c. 2004 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Bush-Cheney campaign is under fire from two religious watchdog groups for asking supporters to help identify “friendly congregations” in Pennsylvania that might be good locations for distribution of campaign information.

“The Bush-Cheney ’04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1,600 `Friendly Congregations’ in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis,” reads an e-mail from Luke Bernstein, a staffer in the re-election campaign’s Pennsylvania organization.

“In each of these friendly congregations, we would like to identify a volunteer coordinator who can help distribute general information to other supporters.”

The Interfaith Alliance and Americans United for Separation of Church and State say such a move crosses the line of using religion for partisan purposes.

“Whether or not this is legal, this is an astonishing abuse of religion,” said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, in a Wednesday (June 2) statement.

“It is the rawest form of manipulation of religion for partisan gain.”

Gaddy’s office distributed a copy of the e-mail one of its members received from the Bush-Cheney campaign.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said churches that participate as requested could endanger their tax-exempt status.

“This is the most shocking example of politicizing churches I’ve ever seen,” Lynn said in a statement. “The last thing this country needs is a church-based political machine.”

The e-mail sought coordinators in places of worship who could help distribute updates and information about voter registration “in a place accessible to the congregation.”

Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for Bush-Cheney ’04, said the effort was designed to connect individuals, not congregations, to the campaign.

“The message … that was sent out is intended to encourage individual-to-individual contact,” she told Religion News Service. “We strongly believe that people of faith strongly support this president because of his policies and we want to empower them to be part of our campaign.”

She said the reference to “friendly congregations” did not intend to suggest that there should be gatherings within houses of worship specifically to help the campaign.

“We fully respect the letter of the law and we in no way want to imply that people should congregate at their places of worship” for political purposes, she said.

Castillo said the campaign is launching similar efforts in other states.

She said the message was sent to people who had already signed up on a campaign Web site to be part of a “social conservative coalition.”

The sign-up area for volunteers on the Bush-Cheney site mentions “religious conservatives” among 31 options for coalitions they can join. Other categories include Catholics, Jewish, “pro-life,” home-schoolers and various professional, racial and ethnic groups.

In a conference call Thursday with reporters, Gaddy said placing people with religious interests in the same league as farmers and other special interest groups shows an insensitivity on the part of the Bush campaign.

“This administration shows less sensitivity to actions that compromise the sanctity of houses of worship and the integrity of religion than any previous administration,” he said, despite its frequent discussions of religion and houses of worship.

Sandra Strauss, director of public advocacy for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, said congregations could distribute nonpartisan bulletin inserts about the right to vote, for example, that would not violate legal and ethical boundaries.

Mara Vanderslice, director of religious outreach for Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign, said in a statement that the approach of campaigners for Bush is disrespectful to churches and risks their tax-exempt status.

“Religious voters should be encouraged to raise their voices in this election, and we expect millions of devoutly religious people to vote for John Kerry,” she said.

“Although the Kerry campaign actively welcomes the participation of religious voices in our campaign, we will never court religious voters in a way that would jeopardize the sanctity of their very houses of worship.”

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