My country tis of thee. Thou? Thine?

It's funny, but I'll start a post then store it in drafts, forgetting about it, or wonder if or when I'll hit send. Then something will happen. I'll bump into a corroborating bit of absurdity, just like the goofy telemarketing call I received this afternoon selling church attendance . Does this happen to you? Bet it does. Synchronicity is alive and well. And God is, indeed, a comedian. Certainly a satirist.

This, from Tuesday -- AP:

WASHINGTON - Churches that mistakenly mix religious and political activity would face reduced fines but keep their tax exempt status under a provision in a corporate tax bill the House is to consider this week.

The proposal, which could invalidate the strict separation of religion and politics in current tax laws, was introduced by House Republicans the same week President Bush's re-election campaign targeted 1,600 Pennsylvania congregations to recruit voters.....

[Reverend Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State:] "I don't think it's any coincidence that this is being fast-tracked in Congress just days after the Bush campaign announced its outreach in churches."

Last week, the Bush campaign e-mailed Pennsylvania churchgoers to target 1,600 "Friendly Congregations" where people can register to vote and pick up political information as the election nears. But the campaign said the missive was intended only to be passed from "individual to individual" — and not from preacher to congregation.

Campaign officials said Monday they were unaware of the church provision. But spokesman Steve Schmidt accused Lynn of "an extreme position — he wants to exclude people of faith from America's civic life."

"Not only is that misguided, it's dangerous," Schmidt said. "You don't want to exclude people from the electoral process, from the democratic process. You want to include people."

"People of faith have as much right to participate in the political process as anyone else," Schmidt said.

Pennsylvania is a key political swing state that offers 21 electoral votes. Bush lost the state in 2000 by a mere 204,000 votes.

Indeed, people of faith can and do participate in the political process. Citizens tend do that kind of thing. Oddly, the majority of them want politics to stay far away from polluting their scriptural lives. Truly spiritual people tend to feel that way when virtue-neutral industries like politics want to sponsor the pew they're sitting on. What can one say, except maybe that fidelity to Constitutional founding principle is now operationally inconvenient in this country. And factually naive. What would Jesus do? Knock some heads, that's what.

Now, I am late and my children are home waiting for their dinner. Speed limits be damned and jaywalkers beware. After all, children need regular meals to grow big and strong.