Religious Right Gears Up to Elect Repubs, Skirts Voting Laws

With the stink of a sex scandal scandal emanating from the Republican head, the Religious Right is touting the Republicans as the party of social virtue. While the following article may reflect views of the Religious Right's leadership before the Foley scandal, I think they will continue to stick behind the Republicans. No doubt, they will buy into one of the moral rationalization described in my previous posting. ...

According to the LATimes (h/t Evangelical Right):

With a pivotal election five weeks away, leaders on the religious right have launched an all-out drive to get Christians from pew to voting booth. Their target: the nearly 30 million Americans who attend church at least once a week but did not vote in 2004.

Their efforts at times push legal limits on church involvement in partisan campaigns. That is by design. With control of Congress at stake Nov. 7, those guiding the movement say they owe it to God and to their own moral principles to do everything they can to keep social conservatives in power.

Preachers "ought to put their toe right on the line," said Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit law firm that supports conservative Christian causes.

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical in Texas, has recruited 5,000 "patriot pastors" nationwide to promote an agenda that aligns neatly with Republican platforms. "We urge them to avoid legal entanglement, but there are times in a pastor's life when he needs to take a biblical stand," Scarborough said. "Our higher calling is to Christ." [my emphasis]

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