Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists

[dave () farber net]

___

Dave Farber  +1 412 726 9889



...... Forwarded Message .......
From: Kurt Albershardt <kurt () nv net>
To: dave () farber net
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 10:01:16 -0700
Subj: Bush Campaign Wants Church Lists

I thought for sure this one was a hoax, but it appears not...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/02/bush.churches.reut/>


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush, seeking to mobilize religious 
conservatives for his reelection campaign, has asked church-going 
volunteers to turn over church membership directories, campaign officials 
said on Thursday.

In a move sharply criticized both by religious leaders and civil 
libertarians, the Bush-Cheney campaign has issued a guide listing about 
two-dozen "duties" and a series of deadlines for organizing support among 
conservative church congregations.
But the Rev. Richard Land, who deals with ethics and religious liberty 
issues for the Southern Baptist Convention, a key Bush constituency, said 
he was "appalled."

"First of all, I would not want my church directories being used that way," 
he told Reuters in an interview, predicting failure for the Bush plan.

The conservative Protestant denomination, whose 16 million members strongly 
backed Bush in 2000, held regular drives that encouraged church-goers to 
"vote their values," said Land.

"But it's one thing for us to do that. It's a totally different thing for a 
partisan campaign to come in and try to organize a church. A lot of pastors 
are going to say: 'Wait a minute, bub'," he added.

The guide surfaced as a spate of opinion polls showed Bush's reelection 
campaign facing a tough battle.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showed Bush running neck-and-neck with 
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry among registered voters, 47 
percent of whom said they now believed the president had misled Americans 
about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The Bush campaign has also been spending heavily on television ads, only to 
see the president's approval ratings slump to new lows.

Stanzel said the campaign ended the month of June with $64 million on hand.

He had no figures on how much Bush has raised in June.

At the end of May, Bush had raised $213.4 million and spent all but $63 
million.

The latest effort to marshal religious support also drew fire from civil 
liberties activists concerned about the constitutional separation of church 
and state.

"Any coordination between the Bush campaign and church leaders would 
clearly be illegal," said a statement from the activist group Americans 
United for Separation of Church and State.

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