Ban on Political Endorsements by Pastors Targeted

[Newsjock]

Source: Washington Post

Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.

The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.

"For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the church," ADF attorney Erik Stanley said. "It is the job of the pastors of America to debate the proper role of church in society. It's not for the government to mandate the role of church in society."

Yet an opposing collection of Christian and Jewish clergy will petition the IRS today to stop the protest before it starts, calling the ADF's "Pulpit Initiative" an assault on the rule of law and the separation of church and state.

... Founded in 1994 by Christian conservatives including James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family and William R. Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, the ADF has challenged same-sex marriage initiatives, stem cell research and rules that limit the distance protesters must keep from abortion patients. It helped the Boy Scouts ban gay Scout leaders.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090702460.html?hpid=topnews

[LeftyMom]

1. Sure, but they don't have a constutitional right to fleece the people tax free.

Actions have consequences. If you don't like the restrictions that come with tax free status, get your checkbook out, and then you can say whatever you damn well please.

[Not_Giving_Up]

15. Exactly!

You don't get to operate your multi-million dollar mega-church tax free if you're going to tell your sheep who to vote for.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. I hope everyone of of those repuke hypocrites gets their tax free status revoked..immediately.

This is another stealthy attack on the separation of church and state....

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Not a chance. This is a plan by the GOP to get endorsements for McCain under guise of a Free Speech

protest. The only people who will get their tax exempt status yanked will be any pastors that try to endorse Obama/Biden. Recall that the only Church the IRS ever went after under Bush was one that spoke out against the war.

Expect a massive right wing Christian Conservative "God wants you to vote for the Pow and the Babe" fest all over the MSM with the ministers portrayed as spunky, rather than as law breakers.

[bluestateguy]

3. They have the choice

Pay taxes and endorse as much as you like.

Or stay neutral and retain tax exempt status.

The choice is theirs.

[nilram]

4. ditto. No taxes, no politics. Pay taxes, play politics. --nt

[Indenturedebtor]

5. Sweet, they can pay now. n/t

[clear eye]

7. Can't you just see all the wingnuts choosing one of their bunch to become a mail order minister

so they can engage in campaigning w/tax exempt donations?

[girl gone mad]

8. If they want to influence our government, they need to be taxed..

just like the rest of us.

[trthnd4jstc]

9. Sure they can endorse, then no Tax Breaks.

Why should they have tax breaks, if they behave as political action committees. It should be one way or the other.

[Liberal Dose]

10. The IRS are a law unto themselves. They can revoke the tax exempt status without going to court, and

without notifying the churches that an investigation is going on.

[AnnaLouise]

11. Oxymoron: Christian chaplain

Can a pastor who promotes the killing of war
or is silent about the bombing of Baghdad babies
call himself a Christian?

Oxymoron: Christian chaplain

[mitchum]

12. Pay your taxes, grifters

[HopeHoops]

13. My sister-in-law's church has distributed a "voter guide" every election for decades!

Curiously, it never seems to recommend anyone who isn't a far right GOP lunatic.

Of course, they also managed to turn an otherwise intelligent woman into a "Earth is only 6,000 years old" moron.

[Tesla]

14. An old co-worker of mine ran their church busses all day long

picking up people to vote for Bush in 2004. She bragged how their church was helping Bush win!
I don't think she would pick up a Democrat!

[mitchum]

17. That why I always say it would be a real pity if church buses were disabled...

late Monday night before election Tuesday.
A pity and illegal.

[AngryOldDem]

20. You mean the type of "voter's guide" that damns you to hell if you don't vote GOP?

I had a "Voter's Guide" shoved under my window wiper in 2004 -- funny, but my car was the only one in the huge church lot so graced; probably it was because of my Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker. (Ya think???)

Just some anonymous, well-meaning soul trying to save mine -- but I complained to the church the very next day -- said I did not appreciate it and that it was just racheting up the tension and intolerance in an already tense and intolerant election seaason -- and by that following Sunday there was an announcement that such flyers would no longer be tolerated on church property.

[JonQ]

16. This has always been a complicated issue for me

on the one hand I'm all for freedom of speech, and I don't want the government to get in to the habit of regulating, observing, censoring religions. Plus there is no guarantee this will be implemented fairly. Ideally any political speech would be treated the same way, but I'm sure some politicians would try to use it to their advantage, shutting down or taxing churches supporting their opponents but not ones supporting them.

On the other hand they are tax exempt because they are, among other things, supposed to be apolitical (impossible really, but that's the idea).

Tough call.

[mitchum]

18. Just eliminate the tax exempt status for ALL churches...

and there would be no problem

[appleannie1]

19. Ohio ministers to challenge political pulpit plan

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A group of mostly mainline Protestant ministers says the Internal Revenue Service must keep a restriction against politics in the pulpit.

The Reverend Eric Williams -- a Columbus minister with the liberal United Church of Christ -- plans to file a complaint with the IRS today against a conservative legal organization based in Arizona that is challenging the restriction as unconstitutional.

The Alliance Defense Fund aims to allow pastors to endorse or oppose political candidates.

But Williams says such a move would jeopardize the historic separation of church and state in the United States.

The Alliance Defense Fund has enlisted ministers around the country to invite investigations by the IRS by giving political sermons on September 28th.
http://www.wdtn.com/Global/story.asp?S=8969462 Our constitution is clear. Government and religion are supposed to remain separate.

[damntexdem]

21. Of course they have that Constitutional right. All they need do is not give it up ...

for tax breaks for their churches. If their church doesn't take the tax break, then they can preach politics to their hearts' content.

Of course, they want, rather demand, it both ways.