Republicans Using Church Records

Why exactly were Republicans trying to obtain various church directories? Now we have some idea: Kris Kobach, running for Congress in Kansas, has been calling Catholic homes and appealing for people's votes on the basis of his being a good Catholic who follows Catholic doctrine. That's an appropriate political message, right? Vote for me because of my religion!

The Lawrence Journal-World reports:

The tactic in the final days of the election campaign drew criticism from the Mainstream Coalition, a nonpartisan group dedicated to preserving the separation of church and state. "If it's not illegal, it certainly goes against the principles of keeping religion out of politics," said coalition executive director Caroline McKnight.

[Todd Abrajano, a spokesman for Kobach's campaign] disagreed. "That's ridiculous," he said. "There's no expressed separation of church and state in the Constitution."

If someone doesn't believe in separating church and state, we shouldn't be surprised that they would use religion for political gain. There isn't much separating "Vote for me because of my religion" and "Don't vote for my opponent because of his religion." Both are based upon the same premise that religious affiliation should be decisive in political action and one is merely the flip-side of the other.

What's interesting is that in using church lists, Kobach's campaign has been contacting some non-Catholics:

The message was left on the answering machine of Vince and Donna Boudreaux. Longtime Democrats, the Boudreauxs, who live in Leawood, said they suspected someone with ties to the nearby Curé of Ars Catholic Church shared their names and telephone number without their permission. ... The Boudreauxs are not Catholic. But in 1998, Donna Boudreaux began tithing to Curé of Ars Catholic Church so their then-preschool-age son would be able to attend the church's kindergarten class.

At the church, the Rev. Charles McGlinn denied any involvement with the automated calls. "I can assure you that in no way would that sort of thing be authorized or allowed," McGlinn said. "It would not be right for this church or for any church to support a particular candidate. We have the right and the obligation to raise issues from a moral perspective, but that does not include identifying candidates."

I wouldn't expect any church's clerical leaders to approve of such actions — but that doesn't mean that lay members won't abuse positions of trust and authority and misuse church records by giving them to political campaigns. Churches are already far more political than most people realize or would be willing to acknowledge, but this represents and entirely new level and type of politicization that violates all standards of decency. At the same time, though, it is completely consistent with the current Republican leadership's ideas about slash-and-burn politics, and outgrowth of Texas-style politics where compromise and civility aren't valued very highly.

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