Project Fair Play | Stop Illegal Church Electioneering

It’s amazing how much I didn’t know about the separation of church and state.

I’ve always been a big proponent of the concept (hmm, something to do with being bullied as a redheaded stranger-child in a near-theocracy). But I didn’t know where the limitations lay, and I came up short in a discussion of politics at, of all places, Holy Moly.

I had been incensed over the last week or so about how the LDS Church was throwing a lot of money at Proposition 8 (the gay marriage ban) in California, and today I was dismayed to find that the Obama campaign is sending out a Prop 8 supporter on some kind of “faith-based” election tour touting Obama to religious moderates, liberals, and even mainstream conservatives.  But yesterday, I sat in on the “Adult Forum” discussion group, which was into its second or third week of discussing current events. Sunday, the topic was more or less “What is, and is not, the Line Thou Shalt Not Cross between the church and the state?”

I was surprised to find out that the LDS Church has every right to speak out on issues it perceives a moral imperative to address. They have every right (this makes my teeth ache) to give money to political causes and ballot initiatives that are in line with their values, and to inform their members of the issues that they believe must be addressed from their particular (or proudly peculiar) point of view. Steve G., our resident Jewish Guy who runs the adult forum discussions, set us all straight on that score.  Churches may not endorse candidates, or give them money, and the helpful site I found below notes that they can’t invite just one candidate to talk to the faithful, they must invite all candidates fairly (and offer space at the church for rallies even-handedly, too).

Wow, I did not know that.

Project Fair Play | Stop Illegal Church Electioneering

Quick Facts

Houses of worship may:

• Discuss public policy issues.
• Sponsor non-partisan voter registration and encourage voting as good civic behavior.
• Sponsor candidate forums as long as all leading candidates are invited and a broad range of issues is discussed.
• Urge congregants to communicate with candidates and make their concerns known to them.

Houses of worship may not

• Issue statements endorsing or opposing candidates.
• Donate money to a candidate.
• Offer church space to one candidate and refuse it to another.
• Sponsor rallies for candidates in church.

Okay then. As surprised as we were to find this out, several of us in the discussion were still very uncomfortable with the idea of a hierarchical church or clergyperson telling parishoners to give money to support a ballot measure in another state. Although it’s not illegal, it seemed unethical or an abuse of power. Steve G. was gleeful; he’d found a topic that made everyone uncomfortable and urged us to argue our point of view. It was a really stimulating conversation.

Next week, we’ll take up the issues flying around the Veep choices. I think the only issues that concern us are all with the Republican choice… I don’t think anyone really has strong feelings about Biden, but everyone has strong feelings about Palin. So we’ll explore that, and I’ll send Steve G. a link to this Project Fair Play site.