Monday, March 28, 2005

Observer-Reporter-Ronald D. Moore is careful to avoid endorsing a political candidate from the Pulpit

Observer-Reporter: "Ronald D. Moore is careful to avoid endorsing a political candidate from the pulpit at the fast-growing South Hills Bible Chapel.
It's a tight-wire Moore walks because doing so would cost his nonprofit charitable organization its tax-free status. But at the same time, congregations like his that are gaining clout leave no doubt they have a political agenda based on their interpretation of God's will.
'We will encourage people to vote and encourage them to vote for the candidate who's going to represent a biblical view on the right to life, euthanasia, stem cell research, sanctity of marriage,' said Moore, whose church is linked to the evangelical movement that has become a powerhouse in United States politics.
While evangelicals have been around for centuries, their modern counterparts reared their heads in the last presidential election and were credited with swinging the vote in Bush's favor. Political pundits have said conservative Christians put the Republican Party over the top in the November election, in part, because the Democratic Party was perceived as immoral after the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal.
And Bush has delivered the rhetoric evangelicals want to hear in causes that have included federally funded faith-based initiatives and a constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriages. He also interrupted his vacation Monday to sign last-minute legislation in the rush to reinsert a feeding tube in Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who has been in a vegetative state for 15 years. The move appealed to pro-life advocates but was criticized from the left as a ploy by lawmakers to win the evangelical vote.
Evangelicals actually trace their roots to a reform movement during a great divide in the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th centuries, according to Robert VandeKappelle, chairman of the religious stu"

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