recommending the very system the colonists sought to escape. The British constitution was very flexible indeed-too flexible for the colonists, who were inflexibility committed to upholding their traditional rights. The "living, breathing" British constitution was no safeguard of American liberties.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Many wary of mixing church, politics
BY ERIC GORSKI The Associated Press

    Social conservatives are growing more wary of church involvement in politics, joining moderates and liberals in their unease about blurring the lines between pulpit and ballot box, a new study found.
    Fifty percent of conservatives think churches and other places of worship should stay out of social and political matters, up from 30 percent four years ago, according to a survey released Thursday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
    That significant shift in conservative thought has brought the country to a tipping point on the question: a slim majority of Americans — 52 percent — now think churches should keep out of politics.
    That’s an eight percentage point increase over 2004 and the fi rst time a majority of Americans has held that opinion since Pew offi - cials started asking the question 12 years ago.
    On this question, the gap between conservatives and liberals is narrowing: just four years ago, liberals were twice as likely as conservatives to say churches should stay out of politics. Now, 50 percent of conservatives and 57 percent of liberals think that. Four years ago, 62 percent of liberals opposed church involvement in politics. Democrats and Republicans are about even on the question, as well.
    The survey also found largely unchanged attitudes along religious lines on the presidential choices compared with 2004, despite Democrat Barack Obama’s strong play for religious voters and Republican John McCain’s hesitancy to talk about his own faith and problems connecting with his party’s evangelical base.
    McCain leads Obama 68 percent to 24 percent among white evangelical Protestants, comparable to what President Bush was polling four years ago. But the support is tepid: just 28 percent of white evangelicals call themselves “strong” supporters of McCain, well short of Bush’s 57 percent in 2004.
    Changing attitudes about mixing church and politics could emerge as a factor in the fall campaign — particularly for McCain. Both campaigns are plotting get-outthe-vote efforts in faith communities, but past Republican successes came when attitudes were more welcoming.
    The attitude shift cut across conservative constituencies: 46 percent of Republican Protestants want churches out of politics, up from 28 percent in 2004. Thirtysix percent of white evangelical Republicans hold that view, up from 20 percent four years ago.
    The question asked specifically about places of worship, which by law cannot take stands for or against candidates or political parties but may speak out on issues. So the public might hold different views about political stances taken by religious leaders speaking as individuals or religious advocacy groups.
    The findings come after midterm elections in 2006 that saw Democrats seize control of Congress, a landmark court ruling this year legalizing gay marriage in California, and also amid an identity crisis among conservative evangelicals about which issues should take priority and who speaks for the movement.
    Among the groups that shifted strongly away from wanting to see churches involved in politics: Americans who are less educated, those who believe gay marriage is a very important issue and those who think the two major parties are unfriendly to religion.
    “To my mind, that spells frustration,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. “But by the same token, we know these very same people are not interested in less religiosity in the political discourse. They almost universally want a religious person as president.
    “It’s not that they want to take religion out of politics, it’s that their frustrations with the way things seem to be going are leading them to say, ’Well, maybe churches should back off on this.’”
    The survey confirmed that white non-Hispanic Catholics, who make up about 18 percent of the electorate, are shaping up to be a big swing vote this fall: 45 percent support McCain, while 44 percent back Obama. Democrat John Kerry, a Catholic, was doing better at this juncture in 2004, winning 50 percent of those Catholics.
    Asked which candidate “shares my values,” 47 percent of all respondents replied Obama and 39 percent said McCain. White evangelicals favor McCain on that question, the religiously nonaffiliated leaned Obama, while white non-Hispanic Catholics and mainline Protestants were split.
    Democrats have made inroads in closing the so-called God gap, at least by one measure: 38 percent of respondents said the party is “friendly toward religion,” up from 26 percent two years ago. Even so, considerably more people — 52 percent — viewed the Republican Party as religion-friendly.

People are probably hoping that God will intervene in our political process since there is not one politician that can seem to get it right these days. We have nothing or no one left that we feel confident enough with anymore in this political arena! Even some of our spiritual leaders have drifted off the beaten track. No wonder why people are searching and hoping for 'something', 'somewhere', 'someplace....SOMEONE!

Religion is meant to mold the people first....based upon what their 'soil' is on the inside of their hearts and minds......then they get to go out and do what
they need to do....no pulpit necessary.....the masses will always follow a true leader with the truth....not just the pep-talkers(although sheeple are easy
to move with lights and glitter and music  )