Alert: Church/State Separation Violated!!!!

Where are the Democrats marching in the streets in anger???  Where is the ACLU??? 

Apparently, Democrats are OK with overt discussions of faith in politics- as long as its done by Democrats.  Read about the outrage here.

In South Carolina, a state where religion counts for Democrats, it's not unusual for community leaders to have two titles _ Rev. and Rep.

This intersection of church and state looms large as Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards push to turn out the vote for Saturday's primary. The candidates have lavished attention on black churches as well as the conventional get-out-the-vote efforts _ saturating the state with political signs, working the black barbershops and beauty salons. Thousands of phone calls and text messages have gone out. Musicians, actors and other celebrities have made dozens of appearances hoping their star power will ignite voter interest.

Blacks make up an estimated 50 percent of the state's Democratic electorate and black churches have been a major focus of the candidates.

Last Sunday, more than 1,000 of Obama's campaign staffers and volunteers blanketed churches with a letter from the candidate that mentioned his Christian faith and "the grace of an awesome God." Simultaneously, about a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended worship services on behalf of Clinton, talking her up to congregants in receiving lines. And Michelle Obama and Chelsea Clinton sat on opposite sides of one Columbia church, clapping in unison with a choir and signing autographs for long lines of congregants after the service.

Obama's campaign has also staged "faith forums" on the role of religion in politics, run a gospel music tour and says it signed up 200 "faith community contacts" who promote Obama in their spheres of influence.

His letter opened, "What a blessed day in the life of our nation and in the service to the Lord!" The letter talks about education and health care and says that "with the grace of an awesome God," ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Obama didn't explicitly ask people to vote for him, but encouraged voter participation.

Now, it's hard to detect sarcasm sometimes in print.  So let me clarify.  I don't have any problem at all with Sens. Clinton and Obama campaigning in church.  Church people are people too. 

But if it was Romney or Huckabee, we'd have a full week's worth of folks like Barry Lynn and the ACLU declaring that Republicans had done the country a great disservice- and threatening lawsuits.

H/T:  GOP Grunt.

Comments

[Don Sherfick]

Well, true to the usual pattern, too much discomfort with the responses to a prior post, and a desire not to respond to them because they've gotten pushed too far down, has produced another long diatribe that seems to patently political that it calls not only into question the wall of separation of church and state but also the one supposedly between 501(c)(3) organizations and partisan politics. I guess you all learn your lessons well from Eric Miller/Advance America in that regard. Please let Ryan answer.