Silicon Valley gives conservative Christians a boost

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Los Angeles Times

A group of venture capitalists is backing United in Purpose, an ambitious project that seeks to affect the 2012 election by registering 5 million new conservative Christians to vote.

Reporting from Washington—
Silicon Valley, the politically liberal technology hub, is an unlikely incubator of conservative Christian activism.

But a group of its venture capitalists is backing an ambitious project that seeks to affect the 2012 election by registering 5 million new conservative Christians to vote.

The nonprofit organization United in Purpose is using sophisticated data-mining techniques to compile a database of every unregistered born-again and evangelical Christian and conservative Catholic in the country.

Through partnerships with Christian organizers and antiabortion groups, United in Purpose hopes to recruit 100,000 "champions" to identify unregistered Christians and get them to the polls as part of its Champion the Vote project. Profiles drawn from its database, which numbers more than 120 million people, will enable organizers to target potential voters with emails and Web videos tailored to their interests.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-evangelical-outreach-20110916,0,7594171.story

---

Something else to be aware of this election cycle.

[ixion]

1. okay, a couple points:

1) Venture Capitalists are not really part of Silicon Valley. They'll finance anything they think they can make money from, technological or otherwise.

2) Good luck finding 5 million unregistered conservative xians. Xian activism what it is, I'll bet they've registered most of them. In the 80's it might have been possible, but today? I doubt it.

[Initech]

2. And what? So we can have president Rick Perry? Fuck that.

[catzies]

3. So tell me again why churches can't ever be taxed?

What other databases can they compile with all their sophisticated data-mining techniques?

I don't know, maybe...all the non-Christians?

What else do they know about those 120 million people and what companies are in this new group?

[bluestateguy]

4. That would backfire, trust me

The evangelical churches would be able to pay the taxes and they would move right on about their business. They have plenty of money.

The liberal mainline churches and black churches with less money might very well be taxed out of existence by such a scheme. And all you'd have to show for it would be a religious right that was stronger than ever.

[on point]

9. Its called separation of church and state and there are sound reasons for it

even if the current crowd are abusing it.

This was n important lesson learned over the centuries and not one to be lightly tossed aside.

Better to insist on separation, like no funding in any way for church activities.

[No Elephants]

13. Remind me how government treating churches like it treats every other human or entity

violates separation of church and state?

Giving churches and those who donate to them special breaks is entangling church and state, not separating church and state, especially when those breaks are conditioned on churches behaving in certain ways, which is true under the tax code.

Giving churches and those who donate to them special breaks IS funding churches.

So are vouchers and faith based initiatives.

[on point]

16. I think there is a valid point in here but

I think something can be said for not giving churches special tax status but treating them like all other non profits. That would truly be a separation of church and state. But history has shown the dangers in states being able to control religion, especially with preference for one over another, which is usually just a symptom of an even bigger problem - when religions control states.

To avoid this we would have to grant the greatest right of freedom of expression and right to belief such that the state could not interfere in them. Such freedom is the professed aim of a liberal state. But this might mean that an organization has to be free to organize and express itself through collective action which would inevitably mean that speech is money. It might also mean that religions could participate in pursuit of state.
.

Thus the bargain struck that they would stay in separate worlds. This was struck back in the 1700's. Is it time to revisit this given our new experience and how it has played out?

I think this is a worthy topic.

[lbrtbell]

12. +++++++++++1!

Churches should have been taxed a long time ago. Representation without taxation is just as wrong as taxation without representation.

[FarLeftFist]

5. What do these people have against a black President?!

Do they really think any of their idiot candidates could do better than Obama at governing or is their desire to infuse politics and religion the only bullshit stance they're voting on?

[pnorman]

8. Sadly, some here at DU,

entertain such feelings toward Obama.

[AsahinaKimi]

6. Another step towards making

The United States into a Christian Nation. A Theocracy is around the corner if we don't stop it. We need to vote for candidates who will stand up to these people who wish to take over our country and Stamp their brand of Religion on it.

[unkachuck]

7. another glaring example....

....of the financial and political connection between the global capitalists and the fascist-right....

....and now I feel like singing; Deutschland, Deutschland, uber alles, uber alles in der Welt.......

[EFerrari]

10. Working people seeking comfort in religion

and having that trust exploited for gain. I live just above the last main road on the SJ East Side. There are three huge churches on that road and their parking lots are pretty full on Sundays and other days as well.

[left on green only]

11. Matea says, "Watch me reel 'em in Tom". "I bet there are 5 million of them out there"

"Ya know a lot of people don't have much food on their tables." "But they got a lot of forks, and knives." "And they gotta cut something." (Bob Dylan, 1965) And so we have a Matea Gold and a Tom Hamburger (are you kidding me?? Really???) who hail from of all places but the Washington Bureau of the LA Times!! who have decided to enthrall us all with a hearsay story about Silicon Valley, which is a place that is really right up their ally, you know, after all. Otherwise, in light of the dearth of all else in Washington that there is for them to spin about, what else could they claim to be justification for the money that they accept from their employer down in LA? So they have composed a story in which they throw around a cheap word like "venture capitalist" to impress us all without ever having to actually mention who they are really writing about; and in the process also lead us to believe that there actually are right wing "venture Capitalists" in silicon valley who are stupid enough and wealthy enough and devoid of greed enough to squander their money on an idea from which they cannot ever hope to realize a direct return.

I have no idea if a "Matea Gold" or a "Tom Hamburger" actually do exist, but it may be interesting to note that coincidentally, one of the tactics that the right wing uses to proliferate their lies is to create false visions of their power and their influence in society to suggest a normalcy for their twisted way of thinking. And of course, spinning the whole farce around the name of jebus would also suggest an even higher authority to give credence to their yarn.

[KamaAina]

14. Remember, SiliValley gave us NutMeg Whitman

need I say more?

[KamaAina]

15. What a bastion of traditional repuke values this outfit is!

http://unitedinpurpose.org/about.html

Bill Dallas became the CEO of United in Purpose after spending 10 years as the founder and CEO of Church Communication Network (CCN), a satellite and Internet communications company serving over 6,000 churches across North America. A graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Bill lost his thriving real–estate business when he was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in San Quentin State Prison....

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Blue_Tires]

17. New headline: "GOP-affiliated fundraiser group looking to increase party slush fund

by fleecing five million suckers in the name of religion