When the saints sell their souls.

Source: Nation.com

First, let's backtrack to 2004 when the Bush-Cheney sent conservative activists on a mission. That said mission: collect as many church membership directories as possible and set up so-called "moral" action teams to get Christian rights voters to the polls.

This action skirted in the grey area of laws regarding tax-exempt institutions and again blurred the line between church and state.

In 2004, the Bush-Cheney campaign asked conservative activists to send them their church membership directories for political organizing purposes. Although most religious leaders condemned the tactic, some rightwing evangelists jumped on board.

Clergy reportedly attended GOP-led sessions on how to talk about the election from the pulpit without violating laws regarding tax-exempt institutions.

There were requests for church volunteer coordinators to distribute information and speak for the campaign. A group associated with Pat Robertson worked with more than 45,000 churches to help Bush-Cheney win. And churches set up "moral action teams" to get Christian right voters to the polls.

Now, it's circa 2006--a new day, people high on integrity and morals...or, um, well, not exactly.

Taking a page from the Karl Rove "Book of All Things Politically Evil," they are doing the same misdeed again!

Now the North Carolina Republican Party has once again ripped this page from the Rove Playbook for the 2006 mid-term elections.

Last week, the state party sent out an email asking registered Republicans to furnish it with "as many church directories as you can...in an effort to fully register, educate, and energize North Carolina's congregations," according to Alan Cooperman of the Washington Post.

Party officials claim that they are only engaging in voter registration efforts. But as Rev. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance, said, "No one bought that defense during the 2004 elections and we won't buy it in 2006 either."

Rev. Robert Prince III, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Waynesville, NC, stated in the Asheville Citizen-Times, "I find it disturbing. I don't think it's a good ideaÂ…because of church-state type issues." Two local pastors, according to the Greensboro News & Record, also objected to the state GOP's practice. Rev. Ken Massey of the city's First Baptist Church said the request was "encroaching on sacred territory."

I understand the motives behind this action.

The GOP needs to have almost unheard of voters coming to the polls. The two to three scandals per week is pushing moderates away from the polls, and things aren't looking so swell for this election cycle.

The problem is that we have religious leader deliberately skirting the law.

It seems to me like another case of "do as I say, not do as I do."