Pulpit Perversion Sunday: The Religious Right’s partisan scheme to politicize churches

[cleanhippie]

On Oct. 2, a few fundamentalist clergy around the country will observe “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” They will take to their pulpits and endorse or oppose candidates in defiance of federal tax law, which prohibits nonprofits from intervention in elections.

This isn’t some occasion on the liturgical calendar or a spontaneous eruption of civic zeal. It’s part of a plot by the Alliance Defense Fund, a right-wing legal group founded by theocracy-minded TV and radio preachers. The ADF-sponsored observance has one goal: to pave the way for Religious Right leaders to forge fundamentalist churches into a disciplined voting bloc.

To hear ADF lawyers talk, you’d think American clergy are currently bound and gagged by an overweening Big Brother government. In an essay last Saturday, ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley said preachers are subject to “cruel and unusual punishment.”

--snip--

American clergy are perfectly free to address any religious, moral and political issues they wish. The only limitation is that they cannot use their tax-exempt resources to endorse or oppose political candidates.

That’s not some sort of onerous government intrusion; it’s just fair governmental application of the same rules that apply to all religious, educational and charitable organizations in the 501(c)(3) category.

--snip--

The vast majority of American clergy and the vast majority of the American people see this distinction as reasonable and prudent. We don’t want our churches and other nonprofits perverted into cogs in some scheming politician’s political machine.

It would be particularly destructive to politicize our houses of worship. Congregations would be bitterly divided, communities would be beset with religious tensions as congregations vied with each other for political power and the rights of minorities would be placed in grave jeopardy.

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/09/30/pulpit-perversion-sunday-the-religious-right%e2%80%99s-partisan-scheme-to-politicize-churches/

[Seedersandleechers]

1. Tax all the churches, synagogues, and mosques.

Problem solved

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Not this shit again

Unless you have sat on the governing board of a congregation, you have no idea the extent that this would barely make a dent in the finances of the bad apples (the Jim Bakker types) and shut many of the "good apples" down--like my former parish of 150 people in Portland, which serves three meals a week for the homeless (with no proselytizing) and provides free meeting space for several community groups out of an 80-year-old structure that was built as a "temporary" replacement for an earlier building that burned down in the 1920s.

The megachurches are a problem, but your approach is like dealing the problem of industrial factory farming by shutting down ALL farms.

[Hydra]

3. So make the taxes progressive

Megachurches pull in millions, and they should be taxed millions. Small churches can write off charitable contributions and be taxed at the rate of what they are pulling in.

The fact that they are churches shouldn't be an automatic plus on their side.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. So would you tax all non-profits?

:shrug:

Or would you say that only non-profits of a religious nature should be taxed?

Unless you think that all non-profits should be taxed, then just apply the existing laws. Tax-exempt non-profits are NOT allowed to advocate for a specific political party or candidate. This includes churches and it also includes secular charities like the U.S. office of Doctors Without Borders or the organization (whose name escapes me) that sets up tent clinics in underserved areas.

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