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Have you personally seen a clergyman actively try to influence votes?

Do clergymen actively try to influence voting from the pulpit?

  • yes

    Votes: 13 50.0%

  • no

    Votes: 13 50.0%
  • Total voters
    26
lizzie

lizzie

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I have been reading various posts in this forum making statements that church leaders tell their congregations who to vote for. I have not been an active churchgoer for about 27 or so years, so I have no actual current evidence that this is not the case, but for the first half of my life, I was a regular church participant, and I never (ever) saw this to be the case.

If you are a church member, who attends on a somewhat regular basis, is it your experience that pastors and other clergy members actively try to persuade their congregations in how to vote or whom to vote for?
I have trouble believing that this is the case, and I don't believe the majority of religious service attendees are uninformed or ignorant enough to want or need a pastor to tell them who to vote for.

I'm counting on honesty in the thread, and hoping not to have this thread turned into a religious bashing, because I am not opposed to religion in the least. So please, keep this in consideration. I'm truly curious as to if churches are pushing politics these days.

If you have indeed seen politics from the pulpit, I would be interesetd in the denomination (if you don't mind divulging the information).
 
I am not a church goer. So I can't verify if any ministers do, but ministers should influence voters in his congregation. I believe that it is a minister's job to inform his congregation which candidates comes close to the beliefs of their religious organization,especially how we have this thing in this country called free speech.
 
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Both Pat Robertson and Jesse Love Child Jackson have said "vote for me".
 
I've seen it done indirectly. My grandma asks me to go to church with her occasionally, and despite being an agnostic, I usually go because it makes her happy. I've seen the preacher there say things to the effect of "with the election coming up I want to remind everyone to go out and vote and to look deep in their hearts and decide which candidate god would approve of". I don't really see anything wrong with that. What I have far more of a problem with is when religious organizations attempt to influence already elected officials.
 
molten_dragon said:
I've seen the preacher there say things to the effect of "with the election coming up I want to remind everyone to go out and vote and to look deep in their hearts and decide which candidate god would approve of".
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Oh. Okay. That makes sense to me, but it doesn't (to me) equate to actively campaigning for specific candidates.
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It looks from the poll so far, like it's more common than I realize, assuming the posters are understanding what I am asking.

Thanks everyone for posting so far.
 
Not personally, but I know it happens from others. They are in a leadership position in the community so I assume some would try this.
 
lizzie said:
I have been reading various posts in this forum making statements that church leaders tell their congregations who to vote for. I have not been an active churchgoer for about 27 or so years, so I have no actual current evidence that this is not the case, but for the first half of my life, I was a regular church participant, and I never (ever) saw this to be the case.

If you are a church member, who attends on a somewhat regular basis, is it your experience that pastors and other clergy members actively try to persuade their congregations in how to vote or whom to vote for?
I have trouble believing that this is the case, and I don't believe the majority of religious service attendees are uninformed or ignorant enough to want or need a pastor to tell them who to vote for.

I'm counting on honesty in the thread, and hoping not to have this thread turned into a religious bashing, because I am not opposed to religion in the least. So please, keep this in consideration. I'm truly curious as to if churches are pushing politics these days.

If you have indeed seen politics from the pulpit, I would be interesetd in the denomination (if you don't mind divulging the information).
Click to expand...

Yes I have, and my church makes no bones about it.

We can do these things because we're not a 501c3, so nanynanybooboo :2razz:
 
I got an email from my deacon telling me I shouldn't vote for Kerry because he was FOR abortion. I fired one back and told him in no uncertain terms that he shouldn't be telling me whom to vote for and that his acessment was not correct.

I feel if a church wants to engage in politics than their tax exempt status should be revoked. It's the law after all.
 
EnigmaO01 said:
I got an email from my deacon telling me I shouldn't vote for Kerry because he was FOR abortion. I fired one back and told him in no uncertain terms that he shouldn't be telling me whom to vote for ....
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I agree. I don't condone it, I am just wondering how common it is, if it does happen.

That being said, a deacon and a pastor are quite different imo as far as influence goes. A pastor or other clergy member is the head of the church organization, at least symbolically. I think this places much more responsibility on him to remain more objective and unbiased when it comes to dealing with his congregation.
 
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EnigmaO01 said:
I got an email from my deacon telling me I shouldn't vote for Kerry because he was FOR abortion. I fired one back and told him in no uncertain terms that he shouldn't be telling me whom to vote for and that his acessment was not correct.

I feel if a church wants to engage in politics than their tax exempt status should be revoked. It's the law after all.
Click to expand...

:prof Sending you his opinion is not "engaging in politics".

Taking away tax-exempt status isn't a punishment, either.
 
Does anyone want to tell me HOW the current laws on churches losing their tax-exemption status came to be?
 
DarkWizard12 said:
Does anyone want to tell me HOW the current laws on churches losing their tax-exemption status came to be?
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Uh, Congress wrote some legislation, voted on it, the President signed it and 30 days later it became law?
 
My father-in-law is a Pentecostal preacher and when I used to go to his church, he would rail about liberals at least once a month and when it was voting time, he would usually devote a sermon to how conservatives were holy and should be voted for.

The church I am currently going to has endorsed the tea party activities indirectly once. It was the first service right after Christmas.
 
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My dad is a pastor, he doesn't tell people who to vote for. The government has scared churches out of politics saying if they indorse a candidate in any way then they may be subject to losing their tax status. However that didn't stop majority African American churches from endorsing Obama. Obama African American Religious Leadership Committee - Dec. 4, 2007 Obama calls on black churches to register voters | freep.com | Detroit Free Press. I believe Obama campaigned in a African American church once, but I need to find some proof of that (it's something I heard during the elections, so I don't claim it to be true quite yet).
 
****** The Ultra Orthadox Jewish sects in NYC several times have fully jumped into Politics in partuicular in 1989 lining up solidly against David Dinkins for Mayor. The leadership openly advocated Voting against him.
 
While visiting one year, my SIL went to the local Catholic church for mass. When she arrived home, she said, "You know, I rather like my church separate from my politics." I asked her what was up. She said that the priest had used about 10 minutes to discuss the "right to die" ballot measure that was circulating that year. He wanted the congration to work to defeat it and gave extensive information as to how they could write representatives and get involved.

I thought that was a bit out of bounds.
 
Not in church, but my priest came into our religion class one day to tell us how evil Al Gore is and how God picked President Bush to lead our country out of the sinful ways of President Clinton.
 
After reading some of these responses, I have to say that I'm fairly glad I don't have a religious background and don't attend any sort of church.

I did go to church with my grandmother once (only because she had asked me to) and the priest brought up the "Bodies" display and how that was a sin and that we shouldn't go... I thought that was over the top. I couldn't imagine having a priest/pastor campaign (more or less) for a political figure.
 
jamesrage said:
I am not a church goer. So I can't verify if any ministers do, but ministers should influence voters in his congregation. I believe that it is a minister's job to inform his congregation which candidates comes close to the beliefs of their religious organization,especially how we have this thing in this country called free speech.What we must have is "limited free speech". It should never be unregulated..
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Totally disagree, as much as it is human nature to do this.
Religion/church are free from taxation;IMO, by rights if they spend 50% of their time and effort in politics, then their tax rate should be 50% of that which political concerns pay.
Its been a long long time for me as well...I do know that many ,if not all TV preachers are very political.
Atheists are becoming more and more the norm.
 
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