Democrat Causes Church-State Concerns

As the race for Tennessee's US Senate seat (vacated by Bill Frist) enters the homestretch, Harold Ford Jr., the African-American Democratic candidate, released a new campaign commercial which was filmed in a BAPTIST CHURCH. Here's the snippet from The Jewish Daily Forward...

In an attempt to woo religious voters, Tennessee's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate has filmed a campaign commercial in his childhood church, with a large white cross looming over his right shoulder. "I started in the church the old-fashioned way... I was forced to," said Rep. Harold Ford Jr., sitting in a glossy wooden pew. "Here, I learned the difference between right and wrong."

As a student who is currently studying the relationship between Church & State, I am concerned by Ford's use of religious iconography to woo voters. Many Church-State experts have expressed their concerns as well...

“To politicize… conservative Christianity… and just say ‘Here’s the Democratic version, I don’t think either one serves the interest of religion and certainly not the interest of the body politic,” said Marc Stern, general counsel of the American Jewish Congress. “It’s not a healthy development.”

Because tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations are forbidden from participating in partisan activity, Stern said that the church likely ran afoul of the Internal Revenue Service code, unless it made its facilities available to all the candidates on equal terms.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the liberal Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, did not challenge the legality of the advertisement, assuming that the church was willing to provide equal time to other candidates. But he did describe it as cause for concern.

“This is, unfortunately, indicative of the infusion of religious rhetoric and imagery in the elections there these days,” said Saperstein, who recently attended Constitution Day celebrations in Tennessee. He added: “The manipulation of a church and religious symbols to add religious legitimacy to an attack on an opponent undercuts respect for religion in America and suggests a religious test for office that is divisive. The last thing we need is candidates using their churches to implicitly support their political accusations. In contrast, the first half of his remarks talking about his going to church as a child, where he learns about right and wrong, was about him, not his opponent, and helps explain who he is. That part of the commercial did feel appropriate.”

What say you? Are you concerned by this type of manipulation?

For more info on Harold Ford Jr, check out Dr. Robert Parham's latest piece at EthicsDaily.com entitled "Will Southern Baptists vote for an African-American?"