[Vision2020] 33 Pastors Flout Tax Law With Political Sermons

[Saundra Lund]

33 Pastors Flout Tax Law With Political Sermons
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer 
Monday, September 29, 2008; Page A02 

CROWN POINT, Ind., Sept. 28 -- Defying a federal law that prohibits U.S.
clergy from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, an evangelical
Christian minister told his congregation Sunday that voting for Sen. Barack
Obama would be evidence of "severe moral schizophrenia."

The Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. told worshipers that the Democratic presidential
nominee's positions on abortion and gay partnerships exist "in direct
opposition to God's truth as He has revealed it in the Scriptures." Johnson
showed slides contrasting the candidates' views but stopped short of
endorsing Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain. 

Johnson and 32 other pastors across the country set out Sunday to break the
rules, hoping to generate a legal battle that will prompt federal courts to
throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses
of worship. 

The ministers contend they have a constitutional right to advise their
worshipers how to vote. As Johnson put it during a break between sermons,
"The point that the IRS says you can't do it, I'm saying you're wrong." 

The campaign, organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a socially
conservative legal consortium based in Arizona, has gotten the attention of
the Internal Revenue Service. The agency, alerted by opponents, pledged to
"monitor the situation and take action as appropriate." 

Each campaign season brings allegations that a member of the clergy has
crossed a line set out in a 1954 amendment to the tax code that says
nonprofit, tax-exempt entities may not "participate in, or intervene in . .
. any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office." 

This time, the church action is concerted. Yet while the ministers say the
rules stifle religious expression, their opponents contend that the tax laws
are essential to protect the separation of church and state. They say
political speech should not be supported by a tax break for the churches or
the worshipers who are contributing to a political cause.

<snip>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092802
365.html
OR
http://tinyurl.com/4v2k79













Saundra
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
~ Edmund Burke