Big Daddy Weave

Back in October, Americans United for Separation of Church and State requested the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether First Baptist Church of Dallas broke the law when it posted media clips of Pastor Robert Jeffress endorsing Texas governor and (now) failed presidential candidate Rick Perry.

Now, another Southern Baptist pastor from Texas has endorsed a presidential candidate via the church’s website.

Rev. Voddie Baucham of Houston-area Grace Family Baptist Church recently posted a lengthy, detailed endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on the church’s website.  [Side Note: Baucham's rationale for supporting Paul is indeed interesting; check it out]

Baucham is one of the most well-known African-Americans in the Southern Baptist Convention and perhaps the most prominent African-American Baptist Calvinist.

Ron Paul 2012 websites have also touted the endorsement of Baucham.  Talking Points Memo covered Baucham’s endorsement as well.  See “Ron Paul Touts Endorsement From Pastor Who Railed Against ‘Sodomites’”  [Anyone who has followed Baucham knows he has a penchant for 'railing' against a host of things]

TPM does not address the church-state issue at play here.  Additionally, there’s no mention of the most fascinating angle to Baucham’s endorsement: that a prominent African-American pastor has endorsed Paul despite the fact that Paul continues to be hounded by charges of racism.

Returning to the issue of Baucham using church resources to endorse candidate Paul:

In the case of Robert Jeffress, a clip of his televised introduction of Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit was posted on the FBC Dallas website.  A second clip of Jeffress endorsing Perry during an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball was also posted on the church’s website.

Baucham, however, has offered a more direct endorsement of a candidate.  In our digital age, is there any real difference between a pastor making a direct endorsement of a candidate via the church’s website or via the church’s pulpit?

This seems to be a rather blatant violation of the law.  I suspect the IRS will again turn a blind eye to this matter though.

David Neff, the editor of the flagship evangelical magazine, has written a powerful essay concerning the recent gathering of Christian Right leaders at Paul Pressler’s ranch in Brenham, Texas.  I previously penned a post on that event (see here).

Neff begins:

The 150 evangelical leaders who met behind closed doors on January 14 to anoint a Republican candidate for President were wise not to have invited me.

I believe that Christians have an urgent duty to engage the social, economic, and moral threats to a healthy society. That requires a wide variety of political action. However, one thing it doesn’t call for is playing kingmaker and powerbroker.

By conspiring to throw their weight behind a single evangelical-friendly candidate, they fed the widespread perception that evangelicalism’s main identifying feature is right-wing political activism focused on abortion and homosexuality.

Neff notes that it is extremely difficult to imagine progressive Christians holding a similar, secretive meeting to decide which candidate to back in a Democratic primary.

And now the money quote:

When evangelicals are confined to a partisan kennel, it is easy to think we are exercising real power. In fact we are, to use the old Soviet phrase, serving as “useful idiots.”

Neff cites the example of Billy Graham.  President Richard Nixon famously snookered Graham as the Watergate tapes later revealed.  Graham “got got.”

Too bad more evangelicals don’t have the good common sense of David Neff.

When evangelical leaders make television appearances and talk exactly like a GOP strategist, I’d say Houston, we have a problem.

Over the weekend, some 150 evangelical activists met to discuss GOP primary politics at the ranch of Paul Pressler in Benham, Texas.  Pressler, a retired Texas Court of Appeals judge, is best known for his role as the architect of the 1980s takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention that put fundamentalists in power and ousted moderates from the denomination.

It’s not surprising to see Pressler inject himself into GOP politics.  Clearly, he enjoys the behind-the-scenes role of strategist and Kingmaker.

But trouble is brewing in the aftermath of the get-together at Pressler’s Benham Ranch.  The conservative Washington Times reports:

A civil war is breaking out among evangelical leaders over allegations of a rigged election and ballot stuffing at a Saturday gathering of religious and social conservatives.

At the meeting about 150 religious conservative activists at the Benham, Texas, ranch of Nancy and Paul Pressler, Rick Santorum supporters claimed the former Pennsylvania senator was chosen on the third ballot as the consensus candidate to try to stop Mitt Romney’s march to the Republican presidential nomination.

The meeting was called to avoid a continued division within social conservatives’ ranks.

What’s up?  Well, according to the Washington Times, some pro-Newt Gingrich evangelicals are now “accusing Catholic participants of conniving to rig the vote”!!!

Here’s more:

They said they were conned into leaving after the second ballot on Saturday. They said pro-Santorum participants held a third ballot which Mr. Santorum won with more than 70 percent of the vote — far higher than the nine-vote margin he won on the first ballot.

“My view is that the vote was manipulated,” said a prominent social conservative who asked not to be named.

Now, a prominent evangelical political organizer is saying to others confidentially he has evidence that in a least one instance a participant was seen writing Mr. Santorum’s name on four separate ballots and putting them in the ballot box.

These pro-Newt Evangelicals – interestingly described as both “evangelicals” and “fundamentalists” by the Washington Times – are calling for a RECOUNT!

Of course, this is not the first time that Paul Pressler has been linked to allegations of voter fraud.  John Baugh, Texas Baptist layman and founder of the Sysco Corp., devoted a chapter titled “Voting Fraud” in his book Battle for Baptist Integrity to these allegations of voting irregularities.  Former Southern Baptist leader Grady Cauthen chronicled additional fraud allegations in his book What Happened to the Southern Baptist Convention? (For more background, see here)

No word yet on whether Pressler and other organizers will publicly deal with these allegations.

The Brody File has the complete vote breakdown for the three ballots.