“The religious community has to decide whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics.”
Those were the words of Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic Party at a recent CSMonitor breakfast. Imagine the chairman of the party in which every candidate shows up at some Baptist church around election time to sing a few gospel hymns, stand at the pulpit with the minister and ask for the congregation’s support. Imagine that. And how about this:
Dean’s statement is the latest in a series of comments directed toward conservative Christians. Just last year, Dean told the San Francisco Chronicle, “they are not very friendly….they all behave the same, and they all look the same.”
Image Howard Dean looking into the eyes of all those Southern Baptist ministers and uttering those words around election time. “…you all look the same…and not very friendly…”
This is a far cry from the Howard Dean of just a few years ago. For example:
In response to a question from CT, Dean said, “We are definitely going to do religious outreach. Even in my campaign I was interested in reaching out to evangelicals.” Later, Dean tactfully expanded his remarks, noting “our religious outreach will not solely be to evangelical Christians but to Americans of all faiths.”
This is a wonderful example of religious outreach. Tell people of faith that that faith should not inform their world view or their politics. Howard Dean has a problem (actually quite a few) and the problem is this. He wants us to think that religion is a Sunday only thing and that if we cannot keep our religious views limited to the church grounds, well then he and the Democrats will have to take away any tax exempt status that we enjoy. He would like to see people of faith punished for doing just what true faith is supposed to do–inform our thinking about ALL things, political or not. But he wants us also to believe that the Dems are a party of believers.
Let’s see how may Dems cozy up to Uncle Howard on this issue.
