ANOTHER VIEW:
Church directories & U.S. politics

By Melissa Rogers

Little did we churchgoers know that high-powered political operatives would one day take a keen interest in those dog-eared church directories in our kitchen drawers.

Melissa Rogers

As has been widely reported, the campaign to re-elect President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney has produced materials informing "coalition coordinators" that one of their "duties" is: "Send your Church Directory to your State Bush-Cheney 04 Headquarters or give to a BC04 Field Rep."

The Associated Press recently reported that "the Republican National Committee confirmed it had asked Catholics who back Bush to give parish directories to the RNC as a way to identify and mobilize new voters."

There are some legitimate ways for political campaigns to try to reach religious people. Soliciting directories isn't one of them.

Churches and other organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code are prohibited from participating in any political campaign on behalf of--or in opposition to--any candidate for elective public office.

Among other things, this means a church cannot selectively provide its mailing list to a candidate or political party. To do so would jeopardize a church's tax-exempt status.

A Religion News Service article also noted that "Federal Election Commission guidelines forbid 'membership organizations' from donating anything 'of value' to a political campaign unless they register as a political action committee" and that a church mailing list "could certainly be considered something of value," according to an FEC official.

Nonetheless, the Bush-Cheney campaign and the RNC have doggedly defended these tactics. They say they are not asking churches to turn their church directories over to the campaign--they are asking only individual church members to do so.

Even so, they are asking these individuals either to act unethically or to act in a way that could endanger their church's tax-exempt status.

As a purely ethical matter, organizational members step over a line when they use group lists for purposes other than the organizational purpose without the group's prior approval. This notion has special resonance in the case at hand.

When our brothers and sisters in Christ walked down the aisle, they joined a church, not a political party. As people of faith, we must respect and protect that sacred act.

If, however, a church member tries to avoid an ethical problem by seeking permission from fellow church members to turn the directory over to a particular campaign, it could involve the church itself in ratifying the submission, thus running afoul of the tax code.

RNC spokespersons also have tried to justify their tactics by saying that church directories are "public documents available to anyone, and making the request violates no law." Campaigns and political parties themselves may not violate the law when they engage in these tactics, but they create a legal trap for churches.

The RNC is wrong: Church directories are not "public documents available to anyone." They belong to the church and only the church.

For a campaign to tell people that it is their "duty" to turn over their church directory and then list that "duty" as one of so many bullet points accompanied by specific deadlines is an affront to religion. These tactics dictate to religion rather than create a dialogue with it. They use religion rather than respect it.

Although RNC spokespersons claim the information gleaned from these directories will be used for "nonpartisan voter-registration drives," this strains credulity. It simply highlights the fact that these overtures are confusing and likely to prompt actions that will inadvertently jeopardize churches' tax-exempt status.

Of course, these days it is only the rare religious person who is surprised when political parties ask him or her to do things that are completely inappropriate and even harmful to a religious body.

What would be surprising and disappointing, however, is if church members were to follow these instructions rather than heeding ethical and religious teachings.

After all, the most important reason for refusing to give our church directories to political campaigns is found in the Bible.

Jesus said: "Render ... unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."

The church is not a creature of the state or of any earthly power--it is a creature of God. Before and beyond November 2004, may people of faith reject every entreaty that asks us to give to Caesar that which belongs to God.

Melissa Rogers, former director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, is a visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C. This column originally appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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