When It Comes to Church Names, ABCNews.com Hasn't a Prayer

May 5th, 2008 10:40 AM

Former President Bill Clinton pinged ABCNews.com's Political Radar on a pulpit-pounding campaign swing through the Tarheel State just two days before the North Carolina primary. But it appears the alphabet network's Web site not only got the name of an Asheville, N.C., church wrong, but it misspelled, three times, the name of a denomination within Protestant Christianity (emphasis mine) in this May 4 blog post (screencap below fold):

ABC News' Sarah Amos reports: Former President Bill Clinton spent time in two western North Carolina churches this morning, speaking more from his heart than any sort of political handbook.

"I didn't come here to ask you to vote for my wife," said Clinton, addressing the congregation at Church of the Pentacostal in Asheville, N.C. "I came here to ask you to pray for her. And to vote. Do whatever you want. Show up. Our country is in dire distress.

"I just want you to pray for her and to make your voices heard," he added. "Do whatever you think is right. But don't sit this out, because we are being called upon to return to our true purpose."

Clinton spoke of his long relationship with the Pentacostal church, thanking them for all the support they have given him over the years.

The small but enthusiastic congregation, whose church is nestled between the mountains of Asheville, listened attentively as Clinton told stories of his relationship with the church over the years. Clinton even spoke about how Barbara Streisand was inspired to record her first spirtual album after listening to a Pentacostal singer who performed at Clinton's mother's funeral.

The proper spelling, of course, is "Pentecostal" as in the feast of Pentecost at which the early church was empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It also seems Ms. Amos and her editor(s) at ABCNews.com failed to get the name of the church Clinton visited correct. Carol Motsinger of the Asheville [N.C.] Citizen-Times wrote about Clinton's campaign swing in the May 5 paper:

While at the 10 a.m. service at the Church of Pentecost in Asheville, his second church service of the day, Clinton told the congregation, "I didn't come here to ask you to vote for my wife. I came to ask you to pray for her."

Screencapture from ABCNews.com | NewsBusters.org