In response to the Waynesville Baptist Church pastor's call (and subsequent resignation) for a banishing of Kerry-supporters, representative Walter Jones (R-NC) has introduced a bill -- Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act of 2005 -- to allow churches to be political platforms. Jones and his supporters, naturally, come from a conservative and Evangelical base.

Here's a snippet from the bill:

No member or leader of an organization described in section 501(q) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as added by section 2) shall be prohibited from expressing personal views on political matters or elections for public office during regular religious services, so long as these views are not disseminated beyond the members and guests assembled together at the service.

This is such nonsense. Nothing good can come by overtly aligning the churches with political parties -- the whole notion of separation of church and state not only protects the state, but it's also meant to protect the church. Such an alignment will only pollute the integrity of God's word.