Religious right group faxing ‘voter guides’ to area churches
October 1, 2010
Andy Birkey — Minnesota Independent
Metro area churches have become the target of a “Shock and Awe” voter guide put out by a group called the Pray in Jesus Name Project (PIJNP), a ministry in Colorado Springs, Colo. The group is encouraging it’s members to fax voters guides to churches in all 50 states, and the guides have started showing up in Minnesota.
The guide gives voters an idea of which Minnesota candidates are “faith-friendly” and which candidates are “pro-homosexual” or “pro-abortion.”
While PIJNP says the voter guides are non-partisan, statements on the group’s website tell a different story. “The Pray In Jesus Name Project has found a way to help the faith-based community take back Congress this fall, by mobilizing 125,000 patriot pastors to ‘get out the church vote,’” writes Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, leader of PIJNP.
“The IRS has specifically authorized both churches and 501(c)3 organizations to distribute non-partisan voter guides like ours, so long as they only report facts such as ‘how Congress voted’ without substantial editorial comment.”
[…]
And finally, “If we simply report the non-partisan voting record of Nancy Pelosi’s Congress, who voted to pay for abortions with our tax-dollars in Obamacare ‘health’ bill, how will Christian people vote? How can we stop the Senate from forcing open homosexual aggression on our troops?”
The group wants to fax “125,000 conservative pastors willing to receive” the voter guides.
But PIJNP might be getting too aggressive with their voter guide fax campaign. The group faxed the voter guide to Edina Community Lutheran Church. The church wasn’t happy to receive them.
Last week, they celebrated 25 years of being a Reconciling in Christ church, a designation that means it is open and welcoming to LGBT people. The church was the third in the nation when it got the designation in 1985.
