No Church Is Safe From Campaigning Pols

Flickr user Betty Blade

After the constant mud-slinging Monday through Saturday, many churchgoers take solace in a day where politics can be left at the door, and the only thing to concentrate on is faith. But not so fast, Christians, because New York pols are coming for your sermons! W. Ruth Whitney, the political liaison at Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Brooklyn (churches have those?) told the Times, “When it’s really near an election, we could have [a politician] every week." Is nothing, ahem, sacred?

Politicians generally know it's in poor taste to speak for more than a few minutes and to leave before the service is over, but former gubernatorial candidate H. Carl McCall said, "You’re guaranteed a crowd...It’s a critical part of a campaign." However, most churchgoers seemed wise to the cheap ploy for votes, and wished the politicians would just leave them alone. “It makes church longer,” said Jacqui Williams. “We should be eating lunch by now.” She admitted that had she known Andrew Cuomo would be taking the pulpit, she would have gone to a different service.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jaya Saxena in News on October 4, 2010 1:17 PM

Comments [rss]

John L

That's nice,

Not really newsworthy, but nice.

Politicians going to church to get votes, who would've thought.

korper

"You know what they ought to do with churches? Tax them. If holy people are so interested in politics, government, and public policy, let them pay the price of admission like everybody else." --George Carlin

nicemarmot

Churches (religion in general really) and politics have always been intertwined. It's nothing new, but if I were a churchgoer I'd be very annoyed at having my time taken up by useless sniveling politicians instead of the sermon I came to hear.