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Politics and religion make strange bedfellows, this is a given, but what's even stranger yet, is when a pastor of a large and growing church would
risk the church's tax-exempt status to lend support for a politician.
Vice President Al Gore spent some time in the Big Apple a few weeks ago.
Just before Valentine's Day, in fact. He arrived about a week before he
debated Bill Bradley at Harlem's Apollo Theater.
While in town campaigning, Gore made the traditional stops in local
churches, including a stop at the Allen A.M.E. Church in Queens. I'm sure
Allen A.M.E. is the kind of church Gore attends at home in Tennessee. It
probably has about the same racial mixture; folks attending Allen probably
have the same education level as those at Gore's hometown church; and, of
course, I'm absolutely certain folks attending Allen are in the same, or
almost the same income bracket that Gore is in. It only makes sense the Veep
would choose to attend church at Allen - - look at all the similarities.
Okay, enough of my sarcasm. I know this is politics, just as well as the
membership at Allen A.M.E. knew Gore didn't attend services with them
because it was the same kind of church he attended back home. He was there
to try to turn people, er, the potential voters, mind you, into his
supporters and followers. Gore would have been grinning from ear-to-ear had
they begun chanting, "President Gore! President Gore!"
Don't get me wrong in my criticism. In no way am I religion bashing. In
no way am I bashing Allen A.M.E. I am bashing a political contender for the
nation's highest office who saw fit to use church attendance as a political
stomping ground.
I attend church, and have done so for several years. When I travel and
look for a church to attend, I try to find one that's similar in nature to
my hometown church. It's called being comfortable. You don't attend church
to feel uncomfortable or out-of-place. You attend church to feel inline with
each other. However, a major theological discussion is an entirely different
vein.
During the service at Allen
A.M.E., whether he was prepared for it,
perhaps even briefed, Gore received an endorsement - - a surprise one, his
press people said, from the Rev. Floyd B. Flake.
When Flake gave his endorsement, from the pulpit no less, he tossed his
church's treasured and coveted tax-exempt status to the wind. Why? Because
the feds, as well as some state agencies (it all varies from
state-to-state), bar tax-exempt organizations, such as church's from lending
support to candidates for political office.
Sure, many tax-exempt groups do research into candidates for office and
release information. Those groups tend to toe the proverbial gray line where
the black-and-white rules fade out. Those groups send out questionnaires to
political candidates and then publish results around election time.
Sometimes the way the gathered information is published reflects a bias in
candidate choice by the group.
Allen
A.M.E. is New York's fastest growing church, so it will be interesting for all to sit back and watch how this all pans out. If Gore is
not elected president, will the church's tax-exempt status go down the tube?
If he is elected, will the church maintain its tax status? What if the
church is faced with losing its tax status before the election and Clinton
is still in office? That would be an interesting play on how the prez
handles affairs that are somewhat tied to him. It almost has a 'whitewater'
sound about it, doesn't it?
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"Proselytizing
From the Pulpit in NYC"
