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Working does not grant you that freedom, the Constitution does. Those are rights given to us by our Creator, these rights are inalienable. Funny how that works huh?
I attend an AME Zion church and I am so glad that the pastor does not and will not speak of his views. He has mentioned praying for President Obama and Mitt Romney. One thing I did not like was that the church offered a democratic voting sheet saying who to vote. I seen a friend from another church was given a republican sheet. I believe this is overstepping the line too.
Below you can find Evangelist Billy Graham's statement and a link to the article. He did everything, but endorse Mitt Romney.
“It was a privilege to pray with Gov. Romney — for his family and our country,” the statement read. “I will turn 94 the day after the upcoming election, and I believe America is at a crossroads. I hope millions of Americans will join me in praying for our nation and to vote for candidates who will support the biblical definition of marriage, protect the sanctity of life and defend our religious freedoms.”
I attend an AME Zion church and I am so glad that the pastor does not and will not speak of his views. He has mentioned praying for President Obama and Mitt Romney. One thing I did not like was that the church offered a democratic voting sheet saying who to vote. I seen a friend from another church was given a republican sheet. I believe this is overstepping the line too.
Below you can find Evangelist Billy Graham's statement and a link to the article. He did everything, but endorse Mitt Romney.
“It was a privilege to pray with Gov. Romney — for his family and our country,†the statement read. “I will turn 94 the day after the upcoming election, and I believe America is at a crossroads. I hope millions of Americans will join me in praying for our nation and to vote for candidates who will support the biblical definition of marriage, protect the sanctity of life and defend our religious freedoms.â€
I agree with you. Any churches I have ever attended - if mention is made of the President - it is to pray for his wisdom and guidance. I did not vote for Obama, but he is our President, and I pray for him to be protected and guided and I would hope other people of faith would do the same.
I have never seen voting sheets handed out at any church, but that could have been something the members were doing in between themselves. The only problem I see is when the minister himself pronounces a candidate as the one that everyone should vote for - from the pulpit. Members are going to share info and resources, whether inside the church or in their living rooms -- the minister cannot be held responsible for that type of interchange between parishioners.
On another section of C-D, people were upset b/c Billy Graham had "nearly" endorsed a candidate. I agree that it didn't take much for anyone to figure out that one of the 'candidates' Graham approved of would have to be Romney. I honestly do not know if Graham has ever actually been the minister of a church; he would be retired now, regardless. He is a member of a church in SC presently.
FELT - this has nothing, NADA, to do with a candidate's religious affiliation or meeting with religious leaders to "get their blessing" as you put it.
Any minister who endorses a candidate from the pulpit is putting his church's tax exempt status as risk.
I don't care what religion, what state, what demographic.
No one gets a pass.
The media sure tried to make it into a federal case, literally, when the Catholic church simply issued a document discussing ISSUES - not even mentioning a candidate's name!
But now we have different rules - cause everyone is doing it?
EVERYONE IS NOT DOING IT. Any minister doing this should be investigated. And their church should lose its tax exempt status.
Ani and loves, the resurgence of the Republican Party for the past 30 plus years has been thanks to politics in the pulpit. To pretend that this is somehow just a problem with the black church is utterly laughable and reprehensibly hypocritical.
When I lived on N. Tryon, I voted once at the old Tryon Hills Elementary school. I was one of the few White people in line. All the Black people in line were carrying the same newspaper sized paper and I didn't know what it was. So I asked the Black lady next to me what they were looking at. She said it was voting instructions passed out at their church. It was a duplicate of the voting machine ballots in use at the time and showed which levers (votes) were to be pulled. The ones not to be touched were blacked out. In included block voting to minimize the votes of any undesired candidates.
I've never seen such a thing passed out at any white church that I've been too or any polling place that was predominately White. I realize this is anecdotal, but I've seen it first hand in Charlotte.
Ani and loves, the resurgence of the Republican Party for the past 30 plus years has been thanks to politics in the pulpit. To pretend that this is somehow just a problem with the black church is utterly laughable and reprehensibly hypocritical.
I give up.
I have plainly stated that ANY CHURCH (or mosque or temple - whatever) should be investigated in re: to its tax exempt status if the minister was endorsing particular candidates from the pulpit.
So how did this get turned into my being hypocritical?
Laugh if you want. I pay taxes. Churches don't. If they violate their tax exempt status, they should lose it.
You should show up 1 Sunday and find out you may learn something
no thank you...
I've had more than enough church in my lifetime.
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