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Pastor Luke Emrich prepared his sermon this week knowing his remarks could invite an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. But that was the whole point, so Emrich forged ahead with his message: Thou shalt vote according to the Scriptures. “I’m telling you straight up, I would choose life,” Emrich told about 100 worshippers yesterday at New Life Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation about 40 miles from Milwaukee. “I would cast a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin,” he said. “But friends, it’s your choice to make, it’s not my choice. I won’t be in the voting booth with...

'We can either settle for the world as it is or ... we can fight ... for the world as it should be,' Michelle Obama said.CINCINNATI - "I come here today as a Christian,'' Michelle Obama said yesterday to a standing ovation at a convention of mostly black Baptists. She appealed not only for their prayers but for their votes for her husband. "This election is going to change the world,'' she said. "This election will determine the course of an entire generation. Just think about that. "I know that no one here wants to look back and think, 'Wouldn't...

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn): "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

(This is from an email forwarded to me that allegedly came from a local pastor. I have followed up with the pastor personally, and he confirmed that the email was indeed originally sent by him, and accurately represents his experience. Even though he did not specifically ask me to do this, I have redacted the most easily identifying information - but I will provide it to folks who FReepmail me with a specific request for it.) Gentlemen, I never write mass emails and am repulsed by hyped up causes that are emailed to me. But I am writing to you...

CHICAGO -- Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules. The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship. "For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the...

Barack Obama continued his campaign tour of battleground Ohio with a stop at a Lima church, where he quietly attended services at a Lutheran church. Obama's presence wasn't acknowledged at the 10 a.m. service on Sunday until the church's pastor, Lars Olson, referred to him as a special guest. Obama is the first Democratic presidential candidate to visit Allen County, a longtime Republican stronghold, in decades. Olson said he was first told of the visit at about 8:30 a.m. Lima police officers received a call at about the same time. After the service, Obama chatted outside with supporters for about...

This article is the first in a series that underscores Barack Obama’s serious deficiencies in character, ethics, and integrity. The links appear at “Barack Obama: Powered by Hate,” (http://www.stentorian.com/Obama/) a compilation of Obama’s questionable campaign financing practices, plus enablement and empowerment of racists, anti-Semites, and Catholic-hating bigots. In all cases, we provide links and references so the reader can verify for himself/herself the truth of the statements. This is very important because of the numerous smears and urban legends that are in circulation. Barack Obama’s unethical, dishonest, and possibly illegal campaign financing schemes include: 1. “Dinner with Barack” lotteries that...

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the minister who presided over the recent marriage of President Bush’s daughter Jenna, has launched a pro-Barack Obama Web site sharply critical of conservative stalwart James Dobson. Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched his “James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me” site a day after Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program aired a statement charging that Obama distorted the Bible to fit “his own confused theology.” The site urges readers to sign a statement declaring that Dobson does not represent them. The statement reads in part: “James Dobson doesn't speak for...

A recent article on OneNewsNow featured comments by Methodist pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Barack Obama supporter. The pastor took issue with James Dobson's contention that Obama distorts the Bible with his theological views. Caldwell, who is affiliated with the website JamesDobsonDoesntSpeakForMe.com, initially told OneNewsNow that the website was operated by Matthew 25, a political action committee working with Obama supporters. However, upon investigation, it was found that the site was actually registered to Alyssa Martin, an intern in the Obama campaign's "religious affairs" department. The domain registration has since been changed to Pastor Caldwell's name. In an earlier interview, Caldwell...

Few Americans would invite an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, but that's exactly what Minnesota pastor Gus Booth wanted when he stood behind his pulpit and told his congregation God wanted them to vote Republican. In an election where candidates openly discuss their faith and are regularly seen in churches, and a time when pastors' sermons lead the politics sections of newspapers, one might be excused for not knowing that it is illegal for a church to endorse or oppose a candidate for president. But when Booth addressed the members of his Warroad Community Church one Sunday in May...

Two weeks after breaking with his long-time church after pastors there made inflammatory and anti-American sermons, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama went to a new church on Sunday to discuss fatherhood. Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, took part in Father's Day services near their house at the Apostolic Church of God -- a large, predominantly black church in the South Side of Chicago. This was Obama's first time attending a church service since he announced last month that he had quit Trinity United Church of Christ, which he had attended for 16 years,...

Barack Obama asks fathers to take responsibility By Alex Spillius in Washington Last Updated: 12:51AM BST 16/06/2008 Senator Barack Obama has called on black American men to accept their responsibilities as fathers and to stop "acting like boys instead of men". Barack Obama speaking at the Apostolic Church of God In a Father's Day speech at a black church in his home city of Chicago, the Democratic presidential nominee listed the disadvantages faced by single parent families in the community, and urged men to realise that their responsibility as a father does not end at conception. "If we are honest...

Obama headed to church this Father’s Day Sunday in his hometown of Chicago — the first time he’s been to church since he severed relations with his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The Obama family attended services at Chicago’s Apostolic Church of God, one of the city’s largest African American congregations and just six and a half miles from Obama’s former place of worship, Trinity Church of Christ. Longtime church leader Bishop Arthur Brazier greeted his “good friend” warmly and touchingly noted, “[Obama] has done something [in] this country that I never thought I would live to see.” He continued,...

ELCA Presiding Bishop, Other Religious Leaders, Meet with Obama 08-087-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was among more than 30 national Christian leaders who met here June 10 with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Hanson was invited by Obama's staff to meet privately with the Senator in a meeting in which Darfur, the Iraq war, gay rights, abortion and faith issues were discussed, the Associated Press reported. Hanson said the meeting's purpose seemed to be an effort by Obama "to begin...

The Rev. Jeffrey Bryan has posted campaign signs for "Obama in '08" and displayed snapshots of the presumed Democratic presidential nominee visiting his Newark, N.J., church. At times he wears a T-shirt emblazoned with Barack Obama's face. That's as far as Bryan will go — there will be no sermons peppered with "Vote Obama!" "It's a historical time for black people. We cannot ignore what's going on," Bryan said. Yet, he added, "you can't tell people who to vote for." The pulpit plays a powerful role in shaping political views in the black community. During the civil rights era, for...

A self-identified African-American caller to a Washington, D.C., radio station characterized the recent anti-Hillary Clinton outburst by the white liberal Chicago priest, Michael Pfleger, as a “minstrel show.” Pfleger, who was preaching “another gospel,” which the authentic gospel warns against, denounced Sen. Clinton for her effrontery and sense of “entitlement” in trying to take the Democratic presidential nomination from a black man, one Barack Obama. Pfleger, who donated $1,500 to the Obama campaign between 1995 and 2001, is indebted to Obama because when Obama was in the Illinois legislature, he, according to the Chicago Tribune, “announced $225,000 in grants to...

Clinton Sits Through Sermon About Adultery May 18, 2008 12:42 PM ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: When things couldn't be looking worse for Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency in 2008, as her rival Barack Obama closes in on gaining enough delegates to secure the nomination, the former first lady attended a church service in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday featuring a sermon about lust and adultery. The hour-long sermon focused on the sin of committing adultery -– as outlined in Mathew 5:27-32. Clinton, D-N.Y., has often said her faith pulled her through the difficult time when her husband, former...

A conservative legal-advocacy group is enlisting ministers to use their pulpits to preach about election candidates this September, defying a tax law that bars churches from engaging in politics. Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity. The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday,...