One footnote on the Separation of Church and State. There has not been much separation in mid & southwest Red states for decades. In the 70s, I completed grad school in Fort Worth and taught at SW Med School in Dallas living on the buckle of the Bible Belt for a total of 8 years. Later, in the 90s, I spent another 7 years managing a fede…
One footnote on the Separation of Church and State. There has not been much separation in mid & southwest Red states for decades. In the 70s, I completed grad school in Fort Worth and taught at SW Med School in Dallas living on the buckle of the Bible Belt for a total of 8 years. Later, in the 90s, I spent another 7 years managing a federal lab supporting the FAA & DOD in Oklahoma City. There has been no separation of church and state in either state that I could discern. In OKC, a pick-up line I overheard twice in bars was, "Have yew bin sayved?" It appears to be the norm for preachers to recommend for whom to vote, in addition to spreading Alt-Right conspiracy theories from the pulpit.
For example. At a party for my staff one evening in OKC, a guest asked me if I knew about the secret underground prison they were building at the airport where Okies who did not turn over their guns to the Trilateral Commission (a Clinton-era hoax) would wind up. I asked where he heard that. "Why Pastor Brown last Sundee." he replied. I then explained that the OKC airport was a central hub for prisoner transportation, and the subterranean holding cells were insufficient as the prison population increased over time, so they were just adding a few more cells where prisoners would wait between flights so as not to freak out cash customers in the waiting areas. Yet the clergy turned a trivial truth into a GOP fear & loathing tale.
Raised a Catholic in Chicago and Detroit, I never heard politics or Alt-right conspiracy theories during Sunday Sermons. In fact, I did hear about Father Coughlin in Detroit - one of the first radio evangelists was pro-Nazi and was roundly condemned by his Church for his behavior. His broadcasts were terminated by FDR as we approached WWII. Another radio evangelist, Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen moved his radio program to the new television. Sheen became the first televangelist. Sheen was careful to avoid politics in all his programs.
I am unaware of the IRS ever revoking the tax-free status of any radio or television evangelist for political rhetoric or obvious corruption, much less a church with a loose-cannon pastor like Coughlin or, apparently, many protestant pastors in Texas and Oklahoma.
One footnote on the Separation of Church and State. There has not been much separation in mid & southwest Red states for decades. In the 70s, I completed grad school in Fort Worth and taught at SW Med School in Dallas living on the buckle of the Bible Belt for a total of 8 years. Later, in the 90s, I spent another 7 years managing a federal lab supporting the FAA & DOD in Oklahoma City. There has been no separation of church and state in either state that I could discern. In OKC, a pick-up line I overheard twice in bars was, "Have yew bin sayved?" It appears to be the norm for preachers to recommend for whom to vote, in addition to spreading Alt-Right conspiracy theories from the pulpit.
For example. At a party for my staff one evening in OKC, a guest asked me if I knew about the secret underground prison they were building at the airport where Okies who did not turn over their guns to the Trilateral Commission (a Clinton-era hoax) would wind up. I asked where he heard that. "Why Pastor Brown last Sundee." he replied. I then explained that the OKC airport was a central hub for prisoner transportation, and the subterranean holding cells were insufficient as the prison population increased over time, so they were just adding a few more cells where prisoners would wait between flights so as not to freak out cash customers in the waiting areas. Yet the clergy turned a trivial truth into a GOP fear & loathing tale.
Raised a Catholic in Chicago and Detroit, I never heard politics or Alt-right conspiracy theories during Sunday Sermons. In fact, I did hear about Father Coughlin in Detroit - one of the first radio evangelists was pro-Nazi and was roundly condemned by his Church for his behavior. His broadcasts were terminated by FDR as we approached WWII. Another radio evangelist, Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen moved his radio program to the new television. Sheen became the first televangelist. Sheen was careful to avoid politics in all his programs.
I am unaware of the IRS ever revoking the tax-free status of any radio or television evangelist for political rhetoric or obvious corruption, much less a church with a loose-cannon pastor like Coughlin or, apparently, many protestant pastors in Texas and Oklahoma.