In February, President Barack Obama launched his “African Americans for Obama” campaign. What was of particular interest to us was the accompanying video that was cut to help promote it.
In the video, President Obama explicitly called on African Americans to go “to your faith community” in order to get the word out about his campaign for re-election. He even went so far as to say that “congregation captains” should be organized to accomplish this goal.
It is hardly newsworthy for President Obama to beckon African Americans to support his presidential campaign, but his clarion call to black churches to get on board represented a break with presidential politics: it was a deliberate challenge to the IRS stricture governing the role of religion in politics. After he saw the video, Bill Donohue said, “This is good news. It means that the IRS harness on the clergy is officially off.”
Priests can now appoint “congregation captains” who will inform the faithful about attempts by the Obama administration to deny Catholics their First Amendment rights. By formally appealing to their parishioners to mobilize against the ObamaCare legislation, priests will be faithfully implementing the president’s new initiative.
Bishops, of course, will be able to seize on this ground-breaking proposal by utilizing priests, nuns, brothers, school teachers—lay leaders of every cause—to get the word out about the draconian Health and Human Services edict.
Donohue ended his statement to the media saying, “By undoing the IRS muzzle on black ministers, President Obama has also made it possible for bishops and priests to organize against his war on Catholics with impunity. The timing is auspicious.”
