Iowa pastors who support Republican Mike Huckabee for president have received letters warning them that getting involved in politics could endanger the tax-exempt status of their churches.
Several pastors who have publicly backed Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who has support from many evangelicals, said they have received the letters, which have no return address. They have arrived in the weeks leading to Thursday’s precinct caucuses.
Two letters were sent to the Rev. Brad Sherman, of Solid Rock Christian Church in Coralville. The first arrived a couple weeks ago and warned that he could be prosecuted for his support of Huckabee.
“I just laughed. No one lands in jail for this,” Sherman said. “Somebody is trying to intimidate Christians from getting involved.”
This sending of anonomous letters has surfaced in other campaigns and in all cases sunk as fast as they came up. Cowards who write these letters don’t have the guts to say these things out loud. I have had people call us and speaks these same things and then turn around and dare to ask us how we are voting. You know something; it is none of their business so that’s what I tell them and then hang up quietly with more dignity than they have shown me. Nuff said !!
Many of the traditionally Black denominations use the pulpit as a political rallying point – it has been a part of their tradition since church was one of the only places where minorities had ‘group power.’ I wonder (tongue-in-cheek) if the pastors of the National Baptist Convention and the African Methodist Episcopal Church will also get one of these letters.
http://blackandchristian.com/main.shtml
KJS hasn’t been shy about giving political advice to politicians. Maybe she should get one of these letters, too?