Fundies plan to test ban on political endorsements from the pulpit

[phantom power]

Daddy D-founded Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting right-wing pastors to test the IRS ban on making political endorsements from the pulpit, an act that can result in the removal of a church’s non-profit status. The “Pulpit Initiative” is being launched as desperation mounts in the social conservative movement—its leaders know they are losing the culture wars—and they are looking for ways to ensure that low-information voters out in the pews are guided into voting “correctly.” (WaPo):

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.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090702460_pf.html

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/fundies_plan_to_test_ban_on_political_endorsements_from_the_pulpit/

[progressoid]

1. CNN is talking about it too.

We just got cable again and have been surfing through the channels. Normally I avoid the corporate media but have been catching a few minutes here and there during the election season.

[skepticscott]

2. It's also not for the government

to grant a tax exemption to any organization just because they claim that gawd whispers in their ear. They implicitly accepted the restrictions on engaging in partisan politics (NOT free speech) when they accepted tax exempt status (to which they have no constitutional entitlement). If being political shills is that important to them, they can give up that huge taxpayer-subsidized perk any time they want and start paying taxes like the rest of us.

I really wish they would push this and bring the issue to a head, because they'll be smacked down hard. There are very good reasons for this law that have nothing to do with religion, and they have no grounds to claim that religious organizations have been singled out for enforcement..on the contrary, fundamentalist churches have been by far the most blatent and shameless violators. If the law were changed, every political campaign from presidential on down would arrange to funnel all of their money through TEOs.

[Warpy]

3. When they refuse to leave unto Caesar that which is Caesar's

then they've crossed a very important line and have changed their basic nature. They are no longer moral and spiritual organizations and need to be taxed accordingly.

There is no law against preaching politics from a pulpit. There is only one that says you'd better be prepared to cough up your fair share of taxes should you choose to do so.

I'd like to see them all taxed.

[Synnical]

4. Great! Push it Baby, Push it!

Churches are Businesses and should be taxed as such.

-Cindy