Beto O’Rourke is worrying Democrats with his extreme rhetoric on social issues, which they fear could damage the party’s electoral chances next year.
Ripples of discontent started forming around the former Texas congressman, 47, when he pushed for the confiscation of military-style rifles after a gunman this summer opened fire at a Walmart in his hometown of El Paso, killing 22.
Now, O’Rourke’s call to strip religious institutions of their tax-exempt status if they oppose gay marriage at Thursday night’s CNN forum on gay and transgender issues has Democrats worried that he will mobilize religious voters by fostering fears the left would bankrupt churches and charities if it gained power.
Jeff Hewitt, a Democratic consultant based in Ohio, said “there was certainly a risk” of intended consequences for Democrats up-and-down the ballot in 2020 triggered by O’Rourke’s stance.
“He seems to be running for first loser instead of winner. It’s just hard to win in the industrial Midwest when you alienate, you know, the Catholic Church,” Hewitt told the Washington Examiner. “I, for one, don’t think it’s helping the eventual Democratic nominee to keep having the party get pulled further and further to the left.”
Michael Wear, host of the Faith 2020 podcast and faith outreach director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, ripped O’Rourke’s proposal as “a bad idea irrespective of politics or strategy or anything else.”
“It’s also irresponsible, contrary to the notion of the separation of Church and State and it would be deeply harmful politically if such an idea is not explicitly rejected by our party’s presidential nominee,” Wear wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.
Democratic anxiety about political backlash appears justified as Christian organizations and public-interest law firms focused on religious freedom condemned O’Rourke’s remarks.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the public-policy branch of the Southern Baptist Convention, said O’Rourke was backing positions Democrats have denied supporting in the past.
“Beto O’Rourke’s comments are alarming because they represent precisely what those on his side of these issues have said for years that they are not seeking to do,” said Moore. “Tax exemption for churches is not a ‘reward,’ but a recognition that the power to tax is the power to destroy.”
Moore added that O’Rourke’s proposed tax-exemption removal “threatens to destroy every church, synagogue, or other religious institution that does not adopt his viewpoint on sexual ethics over and against their own traditions and authoritative texts.”
Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit legal firm that takes religious liberty cases, slammed O’Rourke’s proposal as “blatantly unconstitutional.”
“It’s also foolish because those groups provide billions of dollars in essential social services to their communities,” said Goodrich in a statement emailed to the Washington Examiner. “Churches and ministries should be allowed to hold centuries-old beliefs without fear of government retribution.”
O’Rourke, once a rising Democratic star, has struggled to recreate the energy and excitement he experienced during his failed Senate bid. Although his fundraising numbers have been relatively strong, his poll numbers have dwindled in the single-digits. His rhetoric on social issues has become more strident as his prospects for winning the nomination have dimmed, and he is now well to the left of his rivals on some hot-button issues.
In 2016, even socialist Vermont Democratic senator Bernie Sanders said he would allow religious groups to keep their tax-exempt status even if they oppose gay marriage, citing America’s commitment to religious freedom.
But now O’Rourke has pushed the boundaries on the issue, inviting Republicans to criticize the Democratic Party as a whole as backing the taxation of churches.
Oklahoma Republican senator Jim Inhofe, reacting to O’Rourke, told the Washington Examiner the Democratic candidates want to “diminish our sacred right to practice religion freely.”
“Their views are extreme, out of touch and contrary to the founding principles of our nation,” said Inhofe in an email. “The Democrat platform has become one that advances a socialist agenda that has no place in our state or country.”
Tennessee Republican senator Marsha Blackburn said O’Rourke’s proposal “reveals complete disregard for the First Amendment’s protection for religious freedom.”
“We must never allow such religious intolerance to become the law of the land,” said Blackburn in an email to the Washington Examiner.
[Opinion: Beto basically wants to bankrupt churches who don’t believe in gay marriage]
