As election nears, sermons turn to politics

From pulpits around the country Sunday, preachers spoke of voting as a moral as well as civic duty in a final push to rally worshippers ahead of Election Day.

Churches from across the ideological spectrum hosted candidates, distributed fliers on voting rights and told congregants to let faith guide their choice of candidate.

In Florida, the Rev. Frank Pavone, a leading Roman Catholic abortion opponent, told a packed St. James Cathedral in Orlando, to “carry out your Christian responsibility in this election.”

At New Beginnings Baptist Tabernacle, a predominantly black church in Minneapolis, the Rev. Ian Bethel, said “this nation is on the verge of one of the greatest … elections in our history.”

Pastor Rod Parsley, of the evangelical World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio, told 2,500 worshippers, “We are just not ready to have our values trampled underfoot by the God-deniers.”

The candidates and their representatives were also in church. Democrat John Kerry made his fifth consecutive Sunday appearance at a predominantly black congregation, this time in Ohio, while President Bush attended Mass at a Catholic church in Miami.

The tight presidential race has inspired unprecedented political activity among religious groups, many of whom organized their first-ever voter registration and turnout drives.

Leaders of the progressive Christian “Vote All Your Values” campaign said thousands of volunteers are staffing phone banks nationwide, with a goal of reaching 1 million newly registered voters before Tuesday. The conservative “I Vote Values,” drive, which was started by the 16.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, says it is reaching thousands of voters with material on “the importance of connecting biblical values with healthy democracy.”

Pavone, head of the national advocacy group Priests for Life, has been traveling the country urging Catholics to back candidates who oppose abortion. In his homily Sunday in Orlando, he criticized politicians who say, “Oh, yes, I’m against abortion, but I’m not going to impose my views on anyone else.” Kerry, who is Catholic, has used a similar argument, saying he did not want to make federal law from church teaching.

In Michigan, Catholics for the Common Good asked priests in the Detroit area Sunday to tell parishioners to consider a wider range of moral issues than abortion alone.

“What we’re saying to them is that there has been significant limiting of the Catholic Church teaching in documents that have been widely distributed by quote-unquote Catholic groups,” said Charles Rooney, a member of the organization.

At New Beginnings Baptist Tabernacle, the pastor was joined by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who told congregants that the black vote, “has been the conscience of America. Ironically, we have the most to gain or the most to lose in the following 72 hours.”

The Rev. Romal Tune, of the African-American Ministers Leadership Council, said black churches around the country are distributing material on voting rights to congregants because of what happened in 2000, when federal civil-rights monitors said ballots of black voters in Florida were disproportionately tossed out.

“They’re determined not to let that happen again,” Tune said.

In Ohio, Parsley focused not only on the presidential race, but also on Ohio’s proposed amendment banning gay marriage and any legal status for unmarried couples. He told the congregation that the conservative Christian view would prevail on Election Day because “there are more of us than there are of them.”

Parsley has enlisted volunteers to make 100,000 calls to Ohio voters before Tuesday and has organized carpools and buses to the polls from the Bible college affiliated with his church.

Religious groups say they have become active for many of the same reasons as other Americans, after the 2000 presidential race showed the importance of every vote.

Also, the Republican campaigns have been aggressively courting churchgoers, since polls have found that those who regularly attend worship tend to lean Republican. The debate over gay marriage and abortion has further energized religious groups.

Leaders of many faiths have joined in the election year activity.

In Florida, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is organizing “Get Out the Muslim Vote Day,” which is offering bus rides from mosques to the polls.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, of the progressive Jewish magazine Tikkun, on Sunday released a “Meditation or Prayer Before Going to Vote,” calling voting a “holy act” and asking people to choose candidates who will work for peace worldwide.