yesterday, we were given a small piece of paper of which we figured out was inserted into this person’s bulletin at church that morning. the top of the sheet read, ‘voter issue guide’ and was put out by a group called wallbuilders. a quick look at wallbuilders’ website shows their bias. it’s fairly clear to see that they’re a right-leaning (to put it very lightly) group with a decidedly republican agenda.

this “voter guide” quickly showed the organization’s agenda. on this list (which you can look at here) are issues that you should care about if you’re a christian (because there’s only a set list of issues that christians should care about…you didn’t get the memo??…). on this list are issues such as “cloning” (the greatest and most pressing moral and christian issue of our time…), “homosexual education” (you know, where we teach first-graders to be gay), “opposes gay pride” (since, you know, jesus led all those anti-gay parade protests) and “gun rights” (because jesus knew how fundamentally righteous it was to have the right to pack an assault weapon.). unbelievable.

beyond how ridiculous the categories are, the main issue is the blatant lies about obama’s positions. at the very best, these are just gross oversimplifications and misleading half-truths. for example, on the lesser end, whereas obama doesn’t support constitutional ammendments that ban same sex marriage, he has openly and repeatedly said that he does not support gay marriage. this “guide” says he’s for it. one of the blatant lies is the issue of “human life” (subhead: supports protecting the lives of children who are born alive and survive a botched abortion). saying that obama opposes this is a blatant lie. obama has repeatedly said that he is in total favor of this and that people have unfairly mythologized a vote he made in the illinois senate several years ago. finally, on the issue of the iraq war (subhead: supports immediate removal of troops), it says that obama is in favor of this. while i wouldn’t necessarily have a problem if he was, he simply is not. over and over, he has stated that he wants to have a timetable for withdrawal that may take up to 16 months to execute.

the saddest part of this is that it was distributed by a church in a bulletin. i have absolutely no problem with church’s contributing to the political conversation with unbiased and nonpartisan dialogue, but when you distribute something that is full of lies, it’s simply wrong. and sinful.

anyway, to those who are distributing lies via handouts or through hateful emails, please stop. for those who receive information—whether it’s for or against obama—please take some time to research the information and come to a conclusion on your own.