Pew Polls

A group called Let Freedom Ring is apparently mailing pastors copies of their DVD Inner Strength along with a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund opining that a church would not risk its tax exempt status by screening the film for parishioners.

Perhaps that's technically correct, but the video (which you can watch at the link above) is quite clearly a half-hour campaign commercial for George W. Bush. Now, ultimately, I think that's fine: there's something bizarre about a system that insists religious leaders not offer their congregations any views on something as important as who's going to be president for the next four years, and using the carrot of conditional tax-exempt status to squelch speech isn't really any better than it would be to use the stick of additional taxes levied upon anyone who wanted to express a political opinion. But under the logic of campaign finance regulation, I don't see why Bush or McCain shouldn't regard a pastor screening this as equivalent what to those "shadowy 527 groups" do.