Town Halls Go to Church to Beat Health Care Reform

Just last week, President Obama rallied the so-called Religious Left with a nationwide "conference call" with progressive religious leaders -- and some 300,000 listeners so far, according to organizers at Faith in Public Life. It was seen as a direct challenge to the Religious Right on its own turf: grassroots mobilizing.

Now Christian conservatives are striking back with a plan to organize their own health care town halls -- modeled on the raucous meetings that lawmakers have been holding during the August recess -- at churches sympathetic to the cause of defeating Obamacare, and, most likely, Democrats in general.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins has put out an action alert that calls on churches to organize town halls to "discuss and expose" provisions in the health care bill that would, in his view, "compel" Americans to pay for "abortion on demand" and for "abortifacient contraceptives." Perkins also claims the reform does not provide conscience protections for health care workers who could, he says, be "required to perform abortion-related services."


The Family Research Council, which has been rallying its followers to paper the house at congressional town halls, also recycles the "death panel" meme, warning that the current legislation would force Americans to "foot the bill for government panels that would foster the notion that self-termination (i.e., suicide) is a sound moral and financial option for the elderly." (These are "indisputable facts," the FRC release states.)

Perkins and the FRC also provide a handy do-it-yourself town-hall kit for creating your own health care meeting. It includes templates for a sample press release, an agenda, an invitation to representatives and senators, and 20 questions to ask them should they show up. There are also items such as "10 Reasons Rationing Is in the Health Care Overhaul" and "Seven Reasons Abortion Is in the Health Care Overhaul," as well as a church bulletin insert (titled "Government Takeover of Healthcare: The Wrong Prescription for America") and a "sermon starter" that follows in the same vein.

Perkins reassures his base that "this is not about politics, and there is no need to fear any breach of IRS rules concerning what a church can and cannot do. The federal government is proposing policies that affront essential Christian teaching, and whether you are a Democrat or Republican, these matters go to the heart of the proclamation of the truth we, as believers, are charged to deliver."

"Again," Perkins continues, "there are no IRS issues regarding political participation, as this is not a political discussion about candidates or elections. This is a public policy discussion in which churches have a right and responsibility to engage."

Still, these preach-to-the-choir town halls would clearly play out in one political direction, since representatives and senators who are already gun-shy (literally) about these public meetings are not about to get sandbagged at a church full of evangelicals. On the other hand, the FRC pamphlet counsels churches to use a lawmaker's absence as a publicity point if he or she doesn't show. And of course champions of the Religious Right would be more than happy to appear at what would amount to an echo chamber for anti-reform sentiment.

What's behind this tactic? Claiming the moral high ground from Obama and the left would be one goal. Just this week the irrepressible Minnesota Republican, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, called for prayer and fasting as part of a crusade to defeat health care reform. "We all need to consider that in God's timing that he may have allowed us, as members of Congress, to be in the position that we're in just for this specific issue right now."

Reclaiming center stage would also seem to be a primary goal. News clips of angry citizens can only hold the public's attention for so long, and congressmen are getting savvier about where they go and whom they talk to. And perhaps Barney Frank's viral video pushback against one of the town-hall crazies showed that liberals may be ready to give as good as they get--especially now that they have the sacred memory of Ted Kennedy to inspire them. So conservatives may want to control the microphone at future events.

Either way, it's hard to believe any of these church-based town halls could be nearly as entertaining as watching Barney Frank argue with a dining room table.