The Government VS. All Saints Church (AKA "The Body of Christ")

Concerning the articles below...forget for a moment whatever your position might be on the war and pretend the same conflict of interests exists over one of your own pet issues...like say abortion, gay marriage, cat juggling or whatever...Say your Church takes a stand on that issue contrary to what the goverment is considering doing or has done and the government decides to make moves to shut you up and shut you down. This is indeed an untennable situation for us to be in. Now, really think about whether its possible to get around this situation of unacceptable compromise by infiltrating the government with Christians. Or would it not be better to work in unity and servanthood within the Church...in other words BE the Church...BE the City on a Hill....BE salt and Light...be an example instead of being in a business arrangement where you can never really serve two masters at once? This does not mean sitting back and doing nothing while the World (government) countermands us. After all...BE ( as in- BE the Church) is a verb.
I have long held the belief, bolstered by my knowledge of the American Indian experience (the concept of manifest destiny) as well as examples taken from Islam- that when geo-politics and religion, church and empire mix...bad things happen. Keeping the Church and empire seperate seems then to be healthy for both in the end. Feel free to comment...I am not trying to flaunt my "rightness"....I am seeking the right answers just like you.

Here's two articles about a case that clearly demonstrates how the government always subordinates the message of the Church and how the Church co-opts itself to the Government. The second link that argues the Government's case is the most telling of the two with its "Business Deal" thesis.
The third link is a pdf file of the incident that put the IRS on the Church's tail.

Cut and paste these url's to read the articles

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1107-02.htm

http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles Jan06/Art_Jan06_oped2.html

http://www.allsaints-pas.org/pdf/


ALERT!!!

Ok- forget whatever your position might be on the issue being discussed in this article and see if you can spot a slight inconsistency with the application of the IRS laws- this group apparently being immune. Be sure to run the video stream and take special note of the big posters of candidates behind the speaker...UNBELIEVABLE....the double standard...my God!! this regime is wiping their butt with the constitution...it seems they only police those who disagree with them...or at least just those that mess with their pet campaign issues (copy and paste the url):

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/05/1429230&mode=thread&tid=25

cross reference this article with the article entitled "The Christian Right and the Rising Power of the Evangelical Political Movement" - by clicking on "All Saints" at the bottom of this post.