"Peace be with you."

I'm no fan of Rep. Alvin Holmes (D - Montgomery), but I can only chuckle at his latest stunt. Why? Because it's something I wouldn't mind doing myself. From the Birmingham News:

"The Christian Coalition of Alabama claims allegiance with heaven, but [Holmes] on Monday told the group's leader to go some place warm and fiery."

Before I go into why Rep. Holmes would have said such a thing, let me go over my own issues with the Christian Coalition of Alabama:

Let's say that candidate A and candidate B both answer the same question with the same answer, "I do not support controversial issue C except in extreme circumstance D." Now, let's say you want candidate A to win the election. You distribute literature to potential voters that says that candidate A is against controversial issue C and that candidate B is in support. Both are not necessarily wrong, but they aren't necessarily true, either. The Christian Coalition isn't the only guilty party, either. Similar "voter guides" are distributed by dozens of special interest groups during every election, and I don't like any of them. It's why I advise simply calling campaign offices to ask a politician where he stands on an issue.

My other issue with the Christian Coalition is that I feel they don't accurately represent the best interests of Christians. Then again, most Christians (even Evangelicals) don't agree with Pat Robertson, but these same Christians will vote for the candidate that the Christian Coalition endorses without realizing that the group was founded by Rev. Pat. (Once again, I advise voters to educate themselves, but I have a sinking feeling that if Fred Phelps were to start an organization with the word "Christian" in the name and distributed literature, most Christians would vote for whomever that group told them to.) The Christian Coalition of Alabama, in particular, was practically caught with their hands in the cookie jar when they were accepting "donations" from gambling interests. We can only guess who else might be financially backing the group because they successfully lobbied against legislation in Alabama that would require special interests to disclose their funding. (I suggest having the NSA tap their phones and look through their banking records. I mean, they seem very secretive as to the source of their funding, so there's no telling whose interests they are protecting. And if they have nothing to hide...)

This seems to be the issue that Rep. Holmes takes with the group.

"Holmes said the Christian Coalition survey was hypocritical considering past news reports that gambling interests funded some of their anti-gambling work."

But my favorite part was the closing remark that Holmes sent to Christian Coalition of Alabama President John Giles:

"Holmes signed the letter 'Peace be with you.'"