Iowa Church Introduces Voting During Services, Raising Church And State Concerns

If you live near Ames, Iowa, you could have killed two birds with one stone yesterday. Nondenominational Cornerstone Church is the first of two houses of worship in the area to offer satellite voting at the same time that services are going on.

Though the voting and the praying took place in different parts of the church, some Iowans are worried that Cornerstone jeopardized the separation of church and state by allowing the two activities to occur simultaneously. As Ames resident Susie Petra says in the following local news clip (via Breitbart.tv), Cornerstone isn’t accessible by bike, bus, or foot, meaning that as a voting location, it’s ill-placed to serve anyone but its own congregation.

Iowa’s ACLU has also spoken out about the church: “Combining polling places with religious services is an invitation to the abuse of both religion and the civic act of voting,” says Executive Director Ben Stone in a statement. Church officials, for their part, say they didn’t discuss the voting during Sunday’s worship. Watch the clip below for more info.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!