I hate to seem like I'm tooting my own horn, but I wanted to share with members the recent letter that I sent to the local paper's editor. In this letter, I took odds with a local Baptist pastor who tried to convince local citizens to vote against the sale of hard liquor in Killeen. In the letter, I pointed out the fact that the pastor was the leader of a tax exempt church and that his tax exemption was contingent upon his refraining from attempting to intimidate votes. I'd be interested to hear what other members think about this. Here is my letter: http://www.kdhnews.com/news/letters.aspx?r=3 Unfortunately, I am unable to find online the letter from the pastor in the editor's section of the 5 September Killeen Daily Harold.

-Chris Raiti

He's an individual, he doesn't check his beliefs at the door. While I think in spirit (gotta love that word) you're on the mark with your objections, but without having seen what exactly he was doing, it's hard to say whether it was a violation of the church's tax exempt status. Was he making these proclamations from the pulpit?

Was he making claims like, "We at XXXX Church say vote no on Prop 35". Then you probably have an issue. If he just says, "Rev Baptist McGee wants to remind you all that drinking is a sin", I don't think he's really doing anything wrong (aside from propagating falsehoods about drinking and personal gods.)

Like I said, without knowing what he actually said, it's hard to say if it's just reprehensible or a violation of tax code. Regardless, I'm not really in a position to judge the latter, I don't know how it operates. I'm sure someone here will set me straight if I'm wrong.