Right Wing Watch has a little piece on the morals and ethics of 'values voters' (or, at least those trying to attract them):
A Saturday workshop on “Getting Church Voters to the Polls” suggested that getting the right candidate elected is more important than being honest with fellow churchgoers.
[...]
The plan starts with a voter canvas – calling through the church directory to find out which candidate people are supporting, whether they’re registered, and how likely they are to vote. “It is absolutely essential that the initial phone contact with the voter be anonymous contact,” says the manual, explaining that if the person receiving the call knows the caller, they might say what they think the caller wants to hear.
Marshner and her manual suggest having the callers pretend that they are with a polling firm. Several attendees noted that when there was some discomfort in the room about the ethics of building the campaign on deceptive calls, and workshop attendees got no good answers to questions about how a caller should respond if asked how he or she got the person’s name and phone number, Marshner moved the conversation along.
The reason that they're supposed to pretend they're with a polling firm is because this sort of politicking would cost a church its tax-exempt status. Honesty and ethical conduct aren't on these people's list of 'values', I guess.
Tags: news politics religious right christian republican conservative law elections corruption
