What is Pulpit Freedom Sunday? It is like taking a stick and beating a hornet's nest and then waiting to get stung.
Ministers from around the country are going to deliberately violate I.R.S. regulations, flaunt their violation by notifying the I.R.S. and then wait to wrangle with the government. All of this is an effort to challenge an existing law by deliberating provoking the I.R.S.
Here is the article by the New York Times, posted by a friend Chris Willard who works with the Leadership Network. What do you think? Good idea or Bad idea? Read the article and tell me what you think.
Ministers to Defy I.R.S. by Endorsing Candidates
Defying a federal tax law they consider unjust, 33 ministers across the country will take to their pulpits this Sunday and publicly endorse a candidate for president.
The protest, called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a consortium of Christian lawyers that fights for conservative religious and social causes. When the fund first announced the protest this year, it said it planned to have 50 ministers taking part. As of Thursday it said it had hundreds of volunteers, but had selected only 33 who were fully aware of the risks and benefits.
The fund did not make the list of participants public, saying that it had received phone calls threatening to disrupt the sermons. One participant reached by telephone said he could not talk about it. Another participant, the Rev. Luke Emrich of New Life Church, a small evangelical church in West Bend, Wis. demurred when asked which candidate he planned to endorse on Sunday. “I would say endorsement is a strong word,” he said. “I’m planning to make a recommendation. I’m going to evaluate each candidate’s positions in light of Scripture and make a recommendation to my congregation as to which candidate aligns more so.”
The fund provides legal support for religious conservatives who have long felt aggrieved at what they say are limits on their religious expression. Organizers said they wanted a range of clergy of various faiths and political persuasions to join the protest, but acknowledged that the participants might be “weighted” toward the conservative end of the spectrum and more likely to support the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain, than the Democrat, Senator Barack Obama.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, said: “This is not something these churches want to do in secrecy and hiding. In fact, they don’t believe they’re doing anything wrong. They don’t believe they’re violating the law. “What they’re doing is talking to their congregations about biblical issues related to candidates and elections, and they believe they have the constitutional right to do that.”
The protest is challenging an amendment to the tax code passed by Congress in 1954 saying that charitable organizations known as 501(c)(3)’s, which accept tax-deductible contributions, cannot intervene in political campaigns. The legislation was intended to prevent nonprofit organizations from funneling money and resources to political candidates.
(read the REST of the article HERE)
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3 comments:
Bill,
I don't think they will provoke anything.
First, by announcing their intentions, they have prevented the IRS from over-reacting.
Second, inner city churches (in Baltimore for sure, but I am sure elsewhere, too) have been doing this for a LONG TIME, with no reaction from the IRS at all. The Interfaith Ministerial Alliance endorsement is the most important one in Baltimore politics.
The IRS generally tiptoes carefully around what is spoken in the pulpit. It is one thing to "endorse" a candidate based on a Scriptural Lesson; it's quite another for a 501(c)(3) to move tax-deductible funds into a campaign account.
One is freedom speech-- which the IRS doesn't want to mess with. The other is fraud, which they certainly will.
My take: lots of heat, no light.
My wife works for a secular non-profit advocating on specific legislation related to the beliefs of members of the organization.
As such, they regularly speak about issues that matter to them, but cannot endorse specific candidates.
If they wish to endorse specific candidates, they need to change their status from being a non-profit 501(c)3 to being a taxable 527.
Leaders and their members are free to say whatever they want. However, if they engage in electoral politics they lose their tax exemption.
I believe that the same should apply to any organization, no matter what their beliefs, and organizations that willfully and flagrantly violate the tax code should lose their tax exemption.
If pastors want to chose who the next Caesar will be, then they should render onto Caesar what is Caesar's.
Thanks for your comments, now that Sunday is over, kinda curious to hear and see what has happened.
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