THE WATER COOLER FROM FACEBOOK.COM/STATESMAN
On Oct. 18, at least five GOP presidential candidates will attend a forum held at Prestonwood Baptist, a megachurch in Plano. At 3:00 that afternoon, participants will have 10 minutes to address the audience, followed by a 10-minute discussion led by Pastor Jack Graham. All candidates — Democrat and Republican — were invited. So far the attendee list includes U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, former Gov. Jeb Bush, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, formed Gov. Mike Huckabee and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. As reported by Chuck Lindell, “With almost 40,000 members, Prestonwood Baptist has been politically active, leading campaigns against gay marriage and Plano’s equal-rights ordinance, which includes discrimination protection based on sexual orientation. The church also founded a Dallas-area crisis pregnancy center that seeks to steer women away from abortion.”
Stephen Lee Contreras: Start taxing the church since they have such a huge interest in politics. I hate politics and don’t want anything to do with it — yet I pay taxes every payday.
Rhonda Tierce Collins: When faith and politics intersect, you end up with Israel and Palestine or the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. They have been killing each other for decades over intertwined faith and politics. Religion and politics must remain separate. It’s what our country was founded on.
Warren Capps: Correction: This church is not interested in politics in general. It is interested in promoting conservative politics. Clearly this is political activity and their tax-exempt status should be revoked. When is the IRS going to grow some backbone on this subject and start enforcing the law?
R.J. Paulsen: The best thing that could ever happen to politics would be the true separation of church and state.
Elizabeth Hargrove: There shouldn’t be a “megachurch.”
Margaret Middleton: Trying to keep up with Pope Francis!