REMOVE THE TAX FREE STATUS
OF POLITICAL PREACHERS!
Rev. Rick Warren puts Obama, McCain on the same stage
By Duke Helfand
Los Angeles Times
LAKE FOREST, Calif. — When John McCain and Barack Obama appear on the same stage today, they will vividly demonstrate the reach that has made the Rev. Rick Warren among the most significant evangelists of his generation.
He’s a megastar who leads the nation’s fourth-largest church and reaches thousands of ministers through the Internet and crusades against poverty and AIDS. That globe-trotting work and his successful book — “The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?” — puts him at the vanguard of a movement that inspires young, socially conscious Christians.
But his willingness to soft-pedal political issues once central to U.S. evangelicals, such as opposition to abortion, has opened him to criticism that he has strayed from his calling to spread the Gospel.
Today’s forum also is a sign of religion’s importance in the 2008 presidential campaign, and the emergence of a new style of evangelical leadership on the national stage that is not tied to a single party and has broadened its social agenda beyond that of the religious right.
“This is absolutely a changing of the guard, and it suggests that the new guard of the evangelical movement is able to generate the attention and focus of both parties,” said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and author of “Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite.”
CONTINUED http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008117734_pastor16.html
That’s it!
If churchs run a for profit buisness or charity
or use the pulpit to promote a candidate to political office or seek to promote legislation,
then they are no longer strictly houses of worship and need to be taxed like the buisnesses
they indeed are?
If You think I’m playing here then just go down to the thrift store and buy some new duds then go around to a church,any church and ask for money.
See what You get.
Its all bullshit.
Comment by Rainlander — August 16, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
Don’t I know it! If you are not a member of their particular money grubbing cult you get no help.
Comment by kerry — August 17, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
P.S. The exception is when there are TV cameras and crews around.
Comment by kerry — August 17, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
It now appears McNasty was listening to the Obama portion and knew the questions in advance. Apparently CNN’s Rick Sanchez saw McCain in his limo outside the venue when he was supposed to have been caught in traffic, or so his campaign said. Rick Warren has also admitted that he had no way of guaranteeing that McCain wouldn’t cheat and listen.
Here’s a telling exchange:
McCAIN: Could I — are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court Justices or should I mention –
WARREN: We will get to that.
McCAIN: OK. All right. OK.
WARREN: You’re jumping ahead…
“What’s suspicious here is that the topic of the Supreme Court had not come up in McCain’s interview, so it was not a topic to go ‘back’ to. On the other hand, Obama had been asked a question about the Supreme Court during his earlier session, which McCain supposedly had not heard.”
– Jon Ponder, Pensito Review, Aug. 18, 2008.
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/08/18/cheating-at-saddleback-mccain-apparently-knew-court-question-was-coming/
“Mr. Warren, the pastor of Saddleback, had assured the audience while he was interviewing Mr. Obama that “we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence” and that he could not hear the questions… Interviewed Sunday on CNN, Mr. Warren seemed surprised to learn that Mr. McCain was not in the building during the Obama interview.”
– Rachel Sklar, Huffington Post, Aug. 18, 2008.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/18/nyt-backs-up-nbc-mccain-w_n_119476.html
A caller to Thom Hartmann’s show today also said she followed McCain’s limo and saw him parked outside the building during Obama’s part of the interview. She was rousted out by the police.
Once again, any time you trust a Republican to deal honestly, even to inhabiting a ‘cone of silence,’ you end up wearing a cone of stupidity.
Comment by RS Janes — August 18, 2008 @ 7:06 pm