DES MOINES — Religion and politics are a common and potent mix in America and while preachers for tax reasons avoid endorsing specific parties and candidates, they can gently steer their flock in a particular direction.
At Cornerstone Family Church, a large evangelical church here, pastor Dan Berry reminded several hundred worshipers on Sunday morning that “next Thursday night is caucus night.”
He encouraged his flock to go to caucus regardless of their party affiliation and asked them to push their parties to adopt as part of their platform a state amendment preventing same-sex marriage.
This is a hot button social issue usually embraced by Republicans who in turn rely heavily on evangelical Protestants as a base of support. And in Iowa at the moment, the rising star in evangelical eyes is former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
“When you go to caucus I am going to ask you to take a plank for your party platform … this is a marriage amedment plank,” Berry said.
The proposed amendment on the issue, which was distributed in the church, read: “Iowa Marriage Amendment: Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in the State of Iowa…”
– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young
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4 comments so far
Just what we need– a fundamentalist Southern Baptist, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, as President. What are we thinking? Our founding fathers must be upchucking in their graves. The last thing they wanted was a fundamentalist religious leader in the White House.
- Posted by Walton WhittakerWe have a very simple solution to all of this church and state talk.
That solution is to keep them separate.
Your God is YOUR business, and nobody else’s.
- Posted by Isaac MooreI believe in an America where the separation of Church and State is absolute–where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be a Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote–where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference–and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. President
- Posted by Isaac MooreIs uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782; from George Seldes)
- Posted by Isaac Moore