another reason for me not to like Bush

Strategy: Bush Allies Till Fertile Soil, Among Baptists, for Votes

Ack! It doesn't surprise me, but I am still a little stunned:

President Bush's re-election campaign took its effort to enlist churches in turning out conservative voters to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention this week, urging pastors to do everything short of risking their churches' tax-exempt status to support the president's re-election.

Mr. Bush's courtship of Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination, began Tuesday when he addressed them in a live telecast from the White House and thanked them for their prayers. The campaign's appeals picked up in earnest the next day, when Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, who is now an official of the Bush campaign, arrived to ask pastors more explicitly for their help in winning votes.

Mr. Reed delivered his remarks at a Bush-Cheney "pastors reception," paid for by the Bush campaign. The hosts were the departing president of the Southern Baptists and three other prominent leaders, and the reception was in a conference room of a hotel adjacent to the convention. As the pastors came in, a campaign aide collected about 100 signatures and addresses from ministers pledging to endorse Mr. Bush's re-election publicly, to "host a citizenship Sunday for voter registration," to "identify someone who will help in voter registration and outreach" and to organize a " 'party for the president' with other pastors" on specific dates closer to the election.

As the pastors mingled around fountains of soft drinks and trays of cubed cheese, Mr. Reed urged, "Without advocating on behalf of any candidate or political party, you can make sure that everyone in your circle of influence is registered to vote."

Mr. Bush's political advisers often repeat their belief, Mr. Reed reminded the pastors, that about four million conservative Christian voters did not vote in the last presidential election. The campaign is determined not to let that happen again.

And the leaders of the 16 million Southern Baptists have already organized what they say is the first major voter registration drive in their history, beginning at the annual meeting.

But as the Bush campaign escalates its appeals to conservative Christian churches, experts in election law say, it is inviting pastors toward potentially treacherous terrain where letting personal endorsements spill over into the business of their churches can jeopardize their tax-exempt status.

"It is pushing the line," said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and the former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission. "It goes to the question of, 'How often can you switch hats?' "

The dividing line in the tax laws gets even blurrier, Mr. Noble said, when the same pastors are also engaging in their clerical capacity in churchwide voter-registration drives that are officially nonpartisan. And the line can become blurrier still, he added, if the church officials are specifically directing their messages to partisan voters - if, for example, Southern Baptist leaders believe that most of their members are likely to vote Republican.

If you aren't registed with the NYTimes, go to bug me not to get a code to log in. It is worth it to read this article.