[01.24.08]  The head of a Florida-based Christian legal advocacy group recently called on pastors and churches to stop fearing they might lose their tax-exempt status during this year’s election cycle and to start speaking up for the issues that affect their congregations.

 

“Pastors should throw away the muzzles that some wish to impose on them and replace them with megaphones,” said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University’s School of Law. “It is far more likely to be struck by lightning twice than for churches to lose their tax-exempt status over political issues.”

 

Meanwhile, as Staver and others promoted the involvement of pastors in politics, the fledgling Christian Churches Together (CCT), one of the largest ecumenical groups in the U.S., decided it would sit out the upcoming presidential race in order to focus its efforts on combating domestic poverty, reported Religion News Service.