Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Texas religious leaders urged to avoid partisan politics
By Andrew Egan
Daily Texan (U. Texas)
06/30/2006

(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas — Citing abuses from politicians and clergy, a religious group announced an initiative Thursday to relieve Texans from partisan politics.

"We must provide a place where we as public theologians can provide perspective, free from the taint of the seduction and the delusions associated with proximity to power," said the Rev. Gerald Britt, a Baptist pastor and executive director of Central Dallas Ministries.

The Respect Our Faith campaign is an attempt by the Texas Faith Network, a group of roughly 600 religious leaders, to encourage clergy in Texas to allow people with varying political viewpoints the opportunity to be heard. This is an effort to keep clergy from engaging their congregation in partisan politics. The campaign also encourages non-clergy to pledge to respect alternate viewpoints and encourage others to participate in the democratic process without demeaning their faith or their views.

The network sees intrusions, such as a Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign request that pastors hold voter registration drives and that churches turn over their directories, as a sign that partisan politics is encroaching too far into religious institutions.

"Partisan politics should stop at that door," said the Rev. Tim Tutt, a pastor at the United Christian Church in Austin.

The Respect Our Faith initiative has already gained support from nearly 100 religious leaders across the state. James Rigby, a minister with St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, said he joined the initiative because he believes that limited viewpoints are harmful.

"It can be problematic to simply say that one candidate is good and that the other candidate is bad," Rigby said. "Faith and politics are not incompatible, but it is important that the church not be used for political campaigning."

Others involved in the initiative said they see the power of the religious leader and the pulpit from which they speak as all too tempting to politicians.

"If [the clergy] are supposed to be God's authority on earth, I think there should be some boundaries," said Neil Blumofe, a hazzan, or trained musician who leads the synagogue in prayer, with the Congregation Agudas Achim.

While some organizations distribute voters' guides to churches informing people of how candidates answered a questionnaire relating to relevant issues, none of the literature specifically endorses any candidate, said Joe Pojman, executive director for the Texas Alliance for Life. Specifically endorsing any candidate violates Internal Revenue Service code and could endanger a church's tax-exempt status. Pojman said the Alliance distributes the guides to churches because of their traditional support for anti-abortion causes.

"I would be surprised if the churches who took our voter guide also took a voter guide from [an abortion rights organization]," Pojman said.

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