All sorts of Religious Right activists are stressing the importance of prayer heading into this election and now Harry Jackson has produced a four-minute video on the need for “40 Days of Prayer for our Nation” in which he urges Christians to pray that their local churches as well as those around the nation will “speak to us and give us direction; they need to tell us who to vote for”
Every election season ‘round about this time, ministers begin whining and moaning about how Big Government prevents them from engaging in free speech. They’re referring to the section of the federal tax code that prohibits tax-exempt organizations (like churches) from engaging in political advocacy. You can almost set your watch by the bellyaching, but the reality is that there’s nothing and no one preventing a minister standing in his (or her) pulpit and engaging in all the free speech and political advocacy they could possibly want. They just need to understand that they can’t have their cake and eat it, too. Free, unfettered political advocacy…or tax-exempt status? Big Government isn’t forcing either on anyone, despite what some might have you think. Choose one. Or the other. You just can’t have both.
Pretty simple, eh??
And is it just me, or is the idea of churches telling congregants how to vote something that’s truly, unbelievably morally offensive? American democracy is supposed to mean one man, one vote…one person making their own choice. When churches beginning tell their flocks how to vote, they cease being religious organizations and they become cartels designed to deliver blocks of votes by pressuring congregants into voting in a way a church hierarchy prefers.
This isn’t an argument about freedom of speech and/or religion. It’s about ensuring that public money isn’t going to subsidize religious coercion. It’s a simple choice: freedom of speech and expression? Or tax-exempt status? You can’t have both…or do you believe that the separation of Church and State doesn’t apply to your enlightened self??
