Did you see Bill Clinton in church last Sunday with California governor Gray Davis? It was all over television, especially in California.

Clinton was campaigning for Davis and the defeat of the recall election. He was doing it from the pulpit of an African American church.

The way I read the law, this is supposed to be illegal. If it had happened at a white tax-exempt church, the feds would probably pull their tax-exemption and they should.

Some years ago when Jesse Jackson was running for president, I saw him take up an offering during the church service for his campaign. If that wasn't illegal, nothing is. But the government was afraid to go after him, or the church. They would have been called racist.

There is something else. What business does a pastor have turning his pulpit over the politicians of any party? The pulpit should be for the proclamation of the word of God and a kingdom not of this world, not partisan politics and a temporal kingdom.

But don't look for anything to happen. It never does.

I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.