Church & State No More

And more evidence that a certain “vociferous” faction, within the ruling party in Washington, is actively working to breach the protective “Church/State” divide; and, thereby, inject the federal government into similar “personal/private” issues (from the Lawrence Journal, Kansas):

Pastors or other church leaders could use their pulpits to endorse political candidates under a controversial bill backed by U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R[epublican]-Kan.

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The bill would allow pastors and ministers to endorse candidates, but churches still would be prohibited from spending money on a candidate’s campaign if they want to retain their tax-exempt status.

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Brownback’s efforts are opposed by the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“What Brownback is trying to do is politicize the American pulpit. He wants to make it legal for church leaders to hand down lists of endorsements,” said Americans United spokesman Robert Boston.

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Lawrence ministers and pastors are divided on the issue.

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“Anybody who knows history knows our forefathers founded this country to get away from a government-dictated church,” he said. “But that’s not to say the church could not or should not take part in government. We’ve got it backwards. We’ve restrained the church instead of restraining the government.”

The Rev. Peter Luckey, senior pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt., disagreed. It’s wrong to mix worship services with political campaigns, he said.

“One of the great gifts of democracy is the separation of church and state,” he said. “As a pastor, I want to be supportive of that separation.”