"GOP Mailing Warns Liberals Will Ban Bibles"

This post has been updated

George W. Bush and his allies have hit a new low. The Republican National Committee has sent out mailers to voters in West Virginia warning that liberals will take away their Bibles if democrats win the election. The AP reports:

The literature shows a Bible with the word "BANNED" across it and a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word "ALLOWED." The mailing tells West Virginians to "vote Republican to protect our families" and defeat the "liberal agenda."

Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said Friday that he wasn't aware of the mailing, but said it could be the work of the RNC. "It wouldn't surprise me if we were mailing voters on the issue of same-sex marriage," Gillespie said.

The flier says Republicans have passed laws protecting life, support defining marriage as between a man and a woman and will nominate conservative judges who will "interpret the law and not legislate from the bench."

Below are a few of my Bibles. These are just the ones I keep on my desk. I also have one downloaded on my palm pilot and have access to nearly every translation through the internet. Every place I go there is a Bible with me.

No liberal is going to take your Bible away. The worst thing we will do is insist enough funding is put in place in our schools so that everyone is literate enough to read the Bible when they get home. Bush won’t make that promise. He just wants to scare you.

Update: John Edwards issued a statement on Saturday concerning this issue:

Republicans always say they want to have a values debate but lying and spreading hate were not the values I learned growing up in a small town in North Carolina where the Bible was the most important book my home. George Bush and Dick Cheney should be appalled by these despicable mailings. They should condemn this practice immediately and tell everyone associated with their campaign to never use tactics like this again. The American people deserve better.

Update: Read United Methodist Bishop William Boyd Grove's response to the RNC ad.