Clinton's South Carolina Church Endorsements Not What They Appear to Be

The Clinton campaign seems to be playing a little fast and loose with some church endorsements:

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's support from South Carolina's black religious leaders may not be quite as extensive as her campaign suggests.

Clinton got a boost last week when she shared a South Carolina stage with dozens of supporters, accepting what organizers said were endorsements from nearly 90 ministers in the state. But an Associated Press review of an endorsement list supplied by the New York senator's campaign found that some of the backers were affiliated with religious ministries and outreach groups rather than churches, some were wives of ministers, two were church elders and at least two were not members of the churches listed beside their names.

All told, about 50 different groups were represented, rather than more than 80 congregations as initially implied, the review found.

Clinton spokesman Zac Wright said the campaign never claimed the endorsements represented separate congregations and knew all along that some came from the same organization.

"It shows diversity if you have both a senior pastor of a church and also a minister over the women's ministry, for example," he said Tuesday.

I guess it depends on what the meaning of "church endorsements" is.