The folks at Catholics United, a progressive Catholic group, have been busy NOT putting fliers in church parking lots. They view that as an intrusion. Indeed, what they’ve been doing instead is making sure that flyers that do get put there are removed.
\nA report from the group’s director Chris Korzen:<\/p>\n
“We had staff and activitsts in 6 cities: Philly, Pgh, STL, Cincy, Detroit, and
\nAkron-Youngstown. By far the most effective strategy was simply to let
\nchurch officials (ushers, etc.) know what was going on. Once informed,
\nthese officials usually went outside and asked the leafleters to leave.
\nThe leafleters I encountered were not parishioners of the churches they were
\ntargeting, and for the most part were belligerent and rude. At one parish
\nin Montgomery County, a church official had to threaten to call the police
\nin order to get the Priests for Life activists to leave.
\nAnother parish in the Philly burbs was hit by the PA Republican Party on
\nSaturday night. When one of our activsts went by on Sunday morning she
\nfound a very stern looking woman watching over the parking lot – and no more
\nliterature.
\nAnd finally, I’m sitting on about 100 reports of parish protection
\noperations from our activists in all corners of the country. All in all,
\nincredbily successful.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat, you might ask, is a “parish protection operation”? Korzen explains:<\/p>\n
“Simply put, we’ve organized our activists to protect the sacred space of the
\nchurch from partisan politics, in accordance with the USCCB’s directive that
\nonly approved voter education materials be distributed on Church property
\nand at Church events. It’s noteworthy that we’ve consistently asked our own
\nactivists to distribute Catholics United literature on Church property only
\nwith the permission of their pastor. The religious right, apparently, does
\nnot respect the Bishops’ directive.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The folks at Catholics United, a progressive Catholic group, have been busy NOT putting fliers in church parking lots. They view that as an intrusion. Indeed, what they’ve been doing instead is making sure that flyers that do get put there are removed. A report from the group’s director Chris Korzen: “We had staff and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
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He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. 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