Nearly 100 pastors across the country planned to take part in Pulpit Freedom Sunday, an in-your-face challenge Sunday to what the government says can and cannot be said in church. The pastors, along with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based nonprofit Alliance Defense Fund, are reacting to a law stating that churches are not allowed to support politicians from the pulpit, according to the ADF. The growing trend is a challenge to the IRS from the churches, and may jeopardize their all-important tax-exempt status. But some pastors and church leaders said they are willing to defy the law to defending their right to freedom of speech. Federal tax law, established in 1954, prohibits churches and tax exempt entities from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
I suppose I probably shouldn’t be surprised that there’s a group of preachers out there who think that their religion puts them above the law of the land. While I understand, respect, and applaud the concept of non-violent civil disobedience, Pulpit Freedom Sunday hardly meets that definition. From where I sit, these self-righteous uber-Christians have two simple choices- they can preach their politics or they can continue to enjoy their tax-exempt status. They’d best make a choice…because it’s just plain wrong for them to assume they can have it both ways. Then again, this just reflects the self-satisfied arrogance of so many Social Conserative Christians, doesn’t it?
Despite the self-righteous loftiness of their purpose, being a man of the cloth does not confer upon one the right to selectively observe or ignore laws as one chooses. The law has been very clear and very simple since 1954- if you’re the leader of a church, and you want your church to remain tax-exempt, you cannot openly engage in political advocacy. Period. This being a free country, of course, you’re certainly able to engage in pushing whatever your particular political agenda happens to be. You just can’t expect that your church will continue to enjoy it’s tax-exempt status if you do so.
And isn’t it interesting that the preachers engaging in this “protest” are espousing a uniformly Conservative agenda? Nor is it surprising that Conservatives, who normally live and breathe law and order, are so willing to ignore a law they consider to be inconvenient. That they consider the law unconstitutional is beyond absurd. No one is curtailing their freedom of speech or their right to espouse their political beliefs. All the law is saying is that if your church is truly a religious organization, then to maintain a tax-exempt status your church must remain apolitical. Pretty simple, eh? God is not a Republican…nor is he a Democrat. If you believe in Him, He just is.
The law is designed to eliminate corruption and manipulation from the pulpit and to level the playing field for both sides of the ideological spectrum. Preachers don’t have to like it; they don’t even have to live by it. All they have to do is understand that if they engage in political advocacy from the pulpit, then their church by law cannot retain its tax-exempt status.
I doubt this will happen, but I really hope that the IRS will come down hard on the preachers involved in Pulpit Freedom Sunday. The law is clear, and no church is exempt simply because their pastor happens to decide that it doesn’t or shouldn’t apply to them. It really can’t be any more black and white than that. It may be trite, but it’s certainly true- you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.
