mp;PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6
[excerpt]

Should bully, church pulpits be same thing?
By: Beth Gallaspy, The Enterprise 02/12/2006

As leaders of their congregations, ministers project a spiritual authority
from the pulpit each Sunday. Should that authority stretch to the realm of
social issues and politics, too?

The perennial question rises again with elections less than a month away
and the recent call by a dozen Port Arthur ministers for a student boycott
to protest the resignation of school superintendent Willis Mackey.

Last month, the Baptist Ministers Union of Beaumont and the vicinity hosted
a candidate forum for those running in March 7 primary and November general
elections. Union president Elmo Chaison, pastor of Peaceful Rest Baptist
Church, said last week that union members still are deciding whether to
endorse candidates based on what they heard at the forum.

Chaison said the union, which he described as a fellowship of Christian
brothers rather than a registered non-profit, sometimes feels pushed to
make endorsements "when we feel there's an issue that may be detrimental or
a candidate that may be detrimental."

With the forum, ministers were able to get important election issues before
the community, which was the primary goal, he said. They may or may not
make endorsements. If they do, it will be as unified individuals, not from
the Sunday pulpit, Chaison said.

Churches and non-profits can put their tax-exempt status at risk if they
engage in political activism. Ministers as individuals are free to endorse
political candidates but doing so during a church service, in a church
newsletter or on church letterhead would be questionable, said Jeremy
Leaming, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State,
a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit with the mission suggested by its name.

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You are invited to check out the following:

The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm

American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]

HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]

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. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote

"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"

That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.

It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.

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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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