Outchurched

The Christian Coalition needs your hard-earned money so that it can further its Agenda in Washington so that we don’t have to deal with or think about those evil, wicked, family-wrecking sodomites…

In an era when conservative Christians enjoy access and influence throughout the federal government, the organization that fueled their rise has fallen on hard times.

The once-mighty Christian Coalition, founded 17 years ago by the Rev. Pat Robertson as the political fundraising and lobbying engine of the Christian right, is more than $2 million in debt, beset by creditors’ lawsuits and struggling to hold on to some of its state chapters.

In March, one of its most effective chapters, the Christian Coalition of Iowa, cut ties with the national organization and reincorporated itself as the Iowa Christian Alliance, saying it “found it impossible to continue to carry a name that in any way associated us with this national organization.”

(from MSNBC)

Many years ago, a coworker/friend of mine attended a Mormon coworker’s wedding. He said it was one of the most boring weddings he’d been to (no drinking or dancing = a very boring reception), but was impressed that the Bishop who led the service spent time admonishing the young couple to stay out of debt.

Maybe the Christian Coalition should listen to their “Satanically powered” Mormon friends.

Hat tip to Daily Kos: Pat Robertson Needs Your Help!!!

It’s very true that Pat Robertson and the “Christian Coalition” need your help. If you’re the prayin’ type, perhaps adding an item like “Please God, please remove Pat Robertson’s head from his colon” would be exactly the type of help they need.

The Christian Coalition is still routinely included in meetings with White House officials and conservative leaders, and is still a household name. But financial problems and a long battle over its tax status have sapped its strength, allowing it to be eclipsed by other Christian groups, such as the Family Research Council and the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Although some of those groups have begun moving into the coalition’s specialty — grass-roots voter education and get-out-the-vote drives — none is poised to distribute 70 million voter guides through churches, as the Christian Coalition did in 2000.

(from MSNBC)

It’d be interesting if/when “Christians” manage to “legislate all sin away” if the tide turned and some other lunatic organization (maybe the Moonies?) gained power and changed the laws to favor their religion. I’m sure “Christians” would be hopping mad… and would cry that their “freedom (the freedom to have no choice other than the One True Way of Jesus ™)” had been violated. Nevermind that they’ve been constantly working to undermine true Freedom (the ability to live your life in accordance with your own values) for decades (ok, centuries… literally).

It baffles me that the Christian Coalition, which is a purely political ogranization whose intent is to change the laws to restrict personal freedom (and therefore remove “unChrist-like” behavior from society), gets any special sort of tax treatment. We all know the Founding Fathers just threw in those bits about personal freedom, freedom of religion, and the seperation of church and state just for a good laugh. It was their intention all along to foster whatever was necessary to bring about their own personal eschatological view (which of course is the premillenial position). C’mon American Christians! You’re God’s Chosen People ™, so you should be doing whatever possible to bring about Armageddon! It’s your job as a Christian to destroy the earth and all the infidels unbelievers it contains!

In a way, it kinda begs the point though, because even with the tax breaks they get from being a religious political organization they can’t manage their finances and stay afloat. Perhaps they don’t care about their debt/finances as Jesus is coming back “oh, any moment now” and they won’t have to be held accountable to their creditors. We all know creditors are the codpiece of Satan, so it’s obviously ok to accrue debt and have no intention of paying it off, because you’re stealing borrowing from Satan to combat Satan.

[Roberta] Combs [the current head of the Christian Coalition] also drew charges of nepotism by hiring her daughter and former son-in-law, Tracy E. Ammons, a schoolteacher who became a $6,000-a-month Senate lobbyist. When the couple divorced two years ago, he claimed the Christian Coalition owed him $130,000 in unpaid salary.

“On the financial end, I was privy to everything from counting money to going and talking to the landlord when we couldn’t pay the rent,” Ammons said in a recent interview. “Lots of times we wouldn’t pay until someone sued. I did it to others. Then [the Christian Coalition] did it to me.”

What a profoundly wonderful demonstration of The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31) Essentially: “fuck other people before they fuck you.” Nice!

I think Christians are going to be shocked if Jesus does return… and they should be very, very afraid of the Son of Man.

This entry was posted by Rev. Dan on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 11:53 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.