Even The Southern Baptists Are Mad

The Bush campaign sent out organizing manuals earlier this year to conservative Christians telling them it was their “duty” to turn over church membership lists and to use Sunday services for “get-out-the-vote” efforts on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Reuters reports:

"We expect this election to be potentially as close as 2000, so every vote counts and it's important to reach out to every single supporter of President Bush," campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

But the Rev. Richard Land, who deals with ethics and religious liberty issues for the Southern Baptist Convention, a key Bush constituency, said he was "appalled."

"First of all, I would not want my church directories being used that way," he told Reuters in an interview, predicting failure for the Bush plan.

The conservative Protestant denomination, whose 16 million members strongly backed Bush in 2000, held regular drives that encouraged church-goers to "vote their values," said Land.

"But it's one thing for us to do that. It's a totally different thing for a partisan campaign to come in and try to organize a church. A lot of pastors are going to say: 'Wait a minute, bub'," he added.

When the Southern Baptists tell a Republican they’ve crossed the line you know they are in real trouble.