In early August, incumbent candidate for Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline sent a memo to his staff tersely dictating how the rest of his campaign was to play out. The memo, which offered a rare look into how political candidates use — and sometimes abuse — religious voters, was leaked anonymously to Kansas newspapers last month.
Kline told staffers they would ramp-up their outreach to conservative Christian churches and wanted to walk away from every event with more “media, money [and] crucial support.”
In the broken English of an early morning e-mail, Kline demanded staffers to sweep him out of public appearances before he could get bogged down by well-wishers and autograph seekers.
“Get me out,” he wrote. “Do not schedule me for social lunches. Only working lunches were (sic) we can obtain either media, money or crucial support…If there is a gap, get me to a quite (sic) place…feed me slimfast. Do not need a sit down meal. Takes too much time.”
There was apparently plenty of room in Kline’s busy schedule to preach on Sunday mornings, providing that he got a political boost in return. He told staffers to tap congregations whose leaders had helped pass a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage during Kline’s tenure.
“Must get in their pulpits and have them personally host a reception to match Tiller’s blood money,” Kline wrote, referring to Dr. George Tiller, a local obstetrician and reproductive-rights activist. “[They] must commit to get 5-10 people there who can drop $1,000 to $2,000.”
Kline’s goal was to walk away from each sermon with “contact information, money and volunteers and a committee in each church.” He did not elaborate on what he wanted these “committees” to do.
Many religious and legal leaders were aghast that Kline was so blunt about his intentions because the strategy can put tax-exempt churches in a tight legal spot. Kline risks nothing by asking churches to host his political rallies and to deliver “money people” to campaign events immediately following a Sunday sermon.
The churches, however, risk losing their tax-exempt status. To lose that privilege would take money away from the congregation and its charitable work.
The Rev. Vern Barnet said the attorney general’s tactics were “a stink unto heaven.” Barnet and 18 other area religious leaders chided Kline for “exploiting his faith by dressing a political campaign in the wool of Christian witness.”
The controversy over Kline’s attempt to handle religious voters has not abated. He recently came under fire from former Kansas Attorney General and fellow devout evangelical Christian, Bob Stephan. Stephan, who until last month served as Kline’s special assistant, publicly reprimanded him for mixing faith, money and politics.
The Lawrence Journal-World has reported that the Light of the World Church gave nearly $1,350 to SWT Communications, a broadcasting company run by Kline’s wife, Deborah. Around the same time, SWT donated $1,181 to Kline’s campaign. Many observers found the sequence of the events suspicious.
“When you use your faith to shuttle money into your for-profit corporation, that bothers me. Especially when you are there, certainly giving voice to your faith, but with the credential of being the attorney general,” Stephan told the Journal-World on October 17.
“It bothers me because the public doesn’t know who is giving money to Phill Kline,” Stephan said of the relationship between Light of the World Church and SWT Communications.
It’s more than bothersome; it raises serious legal and ethical questions. As acting attorney general, Kline is obligated to uphold and enforce the laws of the State of Kansas and of the United States. For the state’s lead prosecutor to lure houses of worship into this thorny thicket for his own political gain is an insult to the rule of law.
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